Average Grades

My 5 year old son C is in kindergarten and he is well ahead since he got to observe his 7 year old big sister E while she was going through it last year. C is a smart cookie also and would tag along to see what kind of homework, assignments, and projects E was doing. Honestly, C absorbed all of it and could skip kindergarten, but we won’t let that happen because being with his peers is really beneficial for his emotional development.

We got a mid-year report out for C from his kindergarten teacher. It was the oddest report out that I have seen because he got average grades for every single criteria. This did not line up to his ability and his progress on things like the sight words year-long assignment they needed to complete at their own pace (C is almost done with it all).

I’m definitely not one of those parents that think my child is perfect or brilliant no matter what. I like to be realistic while also being optimistic about how much better they can get with hard work because hard work is what separates people, all things being equal. What I know about C and how he is, there definitely should be a few categories that he exceeds in (reading and some math would be ones in particular along with some science…if you can even call it science in kindergarten…).

Something didn’t seem right, so my wife and I started to ask C what was going on in class. He ended up saying that he gets put in time out a lot (which I don’t like that the school even does that). Also, he feels like he gets singled out in class when kids talk to him since he is the one that gets in trouble (and a reputation sticks after you have one…good or bad). Part of it must be that C is bored in class, but that shouldn’t translate to the teacher marking his report out with average grades. That’s a behavioral thing.

After my wife and I talked about it that night, we came to the conclusion that the teacher must not like C very much because he is misbehaving in class. He got erased from the behavior cloud (which you want to stay in) because he has not been making the best choices. I do hope that C is resilient enough to get through this year and I know exactly what he fees like because that was me in school (eons ago). I was the smart kind that misbehaved…and he is doing the same thing.

I do want C to shape up his behavior and we are trying to talk to him about it more. He is in one of this phases where he is testing the boundaries at home and at school. It’ll pass though and I want there to be no lasting impacts from this first experience at school. If you overachieve, you should be objectively graded. School is one place where things should be fair and I am challenging C to do better to show everyone (including his teacher) that he is exceptional…because he is.