The Meeting

Today was picture day at school for Rhett. During the night he'd slipped between the two pillows on his bed. I just knew I wouldn't be able to get his hair to fall into place, but with a little water and hairspray, I worked magic this morning. I'd keep looking at him in the car because he was just so cute and he would say, "What?" Then his eyes were start darting back and forth rapidly. I had to laugh.

I met with his new speech teacher. She was not who I expected. She did not look like I pictured her in my mind. When she talks, she reminds me of my cousin April. She sort of ticked me off to begin with when she took another lady ahead of me when I had an appointment and the lady did not! She is a lot different from his old speech teacher who we grew to love and now miss. His old teacher moved to a school in Columbus. This speech teacher has only been teaching 4 years. She seems all business whereas the other one felt like a friend; someone I could talk to about Rhett because she had an older daughter who was very similar to him.

Ms G, his new teacher said she is not only his speech teacher but his advocate and asked if I had any concerns other than his speech. After we talked about his slight speech problems with the r in the word world which are so improved since kindergarten, I mentioned his inability to stay on task the past two grades which we felt was due to his boredom by not being challenged enough. Or else he was just inventing inventions in his mind; daydreaming. I said I may be speaking out of turn because his 4th grade teacher has said nothing about this happening this year. I also brought up about the girl troublemaker that sits next to him in class. She does things to him to the point when the teacher turns around, Rhett is the one who gets in trouble. His teacher will say, "Rhett... warning." Last week the girl tripped him on purpose while they were outside. He fell on his elbow on cement. It barely broke the skin, but he had a really bad bruise. It could have been a lot worse. It could have broken his elbow. I was not a happy momma.

My best friend Genie, who is a special Ed teacher in Alexandria, VA told me I could NOT tell his teacher about how I felt about the girl tripping him on purpose. She said I would have to go to his counselor first. I had no idea who that was. Things certainly have changed since I was in elementary school. So I waited. If another incident occured, I would have been at the school talking to the principal about it.

I felt like this meeting was a blessing in disguise since I was able to voice my concerns. I just hope it doesn't make it harder on Rhett. His speech teacher recognized that it was bullying which is not tolerated in schools nowdays. She said she will talk to his counselor as well as his teacher. The teacher needs to be made aware of this so she can watch for it in the future and see it is not Rhett.

On the way to work I watched a water ballet of sprinklers arcing over a lawn. One going in one direction. Another going the opposite. A third and forth going yet other ways. I could have watched it for awhile if I had more time. It would make good stress relief.