Eric and his English class

My oldest child is very intelligent. I would really love to have his IQ tested, just to see exactly where he falls. Someday when I have extra money, we might just gets this done.

This week we are dealing with his problems in English class. His HONORS English class to be exact.

The kids returned to school August 15th. That was what, 5 weeks ago? The English teacher calls me Friday afternoon at 4:00. She proceeds to tell me that they have had 11 assignments so far and he is missing 10 of them. 10? Are you kidding me? What the hell has he been doing in class? Did she not realize all of these assignments were missing before she had to turn in his mid-nine week grade? I knew his Autobiography and the 2 assignments that go with it were missing. He turned it in to her and it has been misplaced. So I keep bringing that up and asking her about it and she says she doesn't have it, but if I am confident that he turned it in she would keep looking for it. GRRRRR!!!!

I am telling her about his writing abilities and how if she wants to read his assignments he has to write slow. All she keeps saying is he may not be cut out for the honors class and maybe it is too hard for him. PLEASE!!!! He is in the 7th grade and reads at an 11th grade level. He is in the gifted program and has qualified for some program with Duke University and a Talent Identification Program. All of this and yet she thinks he can't handle her piddly worksheets? 7 out of the 10 missing assignments are nothing more than a Xeroxed 2-column story with a series of T/F and matching questions.

She starts going on about how he is unorganized (he is, I don't deny that) and that she gave him a pocket folder to hold all of his papers so he doesn't lose them. She told me she sent home a progress report that shows all of his missing work. Of course this is Friday after school has already let out, so honestly there is not much I can do about anything until Monday morning which incidentally is when all of this work is due by. Hmmmm?

Sunday evening, Eric and I find 1 of his missing papers and it was completed. I told him I was going up to the school on Monday and see if I could go through his locker.

After dropping Brandy off at school Monday morning, John and I head up to Eric's school. The secretary sends me to the counsellor's office. The counsellor's secretary agrees to see if she can help me get in his locker. Together we go in search of his locker. During the search process we run into his English teacher and I talk to her briefly and tell her what I am doing. The kids are in basically a non-class 1st thing in the morning. We find the locker and she unlocks it for me. Knowing my son as I do, I was a bit nervous about opening the door. Surprisingly enough though it wasn't all that bad (translate: nothing fell out). I go thought his locker one paper at a time. I found 2 more English papers (completed, but not turned in), but that was it. I nicely organized his locker and went back to the office who then sent me back to the counsellor.

"I found these papers. Can I run them back up to the teacher?"

"No, she has a class."

"Isn't it just Warrior time?"

"Yes"

"So, can't I just talk to her for a moment? I really need to get her these papers."

"Just leave them here, I will get them to her. We can't disturb her."

Ok! Whatever!! So I leave the papers and cross my fingers that they actually get to their correct destination.

Oh, and remember the pocket folder? I never found it. Hmmmm?

So during the course of Monday, the teacher sends an e-mail to his football coach letting him know he is failling. When Eric gets home on Monday we go over what is still missing since she never actually gave him any of the work to re-do. He agreed to go in during lunch on Tuesday, because now his eligibility for the game Tuesday night is on the line. I sent an e-mail to the teacher and another one to the coach explaining what we are doing and how we are going to fix the problem.

Oh and I asked Eric about the folder and that whole conversation and he just laughed. He said none of that ever happened.

So where exactly is his Autobiography? Who knows, but that teacher has it in her possession somewhere. Do I make him redo it? He spent a lot of time working on it and it was a hand written paper that he had to turn in his rough draft and everything together. We have no backup and no proof that he did it other than her word vs his. I only read a small bit of it, but the opening paragraph went like this:

"Hi! My name is Eric and I am a superhero. No, just kidding about being a
superhero, but now that I have your attention, here is the story about me."

Very creative opener and I believe him with all of my heart that he turned it in.