Brilliantly Naughty

Earlier in the week, I wrote about some behavioral issues Bug was having at school. On Wendesday, she got in trouble “for yelling at another child.” I asked Bug what happened, and she said she was at a listening center with headphones on. Another girl walked by a did… something to the headphones. I don’t know what, and Bug’s 5-year-old vocabulary couldn’t explain it to me. So Bug yelled at the girl, “Why did you do that???” Bug said she didn’t mean to yell as loud as she did, but since the headphones were on, she didn’t realize she was being so loud.

Now, maybe this is the truth, and maybe it’s not, but it makes perfect sense to me. Anyone would talk louder if they had headphones on. Why should she be punished for that?

We had plans to go see my family on Thursday, and I had told Bug that she couldn’t go if she got in trouble at school, so I made her call my parents to say why she couldn’t see Grandma and Grandpa.

My stepmother answered the phone and Bug said, real quiet, “I can’t come over tomorrow.”

“Why not, Baby?” my stepmother asked.

Bug couldn’t answer. She started crying. Poor Baby. It broke my heart.

(This is was a total ploy, by the way. We were going to my Dad’s, regardless. But we were hoping to scare her straight. And my prents said all the right things. “It’s too bad you won’t be able to come. We’ll miss you so much. Maybe if you’re really really good tomorrow, maybe you’ll get to come with Mommy and Daddy and BK.”)

After Bug went to bed that night, I sat on the couch and stewed. I was convinced that Bug was being treated unfairly. How dare that teacher punish my child! She doesn't always, she talks a lot, but she's ultimately a good girl.  I wrote a nasty letter to the teacher, saying exactly what I thought.

I didn’t send it. I was just doing some writing therapy.

But Friday was going to be Bug’s last day before the two-week Fall break, and I really didn’t think I could go two weeks without some kind of resolution. So on Thursday before school, I popped in unannounced to have a heart to heart with the teacher, Ms. Frank.

I’m so glad I did.

There are things I didn’t bring up. I didn’t mention the headphone thing. I just said I was concerned about Bug’s behavioral issues. I suggested that maybe she should change desks.

Ms. Frank was way ahead of me, and had already moved the boy next to Bug. She said that Bug was so smart, sociable, friendly…. She just won’t stop talking, and she doesn’t listen unless she wants to.

Hey, I get it. You’re preaching to the converted. I had to tell Bug three times to get dressed that morning.

But Ms. Frank really didn’t seem all that concerned. She said that Bug is getting better, and she said that after the break, she has a new strategy for helping Bug behave.

I liked everything I heard. Maybe it was all for show, I don’t know, but I liked that she seemed to be making an honest effort to help Bug. She hadn’t given up on her yet.

And, oh what a coincidence! Bug didn’t get in trouble at all on Thursday or Friday. And now we can enjoy the Fall break without worrying.

Oh! And the best part! Ms Frank said the kids were going to be broken up into reading groups after the Fall Break. “Bug’s most likely going to be in a group by herself. I don’t usually like to do that, but no one else is as advanced as she is.”

Heck yeah my kid is brilliant. No wonder she talks so much. She probably wants to teach the class herself.

(At the same time, I’m thinking, what the heck? Did Bug get put in the dumb class? She’s smart, but I didn’t think she was THAT smart. She knows a couple of three-letter words, she's not reading War and Peace!)