This morning, Lance is performing in his last Klein ISD orchestra concert. This will be a happy morning. He is excited because his oldest brother, Andrew, will be coming.
It is kind of bittersweet to sit in the front office at Blackshear Elementary School waiting for them to allow us to go down to the gymnasium where the orchestra concert will be held. I would like to say that our experience has been 100% positive at this school for Lance, but it has not. Initially, the school was wonderful. It was not without hiccups, but it was wonderful. The principal at the time was great with addressing issues and concerns.
Then problems with Lance’s health started and administration changed. The combination together was just not great. I would like to blame it 100% on those things, but it was not. The teachers do not get off free without blame on this. Teachers can make or break a child’s experience at school. Unfortunately, Lance has had some not so great ones over the years. It only takes a little understanding. It did not take a teacher that was a pansy, it required a teacher that was sensitive and understanding. Unfortunately, those are hard to come by.
I thought that we would start this school year off to a better start. That was not the case as we were only 2-3 weeks into the school year before it went down hill very quickly. It has been an ongoing battle from there on out. Lance at this point in the school year has practically shut down and does not care. I am not sure how much I should care as a parent. Does it even matter? When the child has given up, will my caring with less than a month to go in the school year even matter? The teachers do not seem to care. My declaration as a parent that I wanted him moved from the one teacher’s classroom if that was what required to improve things fell upon deaf ears months ago. He is still in that teacher’s classroom. It is a constant battle to get him to care enough to function in the classroom.
If he has a difference of opinion with the teacher in the classroom, it bleeds off onto everything else. I mean everything! He loves math and science for example. He is currently failing math and science. Heck, he’s failing everything at this moment in time. It does not matter that he loves those classes, he’s failing because something has happened in the classroom that he cannot adapt to. Emotionally he has turned off.
Unfortunately, I have found out that there is a lot of yelling that is going on. It is happening on a daily basis. What?!. No wonder my child is not happy to be there. Do not get me wrong when I state that my child is having problems with a difference of opinion, he is not out right disagreeing with his teachers. He is a rule follower. He is NOT a problem child. He tries to abide by the rules as they are given. I am told repeatedly that he’s doing everything that he’s supposed to be doing. Of course that does NOT help me figure out why my child is failing EVERYTHING in the classroom.
I could almost understand that he would be failing everything if he was a problem child and causing behavior problems as well. He is not. The problem is the teacher. She is particular is causing behavior problems. To hear the child tell the story, and believe me, I know good and well that there is always more than one side to every story, the kids in the class are a problem and the yelling is not helping. The teacher might think that it is. It is simply pissing off the kids and making them all miserable. The good kids are suffering at the hands of a few. They are suffering at the hands of their teacher. The kids like Lance are burdened and heavy ladened – they are sick of it. Lance in particular has chosen to not participate any more. Emotionally, he is done with his teacher and everyone in the classroom that is making him do more than he has to.
He does not like to write. Writing is often a punishment in the classroom. He hates it. He will not do it. These are graded. He receives an F. He then fails for something he should not have been doing in the first place because he was not the child that caused the problem in the first place. Remember the teacher has already said that he’s not a behavior problem. He’s a great child. A great child should not be punished for another child’s repeat problems.
It is not isolated to this teacher either. The other teacher is also making them do extra work as punishment. They had to write an essay about something. Lance was flat out mad about it. He told his teacher exactly how he felt about it. I cannot blame him. I laughed when the teacher told me about what he wrote. I am sorry. It was funny in my opinion. His brutal honesty is well funny. It is sad that the place that I was hearing about the child’s honesty is from the teacher that was dishing out the punishment. If you do not want to hear about what the kids feel about what happened, do not ask them. Pay attention in the classroom and find out what is really going on. I mean…a child that has come home injured more than once under your watchful eye during the day…that’s indicative that you were not paying attention. Plain and simple. Do not blame the child for being mad when you are not doing your job either.
Alas I have really digressed from why I started this post. A lot.
Do not get me wrong, there are a lot of great teachers at Blackshear Elementary and Klein ISD has a lot of great teachers in it. There are some great administrators at Blackshear Elementary. They did scramble to get Lance a 504 when we needed it. I am just sad that it took as long as it did. We needed it 3 years previous to when we got it. Maybe then we could have had some protections in place and some of the things that happened would not have happened. Maybe then…
But…
I am glad we are leaving. Blackshear has served us well while we were here. Lance’s needs have out grown the school. It is bittersweet that we leave. I will miss those teachers and staff that are amazing and looked out for my Lance. Those individuals I will miss dearly. To you farewell.
They pulled all the current 4th and 5th graders into the gym and let the current 5th grade strings participants perform a little concert for them.
I will be honest with you, the up front organization of it at the school level (in the front office) was an after thought and not well organized at all. It was as if they did not know what the heck was going on or how many kids would be in attendance.
They said it would be “standing room only.” As you can see here, it is NOT standing room only. My backside was firmly planted in a chair the entire time, by the way.
The lack of organization on the school staff’s part aside, Ms. Martin and the 5th Grade String Players did a wonderful job. I am always amazed at how well they do when you compare what they were doing at the beginning of the school year.
They had a lot of cello players in the Blackshear Elementary group of 5th grade string players.
Lance is just happy that it is over. He will go on to play at the junior high school now. Normally this would be Ulrich Intermediate School in Klein ISD but since we are moving he will be going to another junior high school. We are moving to Denton ISD and he will attend Navo Intermediate School.
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