'Chelle
Active Member
My difficult child has been doing very well, haven't any big problems to ask about. Just his reaction to an English assignment he got has left me sad for him, and trying to think of what to say to him to help him out. I knew this semester would be a harder one, having both English and Math, his 2 least favorite subjects. One of the resource teachers he's worked with quite a bit in the past called yesterday and talked to me about his reaction to English so far. She said she went in the room and noticed his mood was not good, and asked what what going on. He was upset about English, on the 2 assignments they've done so far his marks are in the C+ range. He told the resource teacher that he did the best he could, but if that was the marks he was going to get on his best effort, he didn't see the point. Then told her about the next assignment which is writing 200 words on each of 9 different memories from his past. He was upset about this because, he told her, there are very few good memories in his past, most of it is bad, and why would he want to bring that all up again in an English assignment. This is the part that makes me sad, that he feels there are so few good memories that he doesn't feel he could come up with 9. It's not good to know that your child (when he's still only 16) feels his childhood was so bad he doesn't want to remember anything of it.
I'm going to try take this as it's partly all the negatives to start with: that it's English, that his teacher that he's never worked with before has marked him so hard, and that it's an assignment that would be hard for him in any case -- and not necessarily that he thinks his life is all bad. And there is one good thing I see in this -- he actually talked to the teacher (who he likes) about what was going on. HUGE thing for him, in the past he wouldn't have said a word.
This assignment is worth a large portion of the marks, if he doesn't do it he wont pass the class and will have to retake it. (SIGH) Now what to say to him to get him to do it Guess I'll have to sit down with him and try to put some memories down that he could write about, I know he's gotta have some good ones in there somewhere.
I'm going to try take this as it's partly all the negatives to start with: that it's English, that his teacher that he's never worked with before has marked him so hard, and that it's an assignment that would be hard for him in any case -- and not necessarily that he thinks his life is all bad. And there is one good thing I see in this -- he actually talked to the teacher (who he likes) about what was going on. HUGE thing for him, in the past he wouldn't have said a word.
This assignment is worth a large portion of the marks, if he doesn't do it he wont pass the class and will have to retake it. (SIGH) Now what to say to him to get him to do it Guess I'll have to sit down with him and try to put some memories down that he could write about, I know he's gotta have some good ones in there somewhere.