My cool kid

I had a really nice conversation yesterday with one of the teachers at Megan's school. Megan's regular "sponsor" teacher is on leave right now and this lady is substituting for her, and has made a connection with Megan over the past few weeks. They've been sitting down and doing math together each morning at Megan's request and we have a conference coming up to discuss Megan's learning plan. It was just really nice to see this teacher's delight in getting to know Megan and have her share that with me. I know she's a bright and interesting person, but it's nice to hear it from an outside source :-) It's also nice to know that the adults who are working with her appreciate her uniquenesses.

Meanwhile, to help the teacher out, I've been going through the "prescribed learning outcomes" for Megan's grade and looking for ways she demonstrates each one. Megan and I can't believe how silly some of these things are, but at the same time, it seems somewhat alarming that the kids in "regular" schools are being graded on some of this stuff, which tends to be very obliquely worded and often tends not to be connected to basic academics.

"demonstrate pride and satisfaction in using language to create and express thoughts, ideas, and feelings in a variety of oral, written, and electronic forms"
(so ten year olds are supposed to feel proud and satisfied that they can communicate? Megan commented on this one, "I thought that was called being stuck up.")

"identify factors that contribute to use, misuse, and abuse of substances"
(has the government even done this?)

(under "Drama":)
"apply audience skills appropriate to a variety of presentations"
(huh??)

"demonstrate body and space awareness when performing game activities"
(too bad if you are clumsy)

"demonstrate self-confidence while participating in physical activity"
(ditto)

I'll stop now...