http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sports/olympics/10Rparent.html?_r=3&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Teachers should be taken to task for making comments like that.

Truly fascinating! If only all kids with this type of temperament were given the chance to find what they excel at, the world would be a better place.

Wow that sounds exactly like Mo! Not that he'll grow up to be an Olympian (but you never know). He has trouble focusing and sitting at circle time. I find he works better if he has something to move around in his hands like a squeeze ball.

Mo has really taken an interest in music which is completely new. He's never even felt the need to sing to himself or hum! But we were at the store the other and he just made up a song. I may sound like one of 'those moms' but he had perfect pitch! So we're going to explore music lessons of some kind.

Finding something that your child is really good at is so crucial to developing a strong sense of self and confidence. Mine was art, I was always drawing and painting as a kid and my folks really supported that and saw the therapeutic value in it.

Wow...suck on that you doubting teacher. I bet she's feeling just a little bit worse with each gold medal he gets.

that teacher will be having her crow with a side of foot, please. guess you never know where a kid will end up.

sorry if I offend anyone, but i have to comment.

I was married to a teacher. I observed teachers out of the classroom.

In life, they go from gradeschool, to college school, to work school. Never knowing "real" life outside of a school surrounding. Their life is SCHOOL. They then teach our kids how to survive in the SCHOOL. They expect the kids to act like school. They take home work to grade. Their life revolves around school 24/7. So they expect that from their students.

Honestly - how often do YOU bring home work to do AFTER work? I know some do ... but I know most don't. So why expect that from our kids?

Watching these adult teachers outside of school, in a social environment was eye opening. I have never been in a more rude, loud environment than a teacher holiday party. People talking over people, shouting, unruley .... sound familiar? EXACTLY like a classroom of kids. Yet the teachers didn't do what they were forcing on the students.

Schools force kids to be vanilla. Like everyone else. The system isn't designed for the kids that are different. Yet the world is CHANGED by people that think DIFFERENT. The people that are the most sucessful are not vanilla people. Actors, musicians, athletes, big busness .... they all have something that made them different and it made them excel.

How many times have you heard a teacher say "you're going to go far" to a kid that gets good grades? That kid goes far ... in the teacher's world.

I'm gonna have a problem when my kids go to school ..ugh.

That's a mighty big brush you're sweeping with heburb.

This may be a non-sequitur, but I can't wait until The Kid is old enough to go to school and learn how to sit still, memorize data, and exhibit blunted affect on demand.

A huge brush. And I know teachers who are like that, but by no means all of us are. I'd say not even a majority.

Sure, the "different" kids can make classroom management a giant chore, sometimes we do get frustrated with obviously smart and yet lazy kids, and sometimes you just do what you have to do to get by. But, I've only rarely known teachers who weren't willing to try different styles of teaching and to bend over backwards for those kinds of kids, so long as the kid was willing to put in the effort as well. Because like it or not, in order to get by in this world, kids need to enter the adult world with some basic skill sets and schools teach that.

And the reason we bring so much work home with us is because we don't have time to do it at school (what with teaching) and it needs to be done. I do try to avoid it as much as possible, but sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do. And for the record, my engineer husband (who does research all day and even though he works in a university hasn't been near a classroom in a student or teaching capacity in years) brings home work almost every day as well.

hey - again - I don't mean to ruffle feathers. It's my opinion. I've had a few good teachers. But I've had more horrible teachers. I just believe that the way school is set up, it is not preparing students for the "real world".

Take the life of an average high-schooler. Wake up around 5am, get to school by 7. Go to each class ... 5 minutes free time between classes, maybe a half hour lunch. Out of school around 2 or 3. Then to a job. After the job, home to do homework. And probably working then on the weekend.

I'm sorry .... but that's a MUCH harder life than I am leading ... and what most of my friends lead. I work a 40 hour week. M-F 7:30 - 4:30. Hour lunch. I get up 6 for an 45 minute commute. Home around 5:30 to do whatever I need to do.

And I'm sorry ... but Kindergardners and First graders do not need homework. That is just rediculous.

I don't blame the teachers entirely. The system is not setup to create individuals. The class sizes are too big to cater to each kid. And believe me, I give much respect to teachers, they have a hard job and most of the times, their hands are tied to do more than they can.

I understand teaching the basic toolset to kids. But when do we draw the line between teaching everybody the basics, and making everyone think the same? I'm horrible at algebra. My brain can't wrap around it. I am a visual person. I learn by watching and then doing. So sending me home with 100 math problems did nothing but give me hours of frustration. I barely got by in that class. And never understood it. How many times in school was I taught that THIS has to be done THIS way. And if you do it differently, but with the same result, it is still wrong?

This is just frustrating to me because I just just able to get a 2 year degree by paying for it myself and a little help from my mom. Classes in college are so different. I had some amazing classes that opened my eyes to different ways of thinking. It made me think of people that can't afford to go to other schooling, and how K-12 is all they know.

I had a U.S. history class in college that DIDN'T HAVE A TEXT BOOK! The instructor was amazing. I had never been interested in history. He used a multi-media approach - gave lectures and showed movies about the subjects. There was no homework... Just to study for tests. He was energetic and throughly into the subject. I learned more history in that semester than i did all my schooling.

I guess my point is that people learn differently. Unfortunately, the system isn't set up for that. Some very bright and creative kids fall thru the cracks because their parents don't know that there are alternatives. But hopefully, for those kids that are "different", someone will notice and give them the schooling and encouragement they need.

So to all you good teachers busting your butts ... I applaud you. I have to form my opinion based on my experience. And my experience of school wasn't that great.

My child is the type of kid that benefits from a different teaching/learning style. He's very visual but confuses verbal information. We've run across some teachers that see this as a challenge -- they get out their creative skills and devise all kinds of ways to make the classroom a more effective classroom for him.

And then there are the teachers that tell me "he could do it if he tried harder" or "he didn't study enough". He's definitely in the category of kids that fall into the perception of "smart but lazy". He's not lazy -- he has a learning issue.
In 3rd grade, his regular education teacher (a former special education teacher) declared that she wasn't going to tell me when he was being bullied at school -- he "should be able to handle it himself".

In 4th grade, his special education teacher (who is supposedly trained to know better) would only tell me he needed to work harder. That was her only solution.

Thankfully, we had her for only one year, and then moved on. The next year, we got a special education teacher who saw his potential and he blossomed.

My mother was a teacher and I grew up respecting teachers. But, like any other profession, there are the good and there are the bad. My son definitely benefits from a teacher who has confidence enough in her teaching skills to try something different. Not all of them will do that.