Would You Deny Him an Education?

I have been seeing my doctor every Tuesday evening since June 1st for weight loss business (more about that some other time) and every week she asks how things are going and, among other things, takes my blood pressure. After the first week of school, she remarked that my blood pressure had gone up noticeably from what it was during the summer. This past week she said, as she got out the cuff, "This week MUST have been better." Well, it wasn't, and neither was my blood pressure. (The arteries don't lie--this was a shitty week.) This past Friday Simon and I started the day with a meeting with Frederick's teacher, the school principal and Emily. (When we asked where Frederick would be during all this and, more importantly, who would be with him, they said, "Oh. We hadn't thought of that." Thank God for Thomas.) The meeting was allegedly a chance for us to meet and discuss "how things were going for Frederick," as well as to pass around suggestions. Frederick's teacher's only suggestion was that, since she wasn't certain what level he was with math, it made sense to her to have him go home when they get to the math part of the day (which is at 1:00). Or, perhaps, having him go home right after lunch might be EVEN BETTER since sometimes he didn't seem to "get much" out of gym class, either. (This is in reference to one day when the gym teacher organized a kick ball game with all kids aged 4 through 10.) I asked if the other small kids in his class "got much" out of that gym class. She admitted that they probably did not. But were they expected to simply leave? Was that a sign that they were uneducatable? No, of course not.

Given that we have NO OPTIONS for Frederick, this is what we must work with. Emily, Simon and I discussed everything at length after school when Frederick happily came home to lark about the house and yard. We've all decided that the only sensible way to deal with this is for Emily to take in to school all the curriculum materials she and Frederick have been working with all summer and then merge with the classmates for art, French, music, snack time, lunch and recess outside. As for academics, it seems that Frederick and Emily are on their own. Here Frederick enjoys a bowl of strawberries while lying in his parents' bed on a not-so-sunny (Sunday) afternoon. He's happy to be home.