Limited Edition

For one night and one night only, I am going to write in praise of the school. The ever-dreaded parent's evening, sorry, 'Parent-Teacher Consultation' was yesterday. So far though, I have not been consulted on anything so I'm going to stick with calling it good old 'parent's evening'.

I sat down in the usual fear and trepidation in front of Toby's year 3 teacher, waiting to be told he was dyslexic, had adhd, was incredibly naughty etc etc. Why do I do this to myself I wonder? However, this year we have had a wonderful surprise. Toby has a male teacher, which I found a bit disconcerting. When else would you sit alone in a room with a man you have never spoken to before? Toby, though, finds him inspiring, motivating and exciting.

As he went through all the usuals about reading, writing, maths, and how Toby needs to stop chatting with his friends and focus a bit more, I wanted to reach across the table and hug him. I wanted him to know how thrilled I am that Toby has a teacher that teaches him in a way he can learn. I wanted to shout FINALLY!!! Finally I am hearing a teacher telling me the things that boys like to do. Finally I am listening to a teacher who makes learning real and exciting for boys and keeps them interested. However, I am always slightly in awe of teachers and so I very politely told him how grateful we are that Toby is loving being in his class and that we have never seen him so motivated before. What I really wanted to say was "Please can you keep Toby in your class forever?" I wanted to tell him to read my blog about boys, so that he would know we are on the same wavelength. At one point he was describing how they learn about Ancient Egypt and how he shows them gruesome, disgusting things that the boys love, I almost told him about reading Judges with the boys and how horribly fascinated the boys have been with it. I stopped myself, thankfully. I don't want him to think Toby comes from a family of loonies.

The down side to this, and there is one, is that we never stop hearing about what Mr Skitt says, thinks, eats, breathes, makes, believes etc. And we dare not disagree.