Can I gripe?

It really hasn't been a bad day today. In fact, it was a very good, albeit a very busy day. Co-op in the morning and school at the library in the afternoon.

But here's what bugs me. I'm a teacher, right? There are certain behaviors expected of children while in school. Yeah. Yeah. I know, I homeschool so there should be some freedom in how schooling is done. But I don't think griping and complaining should be among them.

Let me explain.

After co-op today I took my kids to the large, newly renovated library nearby. There, in a large study room, we were joined by M and her three kids, the J's. She has homeschool her kids from the beginning, and I have always gotten a sense that school was to be done as quickly as possible to get it out of the way so they can get on to other things. Informal evaluations show that yes, they are learning, but the foundation is somewhat shaky.

Next year M is planning on switching to the DVD program we are using for her oldest J. He is currently in fourth grade. Today, she took the opportunity to watch some of what my students were doing and how they were interacting. Then, when she saw that Tina and oldest J were on the same page in language she asked if J could join Tina in the viewing. Tina and I both agreed, but J had other ideas. It was quite a battle to convince him to take the time to watch the class. He didn't even watch the whole thing. When M stepped out of the room for a minute, he went back to his own seat and did his work.

Then before finishing, he decided to lay on the floor and read history. It was another battle to get him back to the table to finish the language class he had started.

I bit my tongue, but inwardly I was quite peeved. This just isn't how you act in school. You don't act this way with parents nor with teachers. I hope I'm wrong, but I really believe that there is going to be a continual battle with this kid and school.

Like Angelo said, "Either he needs to be put into a regular classroom or the parents need to insist that he fully interact with the entire DVD class every day. You just don't act that way around anyone."