Parent-Teacher Conferences

It's a neat system here: the students are dismissed from school after half a day, and the teachers remain in their classrooms into the evening. Parents can then wander about, talking to any or all of their child's teachers as desired.

Being the compulsive sort, and new to town as well to the school, we worked our way methodically through the boy's whole schedule. He's doing well-- his grades are decent, and the teacher's comments were uniformly positive, though a few were concerned that he is such a quiet kid in class. I had two thoughts about this:

• 1) Since when is a quiet, attentive child a problem?
• 2) You should hear him when he's doing battle with Alien Hordes. In fact, you probably *can* hear him, clear into the next time zone.
  

The math teacher was the last stop-- and there we were greeted eagerly. "Oh, I'm so glad you came-- I've been wanting to talk to you!"

The first reflexive parental thought: "Why, what has he done?" I looked around the room-- no scorch marks. The light sabre is only a toy, really...

Turns out, however, that what he has done is his homework-- quickly enough that it's obviously not a great challenge. And that standardized test he took last month? His was the second highest score in the school.

So... at his teacher's request, and with his permission (granted readily, as one of his buddies is in the new group), his schedule has been rearranged slightly to allow him to move into an advanced math class. This actually served a dual purpose, as it also resulted in him changing science classes, moving out of a large, disruptive group where the teacher was always shouting, to a smaller class where shouting is apparently not necessary. He is much happier.

Yes, I'm proud of him-- but then, that was true long before he moved up in the math world. He's a great kid.

Now, if only he'd be a little quieter...