My Wise And Wonderful Princess

I cannot even begin to tell you how my heart runneth over today... with pride for my Princess.

As I had written in the post titled Princess And Her Middle School Momentum, my daughter has had some struggles in this "tweenie" stage of education.  But things had been looking up.  We were quite hopeful... until...  

For the last several weeks, she has come home from school with tears in her eyes and proclamations of how horrible her day had been.  She has been struggling with a particular assignment, handed out bi-weekly, by her English teacher.  Low grades on this assignment have brought down her overall grade, thus causing her great disappointment and frustration.  But come to find out, the grades have not been the only source of her torment.  It turned out that this teacher has had some very unprofessional things to say to my daughter that, in my opinion, are nothing short of bullying.  Telling her that (and I quote) "Children who are just now coming into this country are getting better scores than you.", and making a snide comment about her "work ethic".

Now, if my daughter were a lazy student, and wasn't even trying to contribute, I wouldn't have been so upset.  But this child has been a straight A student in every subject, throughout all seven years of elementary school (that includes pre-k).  She has always been praised by students and faculty alike for her level of respect and her friendly demeanor.  She does her homework nightly, she studies for tests, she is a voracious reader, and she is often online brushing up on her math skills through the site, Kahn Academy.  She does not deserve to be criticized in this manner, and so I wrote an email to the school psychologist with my complaint about this teacher's highly unprofessional attitude toward her student.  To quote Pink Floyd (which is quite an odd thing for me to do)... we don't need no dark sarcasm in the classroom.

Well, several things have happened since that day.  First, I have tutored my daughter in this particular bi-weekly homework assignment, and her grades have improved.  I have not heard back from the counselor, but the teacher has not had a single nasty thing to say since.  And then...

--Princess came home today and told me, in a very casual passing, "I gave Ms. So-and-So a hug today."  

--I responded with a very inquisitive, "Why??"

--"Because today is the last day of school before Winter break, and when we go back in 2014, I want her and I to start on a fresh clean slate."

Hallelujah!  Could she have been any more wise and wonderful in that moment?  I think not!  I wrapped my arms around her and showered her with much deserved praise.  Alas, someone has been paying attention to the lessons I have been spewing all these years!  I am vindicated! 

Princess And Her Middle School Momentum

Last year was the first year of middle school for my little Princess, and it was NOT all that she thought it would be. It was horrible, the biggest let down of her life. After seven years (Pre-K included) of being every teacher's "pet", she was suddenly stuck with seven "mean" teaches all at once. After seven years of perfect report cards, her grades began a steady downhill slide, stopping at the lowest acceptable level. The work was unexpectedly difficult, and she had a hard time keeping up. It was so sad to see her struggling that way but all I could do was help her to study, and encourage her, reassure her that as long as she was trying her best, then she wasn't letting us down.

Princess spent the summer begging to be home schooled like her older sister. Of course I simply cannot appease her. Princess does not have Punkin's behavioral issues. Princess has every potential of making it through the school system with flying colors, and earning scholarships to higher education. There are weighted courses, challenges, and experiences that I cannot offer her the way our local schools can. Although I did look into a few online schools, it proved to not be a viable option, either because the school was not acceptable by our state, or was simply waaay too expensive. She was very disappointed, needless to say.  

When summer ended, she found it rather difficult to be hopeful, and not jaded by last year's struggles, but we kept reminding her of the experience that she now had under her belt, and that there would be new opportunities available as a seventh grader, than as a sixth. So, she gave it a chance, as if she had another choice.

Well, we now sit at two and half weeks into the year, and she couldn't be more thrilled with it. She adores her four core teachers, and all but one of the electives. She was accepted into chorus. She's joined the Chess Club. She's got a firm grasp of the algebra (so far), and she's having no trouble keeping up with the reading list. Her social life is in full swing, with get togethers and sleepovers. Everyday when I ask how it went, she replies "Awesome!".

Yesterday she came home with some news that made my heart and my eyes spill over. After passing an assessment exam with a perfect score, she was promoted to the Academically Gifted Language Arts class. She received a perfect score on her Social Studies poster board project (plus extra credit for turning it in early). And she passed her first Science test with more than a hundred percent.

Fingers crossed that we can keep the momentum going strong!