But...why?

Philosopher Child is very clever. Very clever. Sometimes, too clever for his own good. He will refuse to do homework and schoolwork, or do it half-heartedly, because he just doesn't see the point. That gets him in trouble.

(My mother used to say, "Someday, you'll have a child just like you, and I'm going to laugh!" Somewhere, she is having a fit of giggles. I didn't see the point of schoolwork, either. That also got me in trouble.)

Oh, the things that come home. "His handwriting isn't good enough." "He's being disruptive." "He's being disruptive again." "He won't color his worksheets." "He doesn't want to do his Reading Counts tests."*

Right before school break, the teacher sent me a note home, asking for a conference. A conference? Now? Well, since conferences are usually held at the beginning of grading quarters, and as this was just days before the end, it had to be important. Heart pounding, feeling panicky after some stressful, but unrelated, days, just about to lose it wondering what happened that warranted a conference, I called.

"So, you wanted to have a conference?" the teacher asked me.

Wait, what? "No," I said. "You sent a note home. You wanted a conference."

"Oh. Well, the holidays are coming up. It can wait until after. It's not that important. He did well on his reading tests. I send notes home about the bad stuff, but I don't mention the good stuff. He's good on his reading. The whole class was. We can meet after the holidays."

Facepalm.

*Reading Counts tests are a whole other can of angry worms entirely.