Harmon loves kindergarten! He is excited every day and he can’t wait to see his friends. And, most importantly, he tells me his favorite part is “all the hard work.” I hope that’s true and I hope that is the case in grade school, middle school, high school, undergrad and grad school!
Even though he loves it, I was still a little nervous for his first parent/teacher conference yesterday. I knew I was getting good feedback from him and I was crossing my fingers that I would get similar feedback from his teacher.
Full disclosure, I’m kind of a freak about education. To me, it’s THE most important thing and I have very high expectations. I am borderline unreasonable and it’s hard to check myself sometimes (that’s what Kevin and my Mom are for). So, when we got Harmon’s report card ahead of his conference, my FIRST question was “why aren’t ALL these Es (excellents) and 1s (as opposed to 2s and 3s)?” To be honest, MOST of them were but … yeah … I have a problem.
Anyway, when I went to the conference, the teacher started by asking me if I had any questions and I blurted out that same thing (in a very self-deprecating way). She laughed and said, well, if it makes you feel any better, out of 34 kids in kindergarten, Harmon is easily in the top three. Yes, that DOES make me feel better, thank you! Furthermore, she said, if Harmon would just SLOW DOWN and LISTEN, that report card probably would be all Es and 1s. Ah, listening. Good to know it’s not just a problem at home, I think. It’s not that he’s not paying attention. It’s that he’s just SO excited about the projects that he can’t wait to get started. He’s also excited about being with his friends everyday, mostly because he only went to preschool two days each week. She assured me he’s doing very well and she loves having him in her class and, most importantly, that his lack of all Es and 1s on his very first report card won’t keep him from getting into Harvard one day!
