Letter from the school

I have time for only a short post, although many posts are rolling around in my head. We got a letter from the school on Saturday. I dread these letters and did not open it, but laid it beside my husband's plate.

Now my sons are great kids. They are happy, curious, social and kind-hearted. They have avoided the major pitfalls of teenagers, such as drinking, drugs, smoking, sex. But they have some learning deficits that qualify them for IEPS and resource help. Their progress has been remarkable, but they still have to work harder than other kids and that's becoming a burden as their interest grows in girls, sports, music, cars, and other testosterone-laden stuff that I don't quite understand. So I dread letters from the school, as they usually are notices of academic shortfalls.

Steve opened the letter at dinner and both boys were holding their breath. He turned to Ron and addressed him in a serious voice. Ron gulps. I gulp. Rick breathes a sigh of relief. And then he says how proud he is of him for working so hard because the teacher wrote to tell us he had an A+ in 10th grade English at mid-term. This is a minor miracle as English is the area of Ron's major deficit. Ron beamed. I cried. Rick even beamed for his brother.

They are studying Julius Caesar and Of Mice and Men. Ron loves to read and enjoyed both pieces of literature. Part of the grade was memorizing and presenting Mark Antony's speech to the class. He struggles more with writing (composition, spelling and grammar) which is related to expressive language.