We are having a tough time right now with our oldest. He is so so smart. We know he has such this massive amount of knowledge and ability, yet everything comes out so jumbled and messy. Yes, as before we suppose a lot of it has to do with his Asperger's that he is so unorganized, and his handwriting is so incredibly sloppy, but these little things are starting to take effect in school and with what grades he's getting.
Yes, it's important to be neat and all that, but right now it seems as if he's getting so much more sloppy with his handwriting and everything. I know his teacher counts a lot toward neatness and organization if he remembers things or whatever, and it's started to count against him.
Another thing is a big part of school this year is that things are timed. It's like you can be smart but you must also be fast. (Maybe that's why his handwriting is becoming so much more sloppy because he's being rushed.) In math it is mandatory that they must pass off these minute and 30 second timed math problem sheets. I know it is important to get to know your multiplication tables down pat, but must you insist that they pass them off in a timed test and if not then fail? OK, so I don't know how much they are going to take off points wise, but it seems like this is a big part.
It's not just this, but a lot of things are all about time, and with our oldest who has Asperger's, his connection from brain to mouth or brain to hand is not as fast as the other kids and so he is lagging behind a lot.
Oh, and one more thing--you must show ALL your work for math problems, even if you do them in your head--if you get the right answer but didn't mark a little 1 next to the tens when working out your problem, then you will get points marked off.
This is incredibly frustrating to us to see such a smart kid go down hill in school because of these little nit-picky things. Yes, I agree it is important to get kids in the habit of doing all these things a little more quickly or to show your work if you're not understanding it, or to see later where you made a mistake, but he's not making mistakes, he's just getting docked points for things the teacher wants.
My husband and I feel very frustrated and saddened at times to see such a smart kid still not be able to show his full potential, and then on top of it, it's like he's being graded not for what he knows, but how he produces it.
When he was being diagnosed with this type of high functioning autism they were telling us how stunned they were that his intelligence and academic abilities were scoring so far off the charts that they couldn't even justify telling us how they compared to others. They mapped his IQ as "in the genius range". I promise I'm not bragging. This is what they said and what we have on paper as record from countless doctors and tests. But yet here we are with our #1 being so smart, and yet as we've said before---he'll never be able to show it.
I suppose that's how the world works though. You must be fast, you must do it "this way" or "that way", and this is the way to be successful in life. Is the world going to wait for a genius who might take an extra minute to answer a question or write a report?
My husband continues to ask for other options in schooling for our kids. He says they are just going to hate school and it's not going to be enough for them. It's not challenging enough he says, but just picky and busy with projects but not really new things to learn. I continue to wait it out. I hope things will be different once the kids enter junior high and can choose a little more what classes they will take. Husband says they won't last that long. Only time will tell.
Yes, it's important to be neat and all that, but right now it seems as if he's getting so much more sloppy with his handwriting and everything. I know his teacher counts a lot toward neatness and organization if he remembers things or whatever, and it's started to count against him.
Another thing is a big part of school this year is that things are timed. It's like you can be smart but you must also be fast. (Maybe that's why his handwriting is becoming so much more sloppy because he's being rushed.) In math it is mandatory that they must pass off these minute and 30 second timed math problem sheets. I know it is important to get to know your multiplication tables down pat, but must you insist that they pass them off in a timed test and if not then fail? OK, so I don't know how much they are going to take off points wise, but it seems like this is a big part.
It's not just this, but a lot of things are all about time, and with our oldest who has Asperger's, his connection from brain to mouth or brain to hand is not as fast as the other kids and so he is lagging behind a lot.
Oh, and one more thing--you must show ALL your work for math problems, even if you do them in your head--if you get the right answer but didn't mark a little 1 next to the tens when working out your problem, then you will get points marked off.
This is incredibly frustrating to us to see such a smart kid go down hill in school because of these little nit-picky things. Yes, I agree it is important to get kids in the habit of doing all these things a little more quickly or to show your work if you're not understanding it, or to see later where you made a mistake, but he's not making mistakes, he's just getting docked points for things the teacher wants.
My husband and I feel very frustrated and saddened at times to see such a smart kid still not be able to show his full potential, and then on top of it, it's like he's being graded not for what he knows, but how he produces it.
When he was being diagnosed with this type of high functioning autism they were telling us how stunned they were that his intelligence and academic abilities were scoring so far off the charts that they couldn't even justify telling us how they compared to others. They mapped his IQ as "in the genius range". I promise I'm not bragging. This is what they said and what we have on paper as record from countless doctors and tests. But yet here we are with our #1 being so smart, and yet as we've said before---he'll never be able to show it.
I suppose that's how the world works though. You must be fast, you must do it "this way" or "that way", and this is the way to be successful in life. Is the world going to wait for a genius who might take an extra minute to answer a question or write a report?
My husband continues to ask for other options in schooling for our kids. He says they are just going to hate school and it's not going to be enough for them. It's not challenging enough he says, but just picky and busy with projects but not really new things to learn. I continue to wait it out. I hope things will be different once the kids enter junior high and can choose a little more what classes they will take. Husband says they won't last that long. Only time will tell.
