If anyone was ready for junior kindergarten, it had to be us. My son had already transitioned to daycare at the age of three without a tear. He had a May birthday and was beginning to write his name. Heck, I was a senior adviser to the Ontario premier who helped shape the education system he was about to enter. He?d be fine, right"
We got our answer three weeks into the year. I was leading a meeting with 20 officials from the Ministry of Education when my phone transcribed a voice mail from the principal into a text: ?Hi Kate,? it read. ?Your son is under a picnic table he has been there for a while and he won?t come out.?
On its own, this kind of thing would be minor?funny, almost?but these messages kept coming. Our shy, gentle, quiet, well-behaved four-year-old was tipping over chairs, bolting from the classroom, yanking jackets off their hooks and ransacking the cubbies. He didn?t want to talk about it, but he did eventually tell us that he didn?t like school and that his classroom was ?too noisy.? With a class of 28 kids, who could blame him" We worked closely with his teacher?who was fantastic?and over the course of the year, my son learned to cope with the din of his classroom, but he was always a bit reluctant to go to school.
The next year, just by luck, he was assigned to a class of 16 kids and he immediately formed bonds with his classmates and teacher. He didn?t wince or drag his feet in the morning anymore.
It can?t be discounted that he was also a yea...