Cooper wore a tutu to school yesterday. Chris and I both did drop off at school because we had parent-teacher conferences. Cooper is working above a first grade level in all subjects and his teacher seems to enjoy having him in class. The biggest thing to work on will be to continually challenge Cooper, and help him learn the patience he needs to excel at writing. Charlotte is working at a first grade level, although they are still having her work with an aide on reading because they don’t want to pull the rug out from under her. Her teacher isn’t at all concerned about ADHD (a vast difference from the doctor appointment in the summer) and thinks Charlotte is doing great about staying on task and time management. All of her teachers continue to say how much they love her sweet spirit and how good she makes them feel.
At the end of the conferences, Cooper showed off his ballet skills by attempting a pirouette. The teacher seemed like it was all very normal for a 6 year old to wear a tutu, and asked him if he was a ballerino. He said, “No, I just like wearing the tutu, ballet is kinda hard.” I so often want to tell people that when they ask if I’m a ballerina.
Chris took them out the playground for 15 minutes until school started and I went off to work. Chris said that a lot of kids kept asking him why he was wearing the tutu and he just seemed annoyed that they were asking him the same question. One girl told him it was weird, and another yelled ‘Cooper is a ballerina!’. Chris mentioned that Cooper kept coming to stand by him, as though he were self-conscious, but overall Chris thought he handled it great by saying “Boys can wear whatever they want!” Chris even had to answer questions from other parents and simply said, “We teach acceptance in our family.”
I asked Cooper about his experience with the tutu. He immediately said he didn’t want to wear it to school today. I asked why and he just said he didn’t want to. I asked him if anyone said anything about the tutu, and he said, “They just kept asking me the same question over and over.” I asked him what he said back to them and he said, “Please don’t ask me that question anymore.” I asked how long he wore it and he said not very long because it was very itchy. I told him I was proud of him for wearing what he wanted to wear.
He doesn’t seem to be acting any different on a large scale, but I can tell that he didn’t like the kids questioning his choice. I don’t know that kids were especially mean about it. He is very sensitive and cries easily, so I have no doubts he would have talked to us about what the other kids said to him. I know it probably helps that the school has a very strong anti-bullying policy. The kids take classes every few weeks on school values, such as: respectful behavior, anti-bullying (and being the person to stand up to bullies), listening, responsibility, etc. Overall, I don’t think wearing a tutu had a major impact on him. And maybe, just maybe, our world really is changing for the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment