School days

It has occurred to me that I have neglected to inform those of you who are interested in such things (granted, this is relatively few of you) how Elijah's school year is going.

It's going quite well, particularly since we switched him from the afternoon class to the morning class.

Normally, the morning preschool classes are the biggest. But for some reason, this year's crop of parents mostly wanted their children in afternoon classes, so the school tried to oblige to the extent practical. I'll admit to being one of those whiny parents who really, really did not want to drag myself out of bed early enough to get my child fed, dressed, toothbrushed and out the door in time for the morning session. This was partly because at the time we registered, I was at work until well past midnight, all the way downtown, five nights a week. There was a bit of a more selfish motive, too -- the ice rink where I skate only has public sessions in the afternoons, and trust me when I say that taking Elijah along for a skating session is not the most productive way to spend time or money.

But after observing the classroom situation when I dropped him off every afternoon, I decided to switch him to mornings. The afternoon class had 12 kids, and while about half of them were typically developing "peer models," some of the others had fairly severe special needs and quite clearly required a great deal of individual attention from the teacher, paras and therapists. Plus, it was a noisy bunch, and Elijah is most assuredly NOT a noisy kid.

So I asked the teacher if she would like me to switch him to mornings, and she practically dropped to her knees in gratitude. It turns out that there were only seven kids in the morning class, and of those, just one was a special-needs kid. So, with the addition of Elijah, that makes for a classroom with just two special-needs kids and six -- count 'em, six! -- peer models. And they are a very quiet group, much more suited to Elijah's personality.

You almost can't beat this level of individual attention in a public school setting. When you count the teacher, two paras, a rotating speech-language pathologist and a rotating occupational therapist, there are certain days of the week in which the morning class has a nearly 1-1 ratio of students to teachers. Not a bad deal, especially considering that it's all free! (At least it is for us -- the parents of the peer models have to pay.)

Still, though, Elijah is less than forthcoming about what his day consists of. If it weren't for the information sheets that are sent home with him each day, I'd have no idea what he did for those three hours every morning. His language skills just aren't there yet.

I do know that today he served as Helper of the Day, which apparently involves things like assisting with the calendar, holding the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance (which he is just learning for the first time and loves to recite) and leading the line when the class goes to other parts of the building and out to recess.

These jobs, his teacher assures me, are "very important leadership positions." (I'm beginning to suspect that she was part of John McCain's vice presidential search team.)

So, in a nutshell, the school year is going great. And with his love of the Pledge of Allegiance and his experience in "leadership," our little boy may one day be a presidential contender. In fact, if I can't work up any more enthusiasm for either of our current contenders, I might just put him down as a write-in candidate this year.

Anyone care to start a petition drive?