Parent/Teacher Conference Day

Today is Parent/Teacher Conference Day. Today is the day when I go to each of my son's teachers and find out:

1. How is he doing in class, since his dad's death?
2. How are his grades?
3. What is the teacher doing to help my son with his learning disability?

Naturally, question number one is new. (Note to self, bring tissues.) Question number two is pretty predictable. This early in the year, his grades are always good. Question number three is the one that drives me crazy. Because I can guarantee that each teacher will look at me and say, "What learning disability?". This while Michael is running in circles around us, dancing (complete with jazz hands), or checking to see if he can actually jump high enough to bite himself on the forehead. (He knows he can't, he just likes to try.)

I have had this conversation with teachers every year since Michael was diagnosed. The irony to me is that his teachers did *more* to help him before he was diagnosed. The teachers since then either don't know that he has a learning disability (despite the fact that I tell them, in person, at Meet the Teacher Night; that it's in his file; and that I send them a note on the first day of school). Or because he's very smart and at this point of the year he's getting A's, they just don't believe he has a learning disability.

What makes me scream (and if it happens this year, I may literally scream) is when the teacher's comments note that Michael "doesn't concentrate on his work" or "is disorganized". That's like a P.E. teacher noting that a kid in a wheelchair doesn't run enough in class.

And all of the above is why I am writing the non fiction ADD/ADHD parenting book "Michael is a Verb". Because I know there are other parents out there in my same situation. I know, because I can hear them screaming.