Instead of sending the letter, I went in and talked to Kiki’s teacher. I had to make sure there was no possibility that Kiki’s failing grades would get her held back in 6th grade. That would be a disaster for her emotionally. It isn’t. She’s headed for 7th. If it had been a possibility, then I would have fought the late work policy and we would have scrambled hard to make sure she did enough work to pass.
I expressed my concern to the teacher that there was no way for Kiki to bring her grades up at this point. The teacher agreed and said she intends to change the policy for next year. The teacher then granted a few deadline extensions for Kiki. I told her our plan for school work for the remainder of the year. Kiki still needs to scramble to get work done. But this time I’ve got her committed to scrambling rather than me enforcing the scramble.
This conversation was such a nice contrast with last Friday’s conversation. We were all happy and looking for solutions rather than angry.
That’s an awesome outcome! Hooray!
Yay for constructive conversations … keeping my fingers crossed that Kiki keeps her side of the commitment to scramble and it doesn’t end up being a continual battle for you. (And to think there’s still the whole teenager thing left to live through! *hugs*)
BTW, got the book in – THANK YOU!!! I suspect it arrived a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t know at the time. We’ve been spending lots of weekends visiting Mom after her stroke, and the catsitter bringing in the mail didn’t put the package with the rest of the mail so it didn’t get noticed. Yaaaay!!!
I’m glad you’ve found a good-sounding solution.
Meant to say, there’s often a therapeutic value in wirting letters, even if you never send ’em. The act of writing it is like a kind of saftey-valve. Sometimes, it’s not necessary even to contemplate actually sending it.
darn it! I’m sure I told this thing to log me in automagically.
The above comment was me.