Validation

I wrote last month about The Dark Lord venturing into public school after having been homeschooled since kindergarten. He's running on too little sleep and too little food and he's often rather stressed out. But he does get himself up every morning, showers, and gets himself out the door. He's made friends and seems to be enjoying himself overall.

Today were the first parent-teacher conferences which I approached with some trepidation. After being my child's teacher all these years I felt like it was my work being scrutinized as much as his. It's all about me, right?

The teachers were each set up at a table in the commons area and the parents went from one table to the next in order to speak with them. It was a bit of a madhouse and I left with a lot of sympathy for the teachers and all they had to juggle (and not a little appreciation for my job which allows me to focus on one subject with one group of students for an entire term).

As for The Dark Lord's academic progress, he's doing well. Very well. He's missing an assignment or two here and there but overall he's making great progress and his teachers seem to like him. The Spouse and I kind of figured this first quarter would be all about learning to get up and out the door in the morning and keeping track of assignments. I figured we'd be ahead of the game if he made C's in his classes but right now it's looking like 7 A's and a B!

I know that grades have nothing to do with who he is or even what he knows, and I know that much of school is learning to jump through hoops. But the thing is, he's having a good time. He's making friends. He's working on group projects and is starting to look into extracurricular activities. He's not getting taunted or harassed and he's not taking drugs. My fears about high school seem to be pretty much unfounded. And good grades? Icing on the cake!