The School Dance

This past month Caleb graduated out of his special ed preschool. His teacher, Ms. Jane, said she saw no need to keep him there any longer and that he'd better be served surrounded by stronger language models. Each special ed class has two "model students", but as is often the case, the two model students in Caleb's classroom were girls, and they didn't want to play with the boys. Thus, the special ed students--all boys, none with exemplary language skills--were usually left to engage in sup-par verbal communication amongst themselves.

When Caleb first started to attend this preschool, he refused to dance or sing. When his teacher finally told him it was a rule that "everyone in Ms. Jane's class must dance and sing", he decided that he didn't want to break the rules, so he started dancing and singing. Apparently Caleb has become quite a stickler for rules, and was always quick to tell his teacher if someone was doing something they weren't supposed to be doing (as he also does with his brothers at home!). Even so, his teacher told me that he still managed to remain very popular with his classmates. He must have won them over with his smooth moves, because Ms. Jane said that Caleb finished his tenure in her classroom as the craziest dancer of the bunch. She also said that when she told jokes, they would go over the other kids' heads and that Caleb was the only child in the class who would laugh. She said he needed to be with other children who could also "get" jokes. So, even though she has told me on numerous occasions that Caleb is a wonderful child and a joy to have in her class, it would be in his best interest to attend the community preschool full-time.

So now Joshua reluctantly boards the school bus all by himself three times a week. He is fond of his special ed preschool, but doesn't like the idea of Caleb having fun somewhere else without him. He still refuses to sing and dance at preschool, and even though his teacher has told me that he's the most talkative student in her class, he is being kept there a while longer in hopes that he'll come out of his shell (and hopefully straighten out a few pronouns along the way). Joshua of course wanted to know why Caleb doesn't go to this preschool any longer, and I told him it's because Caleb obeyed the rules and sang and danced when his teacher told him to.

When I picked Joshua up today, his teacher told me that he said, "I'm still here because I need to sing and dance," but still refused to do so. She added, "he is just so shy!" The ironic thing is that "shy" is one of the last words I would use to describe Joshua. He's loud, gregarious, and has no qualms about striking up conversations with complete strangers. As I type this, he is upstairs dancing (in other words, bouncing on the bed) with his brothers while Joe plays the electric guitar. But for whatever reason, he refuses to dance at school. Granted, he is a pretty stubborn kid and whenever he insists that he can't do something (zipping up his coat, buckling himself into his carseat, and writing his name are a few examples that come to mind), then eventually does it after days, weeks, or months of prodding, he breaks down in tears as if he's angry that we proved him wrong. Similarly, I have a feeling that he is too stubborn to admit that he really can dance at school. But then again, I was never much of a social dancer, either, so I guess I can't really blame him!