Back To School...UGH!!!

Tomorrow starts a new school year for my kids and another year of torture for me.

My daughter bounces out the door every morning looking forward to school (which she considers a social club) and I shove my sixteen year old out the door saying "Just two more years if you pass this one"!! (By this remark I am trying to encourage him in the only way I know how).

My daughter isn't an "A" student, but she tries hard and has never been a problem. She is loved by all her teachers and for the record...is just too sweet to be hard on (maybe that is one of our problems).

My son...God help us, is another story all together. He is the smartest of my three. He can debate like nobody's business, he can tell you any historical or scientific data...he can even tell you why America is in such dire straits....and most of the time I agree with him. He HATES to be judged by numbers or letters ( that is his explanation for his GPA).

My daughter had her orientation at the middle school today, and got assigned to the team of teachers that had my son two years ago. In each classroom that I went into, after I told them that I was Zachary's mom and they had taught him two years ago...their first comment was "Zach was the smartest kid I ever taught".

Not that he passed their class with flying colors, but they saw the potential that I see on a daily basis.

He is a genius, he is my way to an early retirement...if ONLY we can get him out of school.

He fights the system, he fights the rules and he fights the entire concept of a controlled environment. My boy is a rebel...albeit a smart one.

But what I cannot instill in him is that at his age, you JUST have to play by the rules, you have to surrender to authority, and you just have to "PLAY" the game...not fight it at every turn.

Last year by the end of the school year...I had spent more time with the ninth grade principal than I had my husband. I look forward to meeting the tenth grade principal and I am certain by May, we will be well acquainted.

He is a good boy. He doesn't do drugs (a trip to the county juvenile detention center for a drug test guaranteed me that) ...Just checking after a rebellious period. But you have to keep a close watch on your kids, I am not one that will not keep a check on a floundering sixteen year old...and be caught off guard when it is too late.

I have come to realize that he is a pistol. He is loaded with information, facts and data that blow me away on a daily basis. He just doesn't like school. He doesn't like the fact that they judge and grade him on whether he gets a paper signed, or a progress report signed.

But how do I tell him that this is the way it works? How do I tell him that unless you come out of high school a millionaire...life is a hard ,hard road...even if you ARE smart?

I pray for him daily...and he probably prays in his room at night that I will leave him alone.

Guess who's prayer's will get answered first?

I have no reservation in saying that he is the smartest, brightest sixteen year old I have ever met.

Someone please tell me how to help him succeed, how to let him finally see his potential, and how to stop my heart palpitations every time a new school year starts.

Just thought that since I had this blog, I would throw it out there to you and see what came back.

Please help me help HIM.

Till next time..COTTON