RS says I�m being Gothic again � meaning my last entry. I say it�s the fallout of my reading about the Expressionists this week, in preparation for next week�s lecture on The Second Viennese School � Schoenberg, Berg and Beethoven � that makes my dreams come to life. It is, after all, what the Expressionists are all about. And I love that I�m teaching the Expressionism and serialism on the last day of class before Thanksgiving. It�s music full of angst and torment and people going crazy, and if that doesn�t describe Thanksgiving with family, I don�t know what does.

I love the end of this course. I always feel like my students don�t really wake up to what we�re studying until we get to the 20th century, because that�s when things get so unfamiliar as to not quite sound like what they think of as music. We had the best discussion we�ve had all year today, because they are finally getting opinionated. And maybe also because I�m a little more excited � post-tonal music is my favorite to talk about � it excites me ideologically � and I�m sure my enthusiasm is showing. Still, one of these days I�d like to try teaching the course backwards, starting from where we are and listening our way back to where we came from. I wonder what that would be like, to have the history of classical music dwindle back to a single voice chanting in a church?

Which reminds me, I have not forgotten about the Day of Music-blogging. Stay tuned for more info.

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I am holding in my hand AJ�s first school report card. It is, of course, very good. More informative than the report card itself, however, was the talk with his teacher, which went a good ten minutes over our allotted time. AJ is doing exceptionally well in all the areas he know he should. He�s having trouble with organization skills and with staying on task when he�s bored with something � mainly this seems to have to do with coloring, which he�s not a huge fan of, but on which kindergarteners get graded. Did you know this? I did not. Apparently coloring in the lines does matter, but not for the reasons you think. It�s about fine motor skills, not totalitarianism. Who knew?

The one surprise from our conversation is that AJ has been refusing to read with his teacher (hey, Claudia, does this sound familiar?). AJ is sometimes a show-off and sometimes shy, but reading is something he�s never been particularly shy about until recently. Lately he doesn�t want to read aloud to me either, although we hear him reading aloud to himself in his room sometimes. Mostly, though, he reads silently and I suspect that part of the thing he loves about reading is getting into the world of the book. He can do that when he reads to himself or when others read to him, but not when he reads to other people. Still, when he does read to others, he seems to take pleasure in the performance and puts a lot of dramatic emphasis behind the words. He�s fun to listen to.

Based on what we�d heard from AJ, we�d thought they weren�t reading at school yet, but it turns out that was his choice. Now we need to figure out why and how to help him start. His teacher thinks part of his non-reading may have to do with wanting to fit in socially. I wonder if he�s holding back because he�s afraid of making mistakes. Or maybe he just doesn�t want reading to be something that other people tell him to do. It�s his thing.

We also learned that AJ is a bit scatterbrained in class. This was no surprise � he�s a bit scatterbrained at home, too. If he is in the middle of doing something, say, getting dressed, and then starts to think about something else, he�ll abandon task one without a second�s thought. This may mean walking around in his underwear and one sock for a while before he or someone else notices. At school, it means he doesn�t always finish his work and sometimes forgets to put his stuff away. His teacher identified it as a trait of gifted students, although I see it more as a family failing. I�ve definitely got the same problem. Although I usually remember to put my clothes on. I�ve learned to compensate by being hyperorganized in other ways � I�m fanatical about my class preparation, for instance. I�m almost superstitious about it.

In all, I felt like AJ�s teacher had a good handle on who he is and that we were on the same page as far as making decisions about when to push and when to back off with him and what his strengths and weaknesses are. It was really interesting and helpful to get an outside point of view on my kid. His teacher also encouraged me to stay in touch with the gifted teacher, that she herself has found the gifted teacher to be a great resource and she was sure she�d be helpful to us too. All very encouraging. I am finding that most of my concerns about AJ at school have stemmed from lack of information. I need to remember that when I�m worried about things, I need to pick up a phone.
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And finally, bad news on the Day of Onerous Tasks front. My husband has declined to have his prose appear in this space. "I'd need to fix it up! I was writing it while AJ was looking over my shoulder screaming, 'Let me see! Let me see!'" This is the problem with professional writers. They are never satisfied.

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