Hannah had a serious crisis on Thursday. While at the library she found a book on bearded dragons. This is the same type of lizard that happens to be the class pet at her animal class at the YMCA. During the very first class they met this particular lizard (named Spice) and were told lots of interesting facts about bearded dragons, one of which was that unlike many other lizards, the bearded dragon's tail will not grown back after it falls off. WELL . . . . . upon reading that book from the library a page was found that stated that the bearded dragon's tail would indeed grow back
after it had fallen off. Hannah was aghast. But her teacher had said! This conflict just would not do. So Hannah insisted on bringing the book with her to class later on that day to read the teacher the page that talked about the tails. She marched right into the room, interrupted the teacher who was still talking on her cell phone and not quite ready for class, and began leafing through the book to find the important page. She then began to read in a very authoritative tone that the bearded dragon can indeed grow its tail back. The teacher didn't quite know what to say. She appeared to be in shock although I'm not sure if it was from being called out by a 4 year old or the fact that she had just witnessed said 4 year old reading fluently from a book designed for 2nd graders! She did recover quite nicely though and 
managed to gracefully admit that she might possibly be wrong and that she'd check her facts and report back next week as to whether it was her or the book that had their facts mixed up. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud, but it also gave me a feeling of dread. This was probably the first of many, many instances when my little one will want to correct a teache
r and if we don't start working on how to respectfully disagree with an adult now, I can see her ending up in some serious trouble!
after it had fallen off. Hannah was aghast. But her teacher had said! This conflict just would not do. So Hannah insisted on bringing the book with her to class later on that day to read the teacher the page that talked about the tails. She marched right into the room, interrupted the teacher who was still talking on her cell phone and not quite ready for class, and began leafing through the book to find the important page. She then began to read in a very authoritative tone that the bearded dragon can indeed grow its tail back. The teacher didn't quite know what to say. She appeared to be in shock although I'm not sure if it was from being called out by a 4 year old or the fact that she had just witnessed said 4 year old reading fluently from a book designed for 2nd graders! She did recover quite nicely though and 
managed to gracefully admit that she might possibly be wrong and that she'd check her facts and report back next week as to whether it was her or the book that had their facts mixed up. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud, but it also gave me a feeling of dread. This was probably the first of many, many instances when my little one will want to correct a teache
r and if we don't start working on how to respectfully disagree with an adult now, I can see her ending up in some serious trouble!
3 comments:
Well, it took many years for our auti-daughter to learn to disagree gracefully with her teachers. She too would raise her hand in class and announce with absolute certainty that what the teacher had just said was not correct. In her eyes there can be only one correct answer and that caused a lot of conflict.
Even when the teachers had been explained that this was part of her auti-diagnosis and they no longer took it as a personal insult, this caused problems, because Suzie interpreted their changed attitude towards her as "let's just wait patiently until Suzie's presented her opinion so that we can get on with important things" and she was really offended by that as well.
Since there is no 'grey' area for her, but only black or white, it's still hard for her to accept that you can have different opinions on many subjects.
thanks for this post, it's a great window into her thinking, the way she is interacting with others.
and i hope the new psychologist is working out. sounds like so many changes are taking place, difficult ones, i am definitely thinking about you guys.
thanks again for keeping us updated, hope you're well.
Thanks so much M. I've been thinking a lot about you and enjoying reading your recent postings.
Suzymom, How old was your daughter before she finally learned how to disagree gracefully? How much longer will we have to ride this out potentially! :)
Natalie
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