He's Five Years Old

Jacob is a smart little boy. We always suspected that, but he’s already proven his intellectual prowess in that testing ground of all testing grounds — Kindergarten.

It started about a week ago. Mrs. Fannock, Jacob’s teacher, wrote a note in his MOOSE book (that’s an acronymn for Management Of Organizational Skills Everyday which calls for a separate post altogether) asking me if I signed the note. I wrote back the next day that I didn’t see any note. We exchanged another round of Q&A the next day and she called the house on Wednesday and asked Brian about the note.

Turns out Mrs. Fannock wrote a note on Friday explaining that Jacob had been terribly bad that day. He was spoken to three times by three different teachers; had his desk moved away from the other children; and got up anyway and pushed a child in the back.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the note was missing from his MOOSE book because he took it out, rolled it up into a ball and stuck it in his desk. Mrs. Fannock found it the day she talked to Brian.

That evening we talked to Jacob about what he did. He just stood there staring at me. He didn’t flinch when Brian told him Mrs. Fannock called. He didn’t seem to mind that if he gets in trouble again at school he can’t watch television for two days. He just stood there.

I’m hopeful that the lack of acknowledgement is a reflection of his age. He’s five. What the heck does he really know of deceit? He got caught. What does he really know of expressing regret?

If it’s any consolation, he’s been really good the past few days. He hasn’t hit his brother nearly as much as usual. I’m hoping the whole aggression thing is a phase he’ll grow out of.

Afterall, he’s being managed to the bone. The MOOSE thing sounds like a tool from General Electric’s Jack Welch. Jacob actually tells me he works all day and he’s tired. His world of trucks, playdough and swingsets is over.

Who wouldn’t be pissed and act out against THAT?