Dear Guidance Guy,
My 4th grade son is having trouble adjusting this year to his teacher. He tells me that his teacher is boring, and speaks in a monotone so my son hastrouble staying tuned in. My son has been placed in the academically gifted program which pulls him out of his normal class where the boring teacher is,but only a few hours a week. Most of the time, he has the monotone man.

I am a substitute teacher, not for my son's grade but for high school level. I'd like to address this in two weeks with our parent-teacher conference, but frankly I am at a loss of how to tell a teacher he's boring my son to tears. Any advice?

Thank you,
Mother of A Bored Son

*****

Dear Mother,

You could fall asleep in the middle of your conference with him - that might be a clue!

Seriously, we have two different things to look at. There's going to be very little you can
do to change this man's teaching style, especially if he's a veteran. If there is something
you can tell him about how your son learns best, such as through auditory (hearing) or visual
(seeing) it might inspire him to be a little more outgoing in his teaching style. Even better,
if your son is a strong sensory-motor learner (touch) you can ask that some of this be integrated
into the way he teaches.

Again, be ready for the teacher to not know how to respond.

The second thing to consider is how to talk with your son about his teacher. Let's assume that
there isn't much that's going to change about this man's style. Do you feel like your son is
learning what he needs to learn this year? If you know what the basic curriculum is (and since
you have some teaching experience of your own), how about livening things up with some
home lessons? Might be fun!

Hope that helps a little. Congratulations on being an involved, proactive parent.

The Guidance Guy