Does my son need help?

I used to be one of those parents in denial and my kid suffered. Things didn’t change until I saw the light. It didn’t matter how much other people warned me or sided with me, not to mention, it was very painful to finally admit that my ds had a problem and my denial was part of the problem. For me getting out of denial was an epiphany.

If he is turning in papers that are incomplete or not following directions it appears that he is having problems with his abililty to attend to details, and following directions, it can be visually related and or attention related.

It doesn’t matter what anyone else says about your son, what does matter is how he feels about himself and how he is doing in his life.

get AN NDEPENDENT PHYSCOEDUCATIONAL EVALUATION NOW!-check the local university,etc. there may be something up with your kid, there may not, the school teachers, pricipal, councellors could be a little zany, or not. You need good info thatyou can trust
good luck

p s is the teacher dull?

Yes, definitely, look for an independent evaluation. No question — do it.
The school district is required to test if you make a written request, but considering what you way about over-diagnosis, this might not be helpful to get dependable information.

Meanwhile, there is the Grade 4-5 “hump”. It is often said that in Grade 1 to 3 kids learn to read, and then in Grade 4 and up they have to read to learn. Work in the primary grades tends to be mostly oral, very short answer, copy from point a to point b, many pictures, teacher-guided throughout, etc.. Work should increase in difficulty and prepare students for higher-level demands each year, but often teachers in primary classes follow the (absolutely wrong) theory of “Theyll get it when they need it” (No, they fail is what they do.)
Then in Grade 4 students get long masses of print without pictures, questions to answer in full sentences or paragraphs, multi-step math problems, real science and social studies texts/references, and so on. *Many* students run into trouble here. Those who have been getting through reading class by guessing and faking and con artistry hit a brick wall around here. Those who have weaknesses in spelling and organization and have been getting by on their sweet smiles also get a huge shock.
There is a happy medium here — yes there are bad teachers and some very bad; and yes there are also poorly-prepared students who would rather blame the teacher for being on their case than change their habits and do the work that is expected to get him/her off their case.
Take an honest and unbiased look at your son’s work. Is it incomplete? Is his writing really scratchy and muddled? Does he use complete sentences, and does he organize a paragraph adequately? If he is still giving a single mis-spelled word when a sentence is required, a few disconnected phrases when a paragraph is required, a couple of scratchy numbers when a complete solution is required, well, then he is behind the curve. If he never uses capitals or punctuation, doesn’t worry about spelling, doesn’t answer the question asked, then well, he is behind the curve. In this case he needs help to get up to speed, not an attack on a teacher who is actually trying to *teach* something, not just letting things slide further.
On the other hand, take a look at the teacher’s demands and see if they are in line with standard Grade 4 texts and tests. Sometimes teachers move down from junior high or high school and honestly don’t know what is appropriate for a younger grade.

If the teacher’s expectations really are unreasonable, yes you can fight for a change of class, but it’s awfully late i the schiool year to bother.

I agree with the other posters. Get an evaluation done. It could be that he is ADD or ADHD or there may be other factors involved. It could be anything, for example, your child may be unnerved by other classmates that may be bothering or bullying him and his attention problems could be do to that, not ADD.
I experienced the opposite problem, I felt my child was way behind the class in both reading and writing. The teacher insisted that there was nothing wrong, that I was the PROBLEM. She said I must be a perfectionist and I should back off. Unfortunatly, we had this teacher for 2 years in a row and when I finally decided to have my child tested privately, the poor kid had fallen 3 years behind in all basic subjects despite a superior IQ. After a fortune in private tutoring, we are back on track.
The bottom line is, don’t trust the teacher, or yourself, as this is not your or their area of expertise. Get a professional evaluation.

Your son’s teacher sounds like what’s called a ‘doozy’. Sometimes our children get a doozy for a teacher. With any teacher, doozy or not, the best approach is never outright contradiction. It’s best to walk on eggshells with teachers. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so.

For whatever reasons, this teacher certainly seems to ‘have it in’ for your son. The good news is the end of the school year is coming so you can direct your thoughts and efforts to the coming year. Removing him from the class this close to the end of the year is not likely to happen.

Has any other teacher ever mentioned possible learning differences or attentional issues? If not, this teacher’s opinion will likely not matter much and you can start next year fresh. I alway suggest figuring out which of the 5th grade teachers would be best for your son and then requesting that teacher from the principal. Start by saying, “Since Mrs. Smith felt John has issues, we would of course want to make a careful placement for him in the coming year. Miss Jones has experience with these things and I’d like to see him in Miss Jones’ room. I’m sure these issues Mrs. Smith believes he has won’t surface in Miss Jones’ room.”

Good luck.