Anderson's Interview

Buddy had his interview at White Rock yesterday. He seemed ready to go. I put goop in his hair and combed it over. I put a white button up on over his black t-shirt.

[Mom] Buddy, do you want to go to school?

[Anders] Yeah.

[Mom] You have to talk to the teachers first.

[Anders] Okay.

[Mom] Keep your sword here, you can get it when you are done.

[Anders] Okay.


It mad me so teary to see him go. I remember all my angst when Alexandra had her first interview. Then, when Ainsley went, I was worried for a week that she would not go with them. But she did and did wonderfully.

So, Anderson walked down the hall with them (probably because he has seen the teachers regularly since he was born. I ran upstairs to the viewing window, and this is what I made out from watching through the glass....

He stood there with his arms crossed in front of his body and said, "Mommy."

[Ms. Akin] Would you like to sit here?

[Anders] Mommy.

[Ms. Bolano] Look Anderson, you can .....

[Anders] Mommy.

[Ms. Akin] Little nudge, here Anders, look.....

[Anders] Stood firm. Mommy.

So, this was bad. You can't do that in the interview. The whole point of the interview/assessment is not "what they know" but can they communicate with the child. Is the child responsive. Will they follow directions....? It was a loooooong 7 or 8 minutes. I couldn't watch anymore. I walked away and at the same time, Ms. Bolano had left the room and came upstairs to talk to me.

We were talking about rescheduling for another day when we looked through the glass downstairs and Ms. Akin got him to do a puzzle. Then, he was sitting sorting colors (he knew them! pat on back). Ms. Bolano went back downstairs and everything commenced....

So, I guess my little guy is going to go to school next year. Sniff.

He told me later he was scared.