8 yrs. Grade 2

My son is a very bright child. He reads above grade level; math skills are above grade level; he’s kind and willing to please. He was in grade 1 last year and began getting notes home about his behaviour. It didn’t sound like our son. We talked to him, and he told me he was being sent out of class almost daily for about a month. We set up a meeting with the teacher. She told us that she was sure he had ADHD and that some medication should help him. She told us we needed to be tougher on him and be disciplining him more at home. She said kids wouldn’t want to play with him and that he wouldn’t get invited to birthday parties if this didn’t change. She said that it was going to get worse, and by grade 2, he’d fall behind all other children. She began sending home notes daily that my son would read before we got them. These notes would start with either “he had a good day” or “he didn’t have a good day”, then go on to critique his behaviour. His anxiety got so bad he was chewing his shirt constantly and chewing the skin around his nails. He stopped wanting to go to school. This was all new behaviour we hadn’t seen, and it was worrisome. The guidance counsellor made us fill out the ADHD checklist, and we saw a private child psychologist. He was an angel. He read the comments, met our son, and deemed our son was not the issue, but it was the school. As a parent, I felt helpless until the point I decided to change schools. He is now finishing grade 2 with the highest marks in his class. Anxiety was gone after the first two weeks; he’s got tons of friends. At a parent-teacher meeting, his new teacher told us the old school sent his file over when he came. I didn’t know he had a “file” and would have liked to see it. Anyhow, she said she was surprised when she read it because none of what they said was true, and she said that our son has no issues. Our family and he went through hell last year because this teacher couldn’t recognize that he was just an energetic little boy. Changing to schools with teachers who focus on positive reinforcement and positive mental health environments changed our world. Thank you.