Double Vision: Parent and Professional Perspectives on Our Family's Year in Crisis

First 200 words:
"Children like that become criminals."
- comment about our son made by another kindergarten parent

I am taking a risk - not mine alone for the taking - by sharing the following very personal and difficult story. It's only partly my story, as it really concerns our firstborn son, and his extraordinary struggles in a new town, in a new kindergarten.

As honestly and objectively as I can, I will share my dual perspective as both his mother and a special educator - at times a strange form of double-vision. In sharing, I acknowledge that others very likely have different perspectives on the events described - even different truths.

I trust you will handle our story with care and with an open mind, just as you would approach a fearful child thrashing out at a world he does not fully understand.

Things Fall Apart

I had just dropped our son off at school on a Monday morning when the telephone rang. For the next 30 minutes, I listened, stunned and tearful, as another parent angrily told me our son was threatening and hurting her child, that he was a bully, and that we were oblivious and irresponsible parents. The previous week, the teacher had told ...