Edit: By the way, small critique on panels 3 and 4. The word bubble placement with the "strong words" distracts from panel 4's response, making the conversation a bit confusing. It would have been cleaner if the "strong words" word bubble was removed.
Still a great page, though. Love the expression on the last panel. I picture my mom acting like this.
Gotta side, at least in some small part, with the teacher here (though from her portrayal you must not have had many good experiences with teachers which is sadly par for the course these days.)
If I had a kid in my class that didn't play with others, claimed they were distracting, and was a perfectionist (to the point that I felt the need to comment on it) I might talk to the parent as these are red flags. As red flags go, they're small red flags, but they're still red flags.
Do all red flags mean something's wrong? No. Are they still red flags? Yessssssssss.
Teachers have a bit of a bad rap in that if we comment on behaviour and it turns out to be nothing, we get flak for it (paranooooooid). If we DON'T comment on it and the behaviour turns out to be something serious... Well, at best we're guilt-ridden and at worst we're liable.
TL;DR: The teacher raises valid points but has TERRIBLE bedside manner.
Awesome page as usual!
Also, good for Jayden's mom for sticking up for him.
Since I lived it:
I didn't play well with the others because I was picked on a lot (from the kids at the very start to the toy tearing). So I hung out with others in a different grade than myself. Which wasn't seen because of the brick wall.
I loved to read, and reading took silence for me. So, when other kids were being incredibly noisy and goofing off during reading time, I told them to shut up (the strong words).
I get what the teacher was worried about though. A kid that looks like (from all she knows) as anti-social, they might have thought there was something wrong at the house. I was social, but just not in class. I was more surprised that there was no comment about how often I wanted to sleep.
My mom (who is a business woman before a mother) was raging though, because the perfectionist comment was about me and my artistic skill level being seen so early. I took a lot of pride in every project. The downside was that I didn't want others to touch it or modify it. I wasn't great on working in groups for this reason.
---
Its all good! I love that it brought up a discussion in some way.
My instructor did notice these things, which was great. But at the time, it felt like it was restricting my willingness to challenge my abilities and learn.
I see what you mean about the lack of commenting and then it rising up to be a legitimate problem. I'm not an instructor myself, but I've been a leader in projects and its tough working on evaluations and bringing them up to a manager. Because if you leave out something dire, you're liable for the problems that arise.
Oh man, I lived this too - my kindergarten teacher of all people hated my guts because I had read every book they had in the first week so I was super bored. I didn't like the other kids, I thought they were dumb, they were also mean for no reason I could really figure out so I just spent my time alone reading through the same old books again and again.
The teacher actually complained that I 'seemed bored' and was doing too well. I ALSO ended up hanging out with kids a grade or so up from me, and eventually they created a special classroom for 'gifted students' for a few of us that just couldn't get along with the kids in our curriculum.
My teacher's crappy attitude towards me and feeling punished for liking to, er, read, and learn, made me burn out on school reaaaaallly early. It sucked, but hey, I'm at where I'm at :'D
It's crazy that it seems like we've got a lot of similar beats in our lives, except for I didn't have the 'growing up on a farm' part and was just familiar with them :)
I'd agree that he carries some traits, but no, I'd not say so. There's things he does that are indicators, but I can't say for sure (mostly because I have the same traits and have been given toys meant for spectrum kids) since I never was diagnosed.
I'd have to do some research to learn quite a bit more.
Okay. I can relate to him in several ways though, despite being 10 years older. I rarely hang around with others at school. Sometimes I get called over by people, but then I get impatient and demand that I continue my walk on. I also spend most of my breaks and journeys to/from school listening to music. I even sometimes used to bring a portable cassette player in, until I lost it. Then I began bringing in my portable CD player (circa 1995; it predated EU restrictions so was louder), which was eventually broken by some boys who didn't like it. Now I use my various MP3 players, although none of them are in perfect condition. I don't use my phone for music, since its headphone jack is shoddy, and its total 8GB simply isn't enough when apps and photos consume most of it.
On several occasions I've been challenged by members of staff for "listening to music outside of the cafeteria" at break. I just turn my device off, walk away, and then turn it back on once they're out of site. Is this ever meant to happen to Jayden? In addition, most of what I listen to is from the late 90s or earlier, so what styles does he like? I know not country, nor anything at this stage from the 21st century, but you've never really covered all styles which he does like.
What's kind of incredible, is Jayd will have that same journey too. From a walkman, cd to mp3. Those are ultimately the names of the books or three major arcs so to speak.
I feel you on phone headphone jacks sucking. I was lucky enough to get one of the mp3 walkmans (not the super expensive one) and it is the best. SD card expand and now I got 80gigs of music.
Yes. All the time. He'll be trying to listen to music at all hours of the day, from sleeping, to school, to anything. Sometimes it was the only way to focus or keep on task. Otherwise, there was just too much information going on. I lose my mind when there's too many noises.
I want to cover it through time, but he pretty much is learning and loving all things (not country).
80s rock and pop were probably the most. I can't exactly remember when trance was discovered, I'd have to check a few cd cases. Through junior high, there's a classical phase. Lots of phases.
Its amazing to know that there's someone else that can easily be in the company of music in the same way. Its refreshing <3
Edit: By the way, small critique on panels 3 and 4. The word bubble placement with the "strong words" distracts from panel 4's response, making the conversation a bit confusing. It would have been cleaner if the "strong words" word bubble was removed.
Still a great page, though. Love the expression on the last panel. I picture my mom acting like this.
If I had a kid in my class that didn't play with others, claimed they were distracting, and was a perfectionist (to the point that I felt the need to comment on it) I might talk to the parent as these are red flags. As red flags go, they're small red flags, but they're still red flags.
Do all red flags mean something's wrong? No. Are they still red flags? Yessssssssss.
Teachers have a bit of a bad rap in that if we comment on behaviour and it turns out to be nothing, we get flak for it (paranooooooid). If we DON'T comment on it and the behaviour turns out to be something serious... Well, at best we're guilt-ridden and at worst we're liable.
TL;DR: The teacher raises valid points but has TERRIBLE bedside manner.
Awesome page as usual!
Also, good for Jayden's mom for sticking up for him.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I didn't play well with the others because I was picked on a lot (from the kids at the very start to the toy tearing). So I hung out with others in a different grade than myself. Which wasn't seen because of the brick wall.
I loved to read, and reading took silence for me. So, when other kids were being incredibly noisy and goofing off during reading time, I told them to shut up (the strong words).
I get what the teacher was worried about though. A kid that looks like (from all she knows) as anti-social, they might have thought there was something wrong at the house. I was social, but just not in class. I was more surprised that there was no comment about how often I wanted to sleep.
My mom (who is a business woman before a mother) was raging though, because the perfectionist comment was about me and my artistic skill level being seen so early. I took a lot of pride in every project. The downside was that I didn't want others to touch it or modify it. I wasn't great on working in groups for this reason.
---
Its all good! I love that it brought up a discussion in some way.
My instructor did notice these things, which was great. But at the time, it felt like it was restricting my willingness to challenge my abilities and learn.
I see what you mean about the lack of commenting and then it rising up to be a legitimate problem. I'm not an instructor myself, but I've been a leader in projects and its tough working on evaluations and bringing them up to a manager. Because if you leave out something dire, you're liable for the problems that arise.
I really appreciate this comment you left.
The teacher actually complained that I 'seemed bored' and was doing too well. I ALSO ended up hanging out with kids a grade or so up from me, and eventually they created a special classroom for 'gifted students' for a few of us that just couldn't get along with the kids in our curriculum.
My teacher's crappy attitude towards me and feeling punished for liking to, er, read, and learn, made me burn out on school reaaaaallly early. It sucked, but hey, I'm at where I'm at :'D
It's crazy that it seems like we've got a lot of similar beats in our lives, except for I didn't have the 'growing up on a farm' part and was just familiar with them :)
Its nice to see more of Jay-D's mom here. Haha, love her attitude! :)
Her sass is rising.
Gotta love the last panel reaction that screams... "And.....?"
Definitely can see things though as well from both sides.
Teacher sees what SHE thinks is a problem, Mom sees NOTHING as a problem.
Glad that the level of cutes is all good. xD
I'd have to do some research to learn quite a bit more.
On several occasions I've been challenged by members of staff for "listening to music outside of the cafeteria" at break. I just turn my device off, walk away, and then turn it back on once they're out of site. Is this ever meant to happen to Jayden? In addition, most of what I listen to is from the late 90s or earlier, so what styles does he like? I know not country, nor anything at this stage from the 21st century, but you've never really covered all styles which he does like.
I feel you on phone headphone jacks sucking. I was lucky enough to get one of the mp3 walkmans (not the super expensive one) and it is the best. SD card expand and now I got 80gigs of music.
Yes. All the time. He'll be trying to listen to music at all hours of the day, from sleeping, to school, to anything. Sometimes it was the only way to focus or keep on task. Otherwise, there was just too much information going on. I lose my mind when there's too many noises.
I want to cover it through time, but he pretty much is learning and loving all things (not country).
80s rock and pop were probably the most. I can't exactly remember when trance was discovered, I'd have to check a few cd cases. Through junior high, there's a classical phase. Lots of phases.
Its amazing to know that there's someone else that can easily be in the company of music in the same way. Its refreshing <3