Disconnect

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good

She was very, very good

But when she was bad

She was horrid!

Clara's recent parent-teacher conference was barely underway before I began to doubt whether we were truly discussing our middle child.

"Clara is phenomenal!" exclaimed Miss Luci, and just stopped, as if that closed the book on our entire discussion.

As I struggled to reconcile the Clara we see at home with School Clara, she must have seen the surprise on my face, and began to enumerate the many, many things she does well at school.

While Home Clara is, in many ways, more like a taciturn, crotchety ninety year-old man suffering from dementia than a three year-old little girl, School Clara is apparently a model citizen. Home Clara acts like she's being imprisoned in her own home against her will, asks the same questions repeatedly (most notably, "Am I still three and a half?"), insists on performing tasks her own way ("I do it myself!!!"), delights in pushing her caregiver's buttons, and infuriates her fellow inmates with lies and half-truths.

School Clara could not be a more different creature. Known as the "Little Mother," she is helpful, compassionate, and caring, often assisting two particular classmates when they get frustrated with puzzles, art projects, or building. Out of her class of 12, she's the only one who has never cried when being dropped off, and in fact, she apparently has a routine that involves sneaking into the class, walking to the middle of the room, and then announcing dramatically, "I'm here!!" She plays well, listens well, and is "remarkably" creative and cooperative with her play.

I felt the need to note that Clara has been much more of a challenge at home than she is at school, and you could tell that Miss Luci frankly didn't believe me.

She paused for a moment, trying to summon up a negative thing to say about the Little Mother.

"Well," she said finally. "The only thing that she could improve on here is cleaning up. Just last week, we realized that Clara always decides to go to the restroom when it's time to clean up."

Now that sounded familiar.