Return to School

This picture of Sasha, Bailey, Barrett and Keaton was taken the day Sasha returned to school for spring semester.  Last semester Sasha went to a new school.  It had small classrooms - around six to eight kids to a class.  It was not, however, a tutorial school, and they expected the kids to work in class and on homework independently.  We thought he was ready for a bit more independence, but he wasn't.  He's headed back this semester to his old school.  At his old school, the classes average a one-to-three ratio in class but work one-on-one on outside assignments. There's no way he can continue to skip his assignments or his homework now. This school is specifically for children with learning differences - primarily dyslexia and ADD. Sasha doesn't have dyslexia, but the poor educational environment during his first eleven years in Russia has made such a mark on him, he's convinced he's a poor student, and there's no reason to even try.  His teachers ingrained in him that he was both lazy and dumb, and it's been a b*tch convincing him that he's certainly not dumb and lazy can be overcome.  Boy, I wish I could get ahold of those teachers and show them what damage they do to these young lives!  Boy, I wish I could just get ahold of those teachers ...