---

A participant in our study group reported the following.

Our son will turn 15 in January and is in the 9th grade. Before the fall break, his English teacher, whom he doesn't particularly like, gave him homework, which annoyed him because he didn't want to do homework during the vacation.

He complained throughout the holidays that he didn't know exactly what the teacher expected of him. I just told him to write it the way he understood the assignment.

A week later, he got the essay, a retelling, back. The teacher just wrote “Wrong except wrong” on it, a devastating verdict.

I noticed that he took it very personally and that the choice of words hurt him deeply... He also told me that she said he had to rewrite it, and that he wouldn't do that because he still didn't know what exactly he could do differently.

We tried to find a solution where he could get support from another teacher, which seemed like a viable option for him. But it didn't come to that. His English teacher approached him unsolicited and explained what she would have liked to see done differently, told him a few sentences he should correct, and that was the end of it.

I asked him if he was happy with the way things were now, and he said “yes.” I just thought to myself, I wonder if there will be any physical consequences, since he had been actively involved in the conflict for a week.

The next day, he complained of a headache, but not like usual.