How Do You Solve A Problem Like Jonathan?

Jonathan was reading a book called Hitler Youth for his non-fiction book report last week. His class checked the books out on Monday and the book report was due on Friday. As you can imagine, he had to boogy and get it done. Quite frankly, the deadline was almost unfair. Jonathan had started the book Monday night. On Tuesday evening, I asked Jonathan if his teacher had given him any time to read the book in class. He replied that he had finished reading the entire book in class. He exact words were, “I read the whole book, I just forgot to move the book mark.” Upon examination, I noticed the book mark sat in the exact same location it had been on Monday night. We quizzed Jonathan on the nature of the book, and he could only tell us what happened in the first two chapters. Nice try, Buddy! I’m not sure how he thought he was going to complete his book report with only two chapters under his belt.

After getting to the bottom of the Hitler book, I began going through his notebook. He told me that he did all of his homework. I said, “Really?” His reply was, “Yes. Well, all of it except for my spelling and math.” Basically, he completed a reading passage and that was it. He spun the story, so that it sounded like he was almost done.

So, I finally got through the homework drama, and I opened up Jonathan’s behavior chart. For the first time in several weeks, I notice his chart was signed. Darn! He was on such a roll. What on earth could he have done? In red ink, I read the words, “Reading during math.” I decided that perhaps he really did read some of the Hitler book. So, asked him about it. Nope. He was reading his new Percy Jackson book. This is the second time in a week that one of his teachers has taken the book up from him in class. His punishment? We grounded him from taking the book to school. Have you ever heard of such punishment?

The entire night I found myself humming How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria from the Sound of Music.  The nuns had to send Maria off to the Von Trapp family.  What does that mean for Jonathan?