The struggles of being a 4th grade boy

Jacob is such an amazing kid. He has such a big heart and wants to befriend every one. Well, apparently he has a couple of friends that get picked on by the other kids in his class and he sticks up for them, which now makes him an easy target for bullying. He has been asking me now for months if I can home school him in 5th grade. I keep telling him that we will talk about it, but then I kind of let it go because to me this is a strange request… well finally on Friday I asked him what his thought process was on home schooling and what he anticipated would happen. He proceeded to tell me that he would do his work on the computer and read books and still get to do his activities. This was a pretty good outlay I think. Then I asked him why he wanted to home school and at first he just said that he thought it would be cool… I then asked if everything was okay at school because I ask him every day how his day was, if anything interesting happened, and he proceeds with “day was good” there are a couple of times that he has gone into detail about different things, but this all seemed normal to me. I finally said “is there anything making you uncomfortable at school? We can have “talking circle” we haven’t done that in a long time. Talking circle is something I started with him when he was 3 I believe that I would set a side 5 minutes or whatever amount of time for him to discuss with me things he did or thought with out getting in trouble… A sort of safe zone. He was all about us doing the talking circle and when we did he proceeded to tell me that kids are making fun of him. Telling him things like “he’s dumb” “who’s the stupidest boy at the table? Jacob” “don’t sit by J because he’s a gay lover” things like that, which are absolutely disgusting, and really an example of bad parenting! My heart absolutely broke for him. I asked if he had told the teacher and he hadn’t because he didn’t want the kids to ridicule him over that. He said that he just ignores the mean kids and goes about his day, but that his heart really hurts and he wants it to stoop, but is unsure of how to do that. He requested that I don’t have a meeting and do anything crazy because that would just make it worse. So, I sent his teacher and e mail and brought it to her attention that maybe she can start looking out for this type of behavior and maybe put an end to it, also, maybe she could address the whole class about how bullying is wrong and should stop. I am pleased with her response and I am in hopes that this can get resolved. I just want parents to reiterate to our children that being different isn’t bad and that we shouldn’t put others down just because they are different! It’s hurtful and doesn’t need to happen. Jacob did say that yesterday was better and I am sure his days will get better. He is too awesome for them not! We told him that we are so proud of him and that he is AMAZING because he is. Football season is right around the corner and maybe he will be playing against some of these kids and well that’s when he can get his revenge on the field! 🙂