School Conferences

Do you ever wonder why you feel so nervous about the dreaded school conference? My 6th grader Matthew has a conference tomorrow at 11:00. We have already had a short discussion on what he needs to wear, or rather, what he should not wear. His teacher has instructed the students to "avoid looking too weekend casual." This is code for "Don't wear shorts and t-shirts". He attends a private school and they have a dress code. Basically he has a choice of khaki pants or khaki pants. If he gets tired of that, he can always go with khaki pants. So tomorrow, the one thing he refuses to wear is khaki pants. He has decided on jeans and a t-shirt, but he will come down at the last minute tomorrow in his gym shorts and t-shirt and pretend like he has forgotten our conversation. When I remind him of his teacher's words, he will stomp very slowly back up the stairs and mumble something about "dumb old pants."
Somehow it seems that the focus shouldn't be on what he wears anyway. I may let him go with the gym shorts