When my son, Zachary, was in Kindergarten, he had a Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Year. His energy and strong spirit didn't exactly "fit" into the expected "box" and by the end of the year, I had accumulated a large stack of notes sent home to supplement the enormous amount of punishments he had received.

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I realized, deep in my gut, that Zach was on his way to becoming the student that all the teachers groaned about and nobody wanted in their class. I also realized that I was quickly on my way to becoming the mother I didn't want to be: punitive, yelling, and frustrated on a daily basis.