<p>Yeah, but do you think they’re already married?</p>
<p>It’s interesting that the family seems, in the trailers, to be so shocked with Zeke isn’t going to Italy with Camille. I went to Italy without my dh!</p>
<p>Will Julia really have an affair with that guy? They acted so guilty over just having dinner with their kids my guess is yes.</p>
<p>Something I’ve been wondering is whether Cristina’s campaign manager will leak the affair between Bob Little and Amber.</p>
<p>I just watched the episode–I loved how Sarah made up with Amber, by saying she (Amber)was much smarter than Sarah and that Ryan was nothing like the dad. I don’t think Sarah believes that at all about Amber being smarter, but she at least has the wisdom (after FINALLY listening to her own mother) to recognize that she has to be fully supportive of what her daughter is going to do anyway and hope against hope that it works out. This is the hardest lesson to learn with our 20-something children–we mostly can’t control them, and we try to do so at our peril and at the risk of greatly damaging our relationship with them.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the episode. And, I am not going to take the bait cast out during the next week’s preview! Sarah did make a turnaround and Christina didn’t get overwhelmed and bolt from the debate. I was such a sucker last week!</p>
<p>Crosby still makes me laugh. I like how they didn’t have him drink and drive. I did not see that weaving into the van ride…funny.</p>
<p>Julia appears to be having some extra marital type thoughts…</p>
<p>I agree with what’s said about Amber - that 20-something age group cannot be controlled. Heck, my 20-something can hardly be influenced.</p>
<p>Just watched last week’s episode. Would any school or parent really move a fifth grader back to fourth grade in the middle of the school year? That scene was heart breaking.</p>
<p>Yeah, the Victor actor did a great job.</p>
<p>Eventually, I think Kristina is going to go negative on Bob Little.</p>
<p>Or will Amber tell in spite of Kristina? That would end the engagement.</p>
<p>Amber’s fiance is looking pretty fragile right now.</p>
<p>Stemfam, that story line makes me really angry, especially given the parallel plot line of Kristina running on a platform of improving special ed services in Berkeley schools, along with the idea that Julia is supposed to be a lawyer. Obviously the kid is entitled to FAPE and an IEP-- and what is heartbreaking to me is a storyline that that suggests what is upsetting to you (that a kid would be moved back a grade midyear) – and what is upsetting to me: that a public school would take any action with a 5th grader with a clear learning disability other than initiating a special ed referral. The ONLY topic that should have been discussed at the purported conference with the school teacher and principal was making arrangements for testing.</p>
<p>Does anyone think Kristina will win the election? That would change their whole life </p>
<p>And where is baby Nora all of a sudden? No mention of a nanny, she is conveniently off set for all the meetings etc and Kristina never worries about her.</p>
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<p>Does he have a learning disability? My understanding was always that he was behind in school because of a fractured educational background and has had to play catch up in his schooling. He didn’t improve very much in his reading because he never seemed to want to do it (because he wasn’t good at it–it was a vicious cycle). That didn’t make me think he had a learning disability–just that he was behind and wasn’t able to catch up, which doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.</p>
<p>I know this is all fiction just to create drama, but the story line doesn’t seem extremely absurd to me, as someone from a family that never had to deal with these sorts of issues in school. Julia doesn’t seem very informed or knowledgeable in how to advocate for her son, and just because she’s a lawyer doesn’t mean she’d be extremely informed in what FAPE or IEP even are. And she may be doing what many people would do in this situation–listening to what the teacher is telling them to do (just like many would blindly do what their doctor or lawyer or mechanic tells them what to do). Sydney never seemed to have trouble in school, and they would have no real reason to know about how to deal with Victor’s trouble. Or it may also be a hesitancy to really address the problem and figure out how to get him the services he needs. They may consider holding him back the only option because that was the only one given to them by his teacher.</p>
<p>The way I saw the episode, the school was moving him back to 4th grade mid-year. That would never happen in real life. IRL, Victor would be given the rest of the year (not even half over) to catch up. Tutors, extra help from the school, etc. if a repeat of a grade level is needed to catch up, that happens the next year.</p>
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If you have a 5th grader whose can’t read, then it is incumbent on the school to test him and find out. (And one would expect a highly driven, perfectionistic, lawyer-mom to know that and be raising hell with the school if needed). </p>
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But Kristina would – it’s central to her platform in her mayor’s race. And the Julia character has never been portrayed as stupid (before) – presumably, even she has totally forgotten how to do legal research because of her brief stint as a SAHM, she should still know how to use the internet.</p>
<p>I agree with calmom. For a child with a troubled family background, academic underachievement can be for a variety of reasons, including possible LD. The school district can’t make an assumption that a child with a family history like Victor has must be underachieving because of emotional issues. At his age, he should be evaluated through the school district.</p>
<p>The school can’t assume that he doesn’t have a learning disability, but I can understand how a school might not automatically jump to that conclusion. It’s not that Victor can’t read. It’s that he’s a slow reader, and my understanding was that he needs more practice (although I assume there are probably other problems if he’s being held back a year). He seemed to read fine when he’s with Zeke, but he was just a slower reader. Though that may just be how the show was portraying the issue.</p>
<p>And I assumed that Julia didn’t tell her family about Victor’s problems (including Kristina)–maybe because of denial, maybe because they felt they could handle it themselves, maybe because they don’t want to embarrass Victor. Kristina wouldn’t necessarily be involved in this situation at all. But I watch the show while doing other things–so I may have just missed where Julia told Kristina about Victor’s trouble.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think that not knowing how to advocate for her son makes Julia stupid. Should she be trying to figure out other things to do for her son? Sure, but I would be offended if you called me stupid because I wasn’t informed about how to best help her son. I don’t think it’s completely unbelievable that she’s just listening to what the school is telling her and assuming that that’s the best option for her son, all while struggling against Joel, who seems to want to do nothing at all. Some people can be great advocates for their clients, but not know how to advocate for themselves or their own family. As someone who has never had to fight the school system for accommodations for her children before, I don’t find it at all unbelievable that she would be overwhelmed and wouldn’t know what to do. School was never her responsibility before, and I was always under the impression that she was a little overwhelmed with the whole situation–so much so that she’s not thinking as logically as if this were someone else’s kids. Even when she thought that Sydney had Asperger’s, she didn’t hit the internet and try to figure it out–she asked Kristina what to do because of Max.</p>
<p>Do I think she should have pulled herself together by now and figured something else out? Well, yeah, but I’ve known a handful of families that had no idea what to do with kids who struggled in school for years, after the parents and their older children excelled in school.</p>
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<p>Agreed that that was done for dramatic effect.</p>
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Which is exactly how a child (or teenager or adult) with a learning disability reads. </p>
<p>The portrayal of Victor’s reading is a classic profile of dyslexia, probably much truer to reality than the somewhat inconsistent portrayal of Max’s Asperger’s. (Which I won’t get into, but there have been plenty of scenes in various episodes that just didn’t quite ring true for an Aspie). </p>
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It’s inconsistent with her being a lawyer. That is, I am saying that a marginally intelligent lawyer would do the very superficial research needed to figure out how to at least ask the right questions at the conference she apparently blew off (the show depicted her talking to a teacher on school grounds, but never actually showed her and Joel attending the conference with the principal.) It’s just really basic stuff.</p>
<p>And my point is that it’s not consistent with the character to be clueless. I mean, if it was an issue with Sarah – sure, she is a clueless airhead. If Jabbar had the reading problem, I wouldn’t expect either Crosby or Jasmine to be particularly adept at knowing how to deal with the school. </p>
<p>But I would expect the lawyer-character to know that stuff, and would expect the screenwriters for the show to have done some basic research when developing the Kristina-mayor-platform plotline, as well as developing the kid-can’t-read plotline.</p>
<p>^I thought it was weird that they never showed the conference with the teacher, but I assumed they’d discuss it in the next episode.</p>
<p>Perhaps, they’re setting up Victor to have dyslexia, but the kids I know who had dyslexia (granted, I only know a handful who I tutored) had very little resemblance to Victor (granted, we only heard him read once or twice).</p>
<p>And I still maintain that people who are very good at their jobs are often not very good at their jobs when it comes to their families, but that’s just from personal experience. Granted, I haven’t seen it with lawyers, but I do know a family where both parents are teachers and had no clue how to deal with their kid’s learning problems. They were great teachers, very intelligent, well-educated, but they just seemed to flounder when it came to their kid (not to say that it was always like this, but it did take them a couple of years to get their act together). It happens, and it’s not as basic as it may seem to the CC crowd (who from my experience are often very aware of how to navigate the education system and are very good advocates for their kids). I would expect an educated lawyer like Julia to at least learn how to advocate for her child (and I always assumed this would come later on, but they seem to be focusing on the relationship between Julia and Joel instead), but I don’t find it impossible to believe that she sees the teacher’s proposal as her only choice–at least, initially. Not everyone knows the options for their kids and that doesn’t necessarily make them stupid or bad parents. What seems obvious to an outside viewer might not seem as obvious to someone in the situation.</p>
<p>My point is that a lawyer would recognize a situation that calls for advocacy, even if she didn’t know the ins and outs herself. She might not have the answers, but it would be intuitive for her to ask the right questions. It’s not just that she’s a lawyer, she’s also portrayed as being something of a control freak, pretty intent on getting her way. It just isn’t consistent and it does’t make a lot of sense on a number of fronts.</p>
<p>calmom, I agree with you. I would think a lawyer would have to be a real information hound. Someone that will spend some time figuring out different scenarios and not just going with the flow. And Joel, you can tell that he knows in his gut this is wrong, but instead of insisting that they investigate the issue further, he rolls over!</p>
<p>I mostly agree with calmom. Julia’s character has been portrayed as highly competent. She’s going to research the best pillows for her couch; it doesn’t make sense that she wouldn’t have researched Victor’s options, that she wouldn’t have pushed for more information (testing), etc.</p>
<p>That said, it’s a TV show and this uncharacteristic “helplessness,” I think, is being used to illustrate how she’s not herself since losing her job. She’s yelling at the kids, flirting with her sustainable buddy, not able to “fix” Victor. As well, of course, as her identification with Camille over not being heard in her marriage.</p>
<p>The preview for the next episode made me yell noooooooo at the tv. More than one storyline going down a destructive path.</p>