One of the afterschool teachers told me she thought Chloe should meet with the school counselor, Ms. Leventhal, about her playground anxiety. Gee, why hadn’t we thought of that? Melissa wrote a note with the details: second-grade boy, hiding behind the play shed, fearfully scanning the playground, stays to the side alone while watching the school basketball games. She related how, when she picked up Chloe at 3:00 one day last week and suggested going to the playground, Chloe hunched her shoulders and said insistently that she didn’t want to go. She noted that the behavior is unusual for our social, happy-in-school girl. She related how when we ask Chloe whey she is hiding and won’t play with friends, that she gets upset, says she doesn’t want to talk, or says, “I don’t know.”We scheduled an appointment, and the next day, unbenknownst to us, Ms. Leventhal summoned Chloe to her office. I learned about it over dinner when, after she had recited much of the day’s activities, Chloe asked slyly. “Dad, don’t you want to know what else happened today?”
“Sure! What else happened today?”
“I went to see Miss Leventhal.”
Chloe said it as if she was revealing a secret. Then she eagerly related the highlights, to her, of the conversation. She was going to be Ms. Leventhal’s special helper! Ms. Leventhal had a project for her! She was going to clean up her office! T.J. was going to help, too!The next morning, I left for San Francisco (Isaac Maycock bar mitzvah) and Melissa met with Ms. Leventhal. She had asked Chloe about her favorite thing to do in school (drawing) and in afterschool (drawing), and other questions to gauge her general comfort in school. Meeting with T.J. was designed to demystify him in Chloe’s mind. She could see him as just another kid, not someone worthy of fear, stress, or anxiety, for whatever likely-impossible-to-determine reasons.
Later that day, they met, they tidied. Chloe reported the events excitedly and matter-of-factly. One more day's adventure.
