My son begs me every night not to go to school. In the mornings he cries about it and drags his feet out the door. When he gets home from school he is SO grumpy I cannot even have a conversation with him. He’s in 3rd grade. He has hated it since Day 1 in kindergarten. He tells me yes, he has friends and yes, he likes his teacher, but he hates being “made” to sit in his chair and all he wants to do is play. He does not want to do their “dumb work”. He is such a bright, intelligent child. His teacher says he’s so smart, he just doesn’t care about what she’s talking about. All summer he investigated his own interests and read books and studied stuff about building bridges. He loves to learn. Just not school. He says it feels “like a prison” and he just wants to be at home with me and his dad and brother. It’s breaking my heart.

I’m an English teacher myself (college level) so I hate to see my baby detest school so much. What can I do? If anything?