School out for the summer

Melinda is very excited about spending a day at school not doing any school work. I am not sure how I feel about another day of school without doing any studying. I don’t think it would bother me if it was just one day but the reality is that the whole last week is blown off. At any rate today was pirate day and Panayota put together a very fun outfit for her.

As for Alex he asked to stay home the last day as it was not going to be fun for him. His class is not going to be dong any studying to day ether but playing games. Most of the kids will be playing dodge ball an some how Alex did not get picked for any of the teams. Feeling a bit dejected he was not in the mood to go and watch the other kids he knew play while he was left out. I decided to let him off the hook and let him play hooky

.

Tags: Public education RANT by Randall
No Comments »

So back to complaining about school!!!!

 Alex comes home very excited about a new program that he and a couple of his friends had found online, at school, during class. It was nothing inappropriate but when I asked him, what I thought an obvious question, Did you get all of your school work completed before playing with this new program? The answer: No not all of it, well not much of it. So what was the teacher doing during this time? She was doing something on her computer. Does she come around to see what everyone is working on? No. I have said it before – I can’t believe that teaching has become a completely passive process. I am going to look into the latest online school and see what they have to offer. Why take the time to take them to school to be TAUGHT, when they are so frequently just given some assignment and then no one checks to see if in class they are actually doing anything.

Tags: Public education RANT by Randall
No Comments »

Day off of school.

Melinda took one more day off of school today with some cold type symptoms. Alex brought school work home, and though this is a great idea to help keep Melinda caught up we could not ascertain what exactly was to be done with the school work. So, She will have to make up her work next week when she can get some direction.

Flu

When calling the school attendance line, the voice mail system still wants to know about any kind of flu type symptoms. Do they use this as some kind of statistical numbers about kids missing school because of the flu? Seems some what un-scientific but what ever works for them.  NO she does not have the Flu.

She does not hate school but has been enjoying staying home and playing computer games. I insist that she does some studying on the computer as long as she’s there anyway.  It is amazing how much time the kids spend on the computer. We even have started watching some shows on the computer.

Tags: Melinda, Public education RANT by Randall
No Comments »

School Rules

More time spent at the school. Time that is precious – Pattie used annual leave and I stopped working at my small business to chat with teachers. Teachers that have adopted a high school Language Art teacher who was tired of students handing in papers with “obvious flaws”. In an attempt to appear as a “high standard” school they adopted the “grave yard list”. The school staff told us that we just interpreted the list wrong. No student had to sign the list. It is a standard for the high school and the 7th grade teachers are working with their students to help them. How is it that being condescending is acceptable as a method to teach? How is it that as a parent, co-workers and highly educated individuals that we misinterpret written word? The document consists of “10 graveyard” points that result in a zero on any assignment. We asked the school staff if they could abide by all rules in a document without any errors – the principal did agree that he could not but the school had high standards. The list allowed all of the CSAP scores in the past few years to excel. How about the fact that several of the points are subjective? Subjective points are legible writing, acceptable paper, acceptable corrections, correct punctuation of titles, mechanical errors. I really enjoy the statement “failure to follow any other direction given.” This is not really what they are doing we were told. Than why is it in writing that that is what you are doing? Randy told them if he could do all the tasks without making any mistakes why does he need to be in school? The English instructor did not like that attitude. Instead, they told us again that we were interpreting the “Graveyard List” wrong. Our biggest concern was the statement that our child was to agree to “I am aware that I will receive a zero on any assignment on which I violate any of these graveyard error. I will have to re-edit and revise my essay for a grade.“ We have friends that went to boot camp that didn’t have to worry about this. It is the 7th grade. Actually, we believe that the children need to be able to learn not to be in a dictatorship/student relationship. We did all of this during our precious time when we should have been at work. If anyone out there cares to comment please do – especially anyone who support the school.

The challenge for us has not  changed. We need to get Alex up to speed.     While at the rink (for Melinda’s birthday party) we were able to talk to one of the parents about school. She is not a teacher yet, but works at the school helping out and she has been helping Alex. Surprise of all surprises, she seems to be making progress with him. NOT A TEACHER YET!!! Is that the key! – at any rate it is back to work with Alex and hopefully we can keep Melinda going strong.

Tags: Public education RANT by Randall
2 Comments »

Thanks for not yelling

Evidently I yell when I find out he hasn’t been doing his school work. Though I do not want to get mad and/or yell, I get very frustrated when I find out he has not been doing his work. So last night after I asked him about his work and he said he did not have any school work and he went to bed, Pattie went on line and found out he was missing more work. She found on page of math in his back pack. Pattie had helped him last night on an extra credit assignment for science and I had him do some other math work but some how he forgot to mention that he was behind with his math. So this morning I got him up early enough to work on the one assignment Pattie had found. Though I wasn’t happy, I evidently did not yell, because after doing his work (before breakfast) he thanked me for not yelling. Do I yell that much? Evidently he thinks so!! The question still remains!!! Will he get his other work completed at school (as he says he will)? or will I still need to bite my tongue while trying not to yell tonight? Will he remember to actually do his work during recess, while his friends are telling him to come out and play? After all they might be aloud to go outside now that it has warmed up to almost freezing. This global warming is a killer. At any rate, first thing when he gets home this afternoon I will be asking him if he actually did his assignment during recess. I will try not to yell.

Tags: Public education RANT, parenting by Randall
No Comments »