She did not even notice my hair cut

School had a fund raiser – of sorts – last week. One of the restaurants nearby gives the school a percentage of the proceeds during a particular night. So all the parents took the kids out for a night (including us), while their we ran into the family that we car pool with. As parents we find a certain amount of pleasure in teasing Melinda and one of the boys about how they argue like an old married couple. They of course adamantly deny it.  But about this time Alex commented about the other boys new hair cut.  He thanked Alex for noticing and added that Melinda did not notice. NO!! that’s not acting like an old married couple at all.

Earrings?

So this past weekend Melinda wanted to try having her ears pierced again. Last year it just did not work, as they became infected and she had to let the holes close up. Now it is one year later and she is trying it again. Having never had my ears pierced I am not sure why it is so important, but it is! If you look close you can see how pretty her little earrings are.

She went to school with her new earrings in, and at the end of the day she asked her friend (the boy that is not her boy friend) if he noticed her new earrings. His comment: yes I noticed but I was pretending not to notice because you (Melinda) did not notice my hair cut!

I thought the girls were suppose to be sensitive about this sort of thing. And are you sure your not an old married couple? At any rate Melinda is very happy to have earrings again and said she is sorry she didn’t notice his very important hair cut.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Melinda, other kids, parenting by Randall
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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
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