Forever A Fangirl

Being a grown-up is everything they said it would be

I’m quite conflicted in thought about my high school freshman son’s choice to take a condensed version of a “required” class over the summer.

It’s actually two classes, "Health" and "Consumer Education.". Suggested by his adviser,  theoretically, taking classes over the summer would put a kid ahead but that’s not what’s really happening here. Chris now has “made room” for another, most likely, AP class for sophomore year

For fall he has scheduled a class during his normal lunch time though he’ll be allowed to grab a tray from the cafeteria and take it with him to his tailored-for-Gifted-Program-kids class, “Critical Thinking.” Lunch on the run/at your desk—isn’t that how much of the working world does it every day?

This just makes my head hurt and my heart force me to consider if this is how a teenager should live his life. Put in 6 weeks of summer school when you don’t have to?

Part of me—the part that wants him to aim really high and make it? I think its great do this stuff ‘cause doing so might help get a partial scholarship to college (I know, magical thinking).

The other part of my brain is twitching about, worrying that he’s already taking AP classes, shouldn’t he let his brain get the down time of a full summer break?

Plus this really fraks with our summer vacation plans (which come a distant last to his schooling).

Ack! I wanna be selfish!

 

 

 

 

 

So who gave her the idea she can't do math?

I substitute taught the past two days--one day with learning and emotionally disabled 7/8 th graders. They were a group of only eight and were just terrific kids. Very broad range of difficulties from mild retardation to pretty severe emotional issues. One boy seemed totally fine--smart, helpful, well-mannered. If I were his parents I'd be wondering when he was going to be in the mainstream classes...and then there was my first grade class today. Thirty-one 6 year olds. Our school district is getting terribly overcrowded (the teachers are poised to go on strike any day now) and there is just no way that quality education can be maintained with that many young children in one class with one teacher. During the Math lesson I was trying to teach them the different ways to add numbers to equal "7" and then "8." Several of them just couldn't get it and they should have been pulled out and given one-on-one help but you can't do that. The kicker was when a little girl, after repeatedly expressing the opinion that she could not do the work finally blurted, "I'm Mexican. I can't do math." OMG. Where on earth did that come from? It took me several seconds to muster an answer but when I did it was to the effect that it didn't matter if a child is Caucasian, Mexican (which I realize "officially" is still considered a type of Caucasian), or Korean. All children can learn Math. She didn't have any accent whatsoever and I've taught the bilingual first grade at that school and if she truly had language issues she'd be in it. But she expressed herself very clearly. So who gave her the idea she can't do math?
Anyhoo, I got so involved in the topic that I didn't notice we were out of time and the end-of-day bell rang and mass panic ensued. Little bodies were heaped upon each other as they jostled for coats and backpacks and such. I kept saying Everyone, calm down, it's okay, but I may as well have been barking at the moon. At least no one missed their bus and only one lunch box was forgotten.

Plum Grove Junior High School

Ten minutes ago I got a phone call from the Assistant Principal at my youngest son's school (I swear, this guy is so young that his voice hasn't changed yet.)

Apparently at lunch, "some kid" chucked some food at my son. No biggie. This happens throughout the cafeteria whenever the little twits can get away with it. So my "little" boy hurls some food back at "the kid." They get caught by the police officer who patrols the school halls, and he removes them to a separate table. (Why, to the same table,  I'll never know.) I guess the two little food tossers then started giggling and it pissed off Officer Friendly enough that he hauled them down to the pokey (the principal). Upshot is that my son was given two detentions and a severe tongue-lashing. And I just got "the call" from the AP.
He told me twice that my son is not a "bad kid" (a parent wouldn't know that?) and that he hasn't ever been referred to him before (knew that too, seeing as though they call the mother each and every time there's anything amiss (sickness, missed homework, this kind of stuff).

Junior High school is all about keeping order amid chaos and raging hormones.

Twelve and thirteen year-old boys are going to throw food and giggle. For fucks sake, I wish school wasn't so regimented. I'm not saying they should allow food-throwing, but their tactics to address "the situation" have not worked. (I know this since I put my first son through there a decade ago, I substitute-taught at that Junior High for three years, and I volunteer at the school when I can--fully observing the same old methods of "handling" kids.)

Tossing food in the cafeteria when authority figures aren't present is what immature, fidgety kids do. And there are no mature junior high school boys. Not a one of them.

The entire roomful of kids are already made to pick up everything off the floors/tables and wipe down their own tables before they can leave.
I'm not trying to minimize this but honestly, there's got to be some more important way for both Officer Friendly and the AP to spend their time besides fussing over food.

Oh, the AP's solution for my son, the "disrespectful" giggler?
Next time (that would be Monday) someone throws food, go and get an adult to diffuse the situation.
Is he fecking serious?
Does he remember nothing of the culture of teenagers?
He would be harassed way beyond getting food chucked at him if he "told on" the original perpetrator.

My suggestion would be to allow the children (almost all boys--the girls are content to sit at their tables not eating, sipping Diet Coke, and chatting) to walk directly across the hall to the gym and shoot some hoops.
This solution will never be implemented though, because it would mean a change in the way things are done and rarely does anything change in the public school system's "way of doing things." It smacks too much of common-sense that they'd offer the kids who had a 40-minutes recess last year, some time this year to get off their derrieres and move around a bit after they've finished eating and cleaned up.
Public school's priorities are NOT about what's practical, sensible, or good for the kids. It's about keeping order and keeping the guards and teachers happy.