High School Orientation: Say What??

I took my daughter to high school orientation Thursday night. Multiple teachers and principals gave about an hour overview of class options, extracurricular activities, etc. Normal stuff. Things you'd expect to hear as a parent ... for the most part.

But I was also intrigued by some of the nuggets some of them offered. My daughter thought I was scribbling furiously because of new information relevant to the next four years of her education. Instead, I was attempting shorthand to help remember many that's what she said quips.

The sad reality? My kid's school has been rated as one of the top schools in the state. If its blue-ribbon quality, I weep for the kids, parents and teachers everywhere else.

PTO person: We have a new program for the class of 2016. Basically, its designed so we can give them love and gifts over their four years. We plan to raise money to give them praise and things and a big gift their senior year.

• TMC: Thanks. Just what we need. More expectations of entitlements for the next generation.

Teacher: Students are required to earn 2 foreign language credits. We'll be offering French and Spanish as our foreign language classes next year. And of course, our classes are honors and AP level.

• TMC: So even the burnouts from the smoke pit can get at least one AP credit? Cool!

Teacher: If your student takes 3 years of JROTC, it'll cover the PE credits plus the half-credit for personal finance.

• TMC: It still blows my mind that our schools provide a personal finance course. But with runaway consumer debt, folks who believe their mortgage balance and fluctuations in home values are directly related, and using bankruptcy as a cash management technique, I guess its clear many parents have no clue as to how to teach financial responsibility at home. Having said that, how in the world does participation in JROTC equate to learning personal finance concepts.

And now a few free-standing quips - presented without comment.

Algebra teacher: (Regarding the need for a graphing calculator) Math isn't as easy as it used to be.

Clueless teacher: Hi, I'm Ms. , and I'm the teacher of [pause, look back at the PowerPoint screen, turn back] Marketing and Communications.

Confused teacher: I don't feel like I'm getting any older..even though I guess I am.

Fine arts teacher: No sound bites here. But for her info slide in PowerPoint, she chose to use a maroon-colored font on a blue background.

Fashion/apparel track teacher: I don't see a single nekkid person in this room. So I know the fashion industry isn't going away.

Technology challenged teacher: We'll put this informational PowerPoint file on the school's website in a few days after we reduce the file size and strip some information out of it.

TMC

Remind me again the role of teachers?

My son's high school English teacher returned the students' composition books today. They were turned in for homework grading last Friday before the recent 4-day fall break. My son didn't get his returned, and he asked about it. The teacher's response? I must have misplaced it. Just buy another one. FAIL!

My daughter's middle school math teacher gave the class a quiz last week. She realized after grading a few of them over the weekend that the graded students fared poorly. So she didn't bother to grade the remaining ones (including my daughter's). She returned the few graded quizzes today, and she told the students they had an opportunity for a "make up" grade by re-working the missed problems. A student asked how she was affected because she was one of the students who did not get a graded quiz returned. She was told those students had to rework all the quiz problems (which includes my daughter). FAIL!

Part of her math homework tonight was the following problem.

A kid is 4 feet tall. He has grown 1-1/8 inches in the past year, and he grew 3/4" in the year before. How tall was the kid one year ago?

Admittedly, working with fractions is often a challenge for students of all ages. As my daughter wrestled with how to solve the problem, I finally asked her to step back and think about it by the seat-of-her-pants. The kid is 4' tall today and only grew a bit over an inch since last year. So you should know the general range of the answer - just work out the fractional part.

She was concerned about working with TWO fractions - the 1-1/8" growth and the 3/4" growth. I smiled and asked her if she read the problem carefully - maybe she was reading too much into it. The problem asked how old the kid was one year ago - not two. Her response? "That's what I thought, but my teacher said it didn't make any sense and I should subtract the other fraction too." FAIL!

Rather than focus on the idiocy of No Child Left Behind, perhaps we should invest in No Teacher Left Behind.

TMC

Back to school this week

Well, its back to school for the young'uns this week. Not sure where the summer went. Wait..oh, I'm sorry...the summer IS STILL HERE. Yet, off they'll go to the bus stop for day 1 on Thursday and then come home grousing about having to do homework on a nice summer afternoon.

The return to school got me to thinking about a song from one of the true originals of rock and roll - Chuck Berry. I haven't listened to this song in years.



For my son, this is really a watershed year - ninth grade - the beginning of high school. He's ready. Me? Umm, the jury is still out. Lots of big stuff expected the next 4 years - driving, college choices, dating, and a smorgasbord buffet of temptations. I'll be watching, listening, and a'prayin for him, that's for sure.

I wonder if the pep rallies in year 1 for him will turn out anything like this. Hit it Joey, DeeDee, and the boys!



TMC