I'm Not Kidding

I spoke with my son's principal today about how the first week has gone. She agreed that if he has all "A"s at the end of six weeks, she'll consider allowing him to promote to fourth grade. She did, however, stress that if he goes to fourth he'll have to take the fourth grade standardized test, and if he doesn't do well, she'll be asked why she allowed him to promote. And of course, he’ll be at a disadvantage then because he will have missed the first six weeks of fourth grade.

Really. We have an administrator who's willing to take a chance on a kid after six weeks, but who'd really rather allow him to sit mostly idle for an entire year because she's worried about that end of year test score and what it means to her financially.

This system is NOT one for the kids. It's leave every single kid as behind as possible, lower the standards as much as we can without straight forward public humiliation, so that we can pass that test.

Crime in Italy! Crime in the classroom.

And speaking of that, I also spoke to his teacher this morning about perhaps giving him more, and more challenging, homework. As I did this, I cringed inwardly at my mental flashbacks of Taiwanese parents coming to me to ask for more homework for their children. But this is different. Right?

I felt awful. My kid looked at me like I was kicking his puppy. But I want him to LEARN something this year. I want him to keep the good study habits he learned in Taiwan. He doesn't need four hours of homework, but a bit more than four problems covering material he's already learned would be nice. I don't like the attitude he's developing that school is so easy that he doesn't need to try.

Anyway, her reply was that they just had a conference with some math specialists who are trying to convince them to give NO homework for math because it stresses the children too much.

I'm not kidding.

And this is a campus where, last year, seventeen teachers were laid off due to government spending cuts. I realize that this has to be just the most stressful job. I'm secretly kind of glad that I'm not employed as a teacher here. But come on. I care. I really care. Not a lot of parents here care. Couldn't they be glad that I care and willing to work with me?

The principal even said that they usually have very few "A" students in fourth grade here and that from this she understands that they are challenging the kids. Well, from this, I might guess that this is a tiny little red-neck, slap-a-tick, town where most moms and dads work in factories or farming and don't spend time with their kids being concerned for their education. I'd even bet a good percentage of the moms and dads here don't read on as high a level as my son. Maybe fourth grade is a challenge to most of these kids, but there's a reason for that.

I'm not kidding.