Education is SO important, but homework is discrimination!

[Rinky vs.4.0]

http://www.creators.com/lifestyle_show.cfm?columnsName=lme

Words fail me. At least Mr. Meeks delivered an appropriate smackdown.

It continually amazes me how some parents expect their kid to achieve educationally without putting in some effort or without either child or parent learning to discipline themselves and sacrifice leisure time or other interests in favour of study time.

[toriwannabe]

football, Little League, soccer, basketball and swimming That's a lot of sport! Surely at least one of those things could be sacrificed for some serious study.

[jeth]

^ No kidding!

I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so it was always a toss up on whether my new school was going to be challenging or boring. Sometimes I ended up in a class where I was way ahead of my peers and I got labeled as a know-it-all. Sometimes I ended up in a class where I had to do remedial work to try and catch up because my previous school hadn't gotten to that level of subject yet. At one school I used to stay after hours several hours a day doing my homework so I could get one on one help from my teachers to catch up with my class (since my previous school was about a year behind on the subject matter).

Not once did we complain that it was unfair - if you switch schools, you have to expect some changes. And yes, one of those changes could be that you're going to have to work twice as hard to play catch up to meet the standards of other students your age. So be it.

I'm sure if it had been the other way around she would be bitching that there wasn't enough challenge for her smart, smart baby and she would have been demanding gifted and talented programs be created for her child progeny because he was bored in school, having already tackled all that same subject matter at his previous school.

[Steve SFM]

Where do you find this shit, Helen? Is there some sort of Dumbass Parent Database or something? :D

It's true that some homework is indeed busy work, but a large amount is not per se a bad thing, if it gets the kid thinking. And, frankly, my biggest problem with that mom is that she seems to have dreams of her son becoming a fabulously wealthy sports star and buying her a mansion and shit. Do you know how tiny the percentage of high school and even college athletes is that actually gets to do that? Better that she encourage the kid to get an education.

Steve the Sweet Fat Man

[tully]

My favorite kind of parent! What a lovely reminder of what I have to look forward to in the coming months.

Obviously, this mother cannot be satisfied. She moved so her child would be challenged in a district that believes in high achievement, but she's upset because the teachers demand that her son works hard to be successful. Give me a fucking break. Plus, she's overloading his sports schedule -- true, those sports aren't all in the same season, but it's tremendously hard to balance all of those extracurriculars AND learn something. Priorities, lady. Jeez.

[hellopeople]

Wow, and I thought it was a joke.

This is a beautifully disgusting example of the anti-intellectual movement taking place in American high schools.

I was going to explain what I mean, but I became so pissed off that I was unable to even know where to start.

[Rizzabella]

What is most upsetting about something like this is the fact that parents don't want teachers giving out too much homework that might burden kids who are already involved in way, way too many extracurricular activities----and then later on down the line they're bitching about how awful the teachers are at schools and how unprepared their children are.

I get pretty irritated when people piss and moan about how horrible our teachers are. They get shit on regularly and are paid so horribly and are apparently supposed to go above and beyond just because of their sense of obligation towards children. Meanwhile, if they do a single goddamn thing that upsets a parent the whole system is screwed up.

This sort of thing is one of the reasons I decided against becoming a teacher. I like teaching kids but I'm sorry, I can't make a living just off of my sense of pride and I certainly don't have the energy to teach kids and put up with BS from parents who think their precious can't handle work or discipline.

football, Little League, soccer, basketball and swimming That's a lot of sport! Surely at least one of those things could be sacrificed for some serious study.
You'd be surprised at the number of activities children have after school. I'm all for having kids involved in a sport or club of some sort but my god, when it gets to a point where you're doing something for hours every day after school you need to rethink things. My mother used to run a children's theater class and had difficulty getting most kids to show up for more than a handful of rehearsals for anything because the were so often double-booked due to the number of events they participated in that they had to sort of pick and choose the activity they'd participate in day by day and omit one or two in the process. She even had a student who came to an afternoon play in a soccer uniform, performed, then changed into a softball uniform to go play a game. The poor kid must have been exhausted and they still had school to look forward to the next day.

[iciclespark]

My little brother is in Tae Kwon Do and takes piano lessons. My father would never allow Dillon to use his extra-curriculars as an excuse for his grades dropping below their norm. When Dillon takes such things on, it is with the understanding that he is sure he has time for everything.

Now, Dillon used to come home with 2 hrs/night in grade 5. Not normal to me. BUT watching him do the homework, it became very clear that the trouble wasn't the teachers - it was Dillon. He gets bored easily with repetition (like I used to when i found work easy), but instead of being like me and whizzing faster to "get it over with", he fidgets and doodles.

This mother is full of shit and far too interested in sports. Maybe she should enroll him in remedial for study skills instead of a new team?

[Rizzabella]

He gets bored easily with repetition (like I used to when i found work easy), but instead of being like me and whizzing faster to "get it over with", he fidgets and doodles.
I've encountered people like that and I could be that way too. But I know my mother certainly never cared how much time I spent doing homework; after all, she's the one who wanted me doing more so she went out and bought tons of workbooks each summer up through middle school so I'd be doing homework every day.

[iciclespark]

Our solution with Dillon was to encourage him to work faster so he could go do something more fun. We never let him slack off. EVER.

[Master Shaman]

I'd have stabbed my parents if they had made me do extracurricular shit. They knew better.

[Mysterygrrl]

I'd have stabbed my parents if they had made me do extracurricular shit. They knew better.

You so don't sound like a medical student as I know them ..

[Master Shaman]

Well, I have finished medical school already.

[Rizzabella]

Well, I have finished medical school already.
And now you're a hollow hollow person because you weren't in football, soccer, tennis, golf, ice hockey, and model UN.

[iciclespark]

I think it should always be optional, in moderation.

The only thing my parents tried to push me into was Brownies/Girl Guides. I was interested at first, but bailed the day of the first meeting. I was an incredibly shy child, and the thought of having to talk to many many girls at once was terrifying. After that, they just sat back and let me call the shots.

I'm shocked I went to day camp when I was 10. I was camper of the day twice. *gloats, preens*

High school was my domain for extracurriculars... sure, I did soccer and field hockey in grade 7 (and sprained my ankle horribly, and still played in the finals!), but high school... A/V, school paper, mentoring, community service, in-school tutoring programs, yearbook staff...

[Steve SFM]

And now you're a hollow hollow person because you weren't in football, soccer, tennis, golf, ice hockey, and model UN.

He was, however, involved in sucking cock.

That, in and of itself, makes him a well-rounded person.

Steve the Sweet Fat Man

[Rizzabella]

He was, however, involved in sucking cock.

That, in and of itself, makes him a well-rounded person.

Steve the Sweet Fat Man
If that's all it takes to become well-rounded then I think I know what I'm doing with my weekends from here on out.

[RedHead]

I am shocked at the attitude of this mother. What makes her think her son is being assigned more work, just because it takes him longer to do it? Maybe he's just dumb because he's spending all his time doing sports as opposed to studying.

And the idea that she thinks he should concentrate on sports as a way into a college scholarship is disgusting! Why not concentrate on ACADEMICS and actually get a merit based scholarship??? Stupid people really piss me off!