So, Sam had to make 5 (five) 'All about Me' posters at the start of the school year. One for each class except p.e. <sigh> <heavy, heavy sigh> He kept this away from me because he knows, quite clearly, how I feel about scrap booking projects.
Anyway, he came up to me the other day after school because something odd had occurred in his geometry class. After everyone had presented their posters, the teacher approached him and asked which algebra teacher he had last year and what grade he received...
<interrupting> "she can find that out herself, why's she asking you?"
Sam, "I don't know." Then he continued his story, he told her the name of his previous teacher and that he didn't remember what his grade was exactly.
<interrupting again> The fact that he couldn't recall his grade did not bother me in the least. There are far too many people in this town who can tell you the exact grade their child received in every class they've ever taken, and can further more explain exactly why the child did not receive an A+ and it's always the teacher's fault. These people and their children are in for a hell of a shock when, after graduation, they realize that no one gives a shit what their gpa is. The world is run by C students. In fact it is currently being run by a failing student whose father bought him a diploma and whose vocabulary is worse then KoKo the gorilla's but I digress.....
Sam, "Then she said, some of the projects are going to be good and some will be not so good."
Me, "What does that mean?"
Sam, "I don't know, but it didn't make me feel very good."
Me, "Well, what were the other posters like?" <I was not about to call a poster, a "project">
Sam, "Some were covered in picture, others only had a few. Mine had a few but I typed up details about each picture."
Me, "Okay"
Sam, "They're all hanging around the classroom. She moved some of the good ones around to balance out the other not-so-good classes."
Oh, my sweet jesus. This is fucking high school. I can't believe I'm having this conversation. So the teacher is concerned with the optics of her pasting-activity and how it reflects on her teaching abilities? Is this what's going on here? Did I mention this is high school. And a MATH class.
Me, "Okay. Did anything else happen?"
Sam, "Well, a lot of kids talked about school; 'advanced at this' or 'highest score at that', blah, blah, blah but that's boring. Who wants to hear about that? I got laughs! Even the teacher laughed."
<third interruption> Now, I'm the wrong parent to tell that to; maybe John should have been fielding this. In my opinion if you get laughs, then you win. John would probably have asked about the actual content. to-ma-to, to-mah-to
Me, "Well, maybe she thinks you're 'special'."
Sam, "That's not helping, Mom."
So we looked up his algebra grade from last year. It was a B. Well, it was way too early in the school year to start wading into the "a B is a good grade' waters. It's bad for my blood pressure.
<Deep Breath>
Me, "Why don't you send her an email and let her know what your grade was and then say something like 'let me know if you need anything else'. Then you've left the door open and she can say what she was getting at before. If she wants to."
So he did and we haven't heard anything back so problem solved. Right? Right. We can, now, move past the pasting issues and on to bigger things.....like penmanship or the fact that none of them can type. What are they going to fall back on if they can't type? Now that's an important question.....
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