My kid occasionally acts up. He's 12. That happens.
Thing is, at home, he's remarkably well-behaved. When he acts up, it's with his teachers and school officials.
Over the years, I've gotten maybe 5-6 phone calls from frustrated teacher and school officials.
Each time I absolutely sided with my kid. Sometimes I keep quiet about it, sometimes not.
Whenever it happens, it's usually something we laugh about. One of the best was when the teacher made the kids sit in groups. Kids who finished the assignment first were supposed to help those who struggled. (This was Massachusetts, mind, where teachers are forbidden from 'tracking' or separating kids by ability, so they are expected to learn at the pace of the dumbest kid in the class.) My kid likes to rush through his work, but after a while he stopped helping the other kids, because he doesn't like teaching. So we got a phone call about how uncooperative he was being.
Me: "Is he being rude or disrespectful?"
Teacher: "No, defiant and willful."
Me: "Meaning he doesn't want to do your job, and teach children?"
Teacher: "..."
Actually she had a lot to say, mostly about how wrong I was. Once I established my kid had shown proper respect but refused to comply because he was sick to death of doing her fucking job, I was nice but direct:
"I'm not going to punish him for refusing to teach. That's not why he's in your class. I can assure you that we're going to support him in his decision to not do your job."
In the end it was an agree to disagree situation, and it all worked out. But I was damn proud of my kid.
There have been a few calls of that nature over the years. In FL schools, kids can be separated by ability, so my kid mostly studies with the kids 2 grades ahead of him, and the only phone calls come from a frustrated functionary who notes that my kid won't wear a uniform jacket to school.
Last week, I pretty much dared the guy to send my kid home for not wearing school clothes when he's not at school. "He takes the jacket off when he walks through the doors, yes?"
"Yes, but that's not the point."
"Doesn't matter. He's in uniform the second he's through your doors. He doesn't wear the jacket because he says the jacket is ugly as shit. I'm not buying one this year."
I never imagined I'd be one of THOSE parents. But honestly, my kid's making rock solid decisions, and I'm proud as hell of him for choosing where to stand his ground. I wasn't anywhere near so ready to stand up for myself at his age.
Fucking amateurs
38 minutes ago
7 comments:
I get similar calls about my 12 year old daughter.
Exile1981
Just the other day I got a call because of how she answered a question in health class.
They asked "name two ways you can help people feel less afraid"
Evidently her answets of -self defense class and buy a gun where not what the teacher was looking for.
Exile1981
Ha! I can see where that might have messed with the teacher, Exile.
My kid has pretty much adopted my Springfield XD9 as his go-to range gun, but he'll talk about it with his friends from church and the neighborhood, not at school.
Our school got a new principal this year and she is far left and a friend ofvthe new lefty education minister. She tried to reduce math and science hours to include a 30 minute class each day for the kids to sit in a circle and give each other positive affermation.
My daughter calls it navel contemplation class.
Given our school is rural and has under 150 kids in K to 12, gun talk at school is still allowed. Though the new principal tried to ban both toy guns and to ban the 20 minute bible studies session before school. Enough parents complained vocally those were undone.
I was picking the kids up the other day and saw the principal struggling to walk to her car. She was wearing capris pants and leather boots that left a 2" gap between them of bare skin and it was -10C that day. Plus her boots have stilleto heals 5" tall and the heals kept punching through the snow making walking only possible on her toes.
Exile1981
My wife can walk through snow and mud with stiletto heels on. Her uncle took me on a tour of his little farm in Brazil, and my wife walked with us through the barn, across a paddock and into a fruit tree grove in a pair of Christian Louboutin heels no problem. It's a gift.
You have a kid to be proud of! Thanks for standing up with your kid against the idiotic school BS we have to contend with now a days.
I was always getting in trouble in school too, even tho I was a straight A student. My dad stuck up for me too. Thanks to that I made it through still able to think for myself and still love to learn. Not brain dead like the schools try to make the kids now.
Public schools are NOT there to teach kids anything but how to sit still, shut up and follow orders. Be good little statists. Be glad your kid has the smarts to figure that out.
This lady spent the last 8 years in a snow free place so it's a skill she hasn't mastered.
Exile1981
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