First of all, and I know I've written about this before, why in the world do I need to pay for stinkin' school pictures before I even see a proof? A million years ago, before things were digital, you always got a proof. Surely in this day and age, it wouldn't cost anything to pull up the digital photos and print some proofs to attach to your order form. I mean it's like playing russian roulette with your pictures. Will it be good or bad? I don't know, guess I'll pay and hope for the best. So dumb. Macy's school, which is not the public school, had proofs come home with their pictures. This was great because Macy's pictures weren't good originally or on the retakes, so I just didn't buy them. I wish Parker's school would be like that.
Parker has math homework each night. A requirement is someone is supposed to check it over and sign it. Not a big deal, I can handle that. What bothers me is it's then graded at school as well. WTH? Why do I even have to look at it? I guess I just don't understand what the point is. I mean, if I have to look it over to make sure it's right, why is it graded?
Sometimes his homework requires coloring with certain colors. Sort of a color the squares red, and the triangles yellow sort of thing. I don't know about you, but a set of crayons don't stay all together at my house very long. I have a box of mismatched sets and pieces all tossed together willy nilly into a crayon box. Some of them still have labels, some don't. Anyway, one of his papers came home like this:
Really? While it might not be red red, it's definitely pretty darn close. In my professional opinion, it's probably the red violet crayon, which as someone who's studied color theory a number of times, falls in the freaking red category. Also, if we're being that darn picky about our colors, what happens to those kids who don't come from a family where they might not have resources to even have freakin' crayons. Do they fail first grade because their parents suck and don't have a new box of crayons around to ensure we have the correct colors?
On the topic of kids who don't come from the best families, I also don't think it's fair to send homework home that requires parental involvement for it to be a success. It's not a kids fault if their parent sucks and I just think that setting them up for failure from the get go isn't fair. Parker comes home with 2 books for reading each week. They come home on Friday and we're supposed to read one or both of them each night. No big deal. However, I have to make sure they're sent back each Tuesday and Thursday where he reads one at school each of those two days. If we forget to return them on one of those days, he has to wait one entire week to get new books, putting him 2 books behind everyone else. This happened to us once, even though his books were in his backpack (yeah, not sure why they weren't switched at school, but whatevs) and it got me thinking about how that really kind of sucks for those kids whose parent's aren't exactly on the up and up.
Don't get me wrong, I love the school, it's one of the reasons why we moved back. None of these things are worthy of an uproar or me storming the principle's office or anything. They're just kind of ridiculous things that I've picked up on lately and wanted to discuss. I know there will be plenty more as the years go on. Do you have any school time ridiculousness stories to share?
School fundraisers. I cannot stand them. They want you to sell overpriced junk. This year, we didn't even bother doing it.
ReplyDeleteNow at my daughter's elementary school, they got rid of the selling crap stuff for fundraising and did something different. They had people pledge money for the kids to read a certain amount over a week. We sent out letters to relatives, friends, etc. asking them to pledge $15 that our daughter would read 4 hours a week or something like that. It was a huge success. No selling involved, no stress. AND it benefited the kids. I even told my daughter's new school that they should do this instead. Makes a lot more sense.
Oh yeah, those dang fundraisers are the worst. Macy's school sent some home with her an I refused to participate because I already pay tuition for her. However, Parker's a Tiger Scout this year and we did sell overpriced popcorn. I think next year I'll just pay the dues and save everyone their money.
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