Back in the day, I had an anthropology professor float the idea that the TRUE rebels were the Ted Kazynskis and the Jefferey Dahmers. THOSE were the ones truly living outside society's rules. He had a point.
I had no desire to rebel quite so extremely.
However.
Sometimes, be it school, or the legal system, or the government, sometimes, you've just got to let them know that you think something's bullshit. There's an art to it. To make the point, make it well, but do it in such a way that you don't completely fuck yourself over in the process.
Hence my letters to congresstwats and senatetwits.
And so, this brings me, inevitably, to raising the Goober.
I firmly believe that children need outlets. You can't expect them to behave ALL the time. So it's best to channel the misbehavior, than to let it spew forth randomly. She's allowed to go outside and throw things, and run around yelling, and we've even made up a nonsense name to call each other and everyone else (sillyhead). With public school easing up next fall, I'm working on teaching her how to deal with all THAT nonsense, as well.
Then, in her school work, a ridiculous project cropped up. A group of six year old kindergarteners were supposed to make up a "Presidential Action Plan" and write it down. It was meant as a writing assignment, so I figured, so long as she writes SOMETHING and turns it in, it's completed. So I wrote up a little thing, and had the Goobie copy it onto her paper.
11 comments:
Wow, I've been to grad school and I don't think I could come up with a presidential action plan. That's nuts.
I DO love your twisted mind!
Love this!! Do let us know if the school responds :)
I don't think I have a presidential action plan either.
And not only age appropriate curricula but ability appropriate curricula. Let's challenge kids and keep them interested.
I pushed my kids' teachers and they didn't like it (one teacher had a huge hissy fit when one of my girls read ahead in the book-she couldn't help it, the class was slow and she's a fast reader). It's a balancing act.
No, no, schools and teachers don't really like it when parents interrupt their plans because your kids are smart. We skipped our son and unleashed a sh*tstorm in the elementary school 15 years ago or so. I think the president and presidential candidates should act like grownups and stop calling each other names and get down to business. That's my action plan. and I plan to vote, early and often, to make sure that it happens. Hey, maybe kindergarteners would do a better job... Couldn't hurt.
Rock on. I remember getting to school one day in 4th grade to see the following words on the blackboard:
"What I would do if I were the President"
"What I would do if I were an Iranian student"
Eager beaver that I was, I decided to start the assignment before they gave it to us. Since I didn't know what Iranian students were, I took the first topic and wrote that if I were the president, I'd give everyone a million dollars. Because I was 8.
Needless to say, when class started, they told us about the hostage crisis and how things were a bit awkward for Iranian students studying in the US. I threw out my first essay and I have no idea what I ended up writing instead.
Ditto on the ability-appropriate curricula. I wasn't skipped but I could have been. In self-defense, I developed a lifelong habit of daydreaming while nominally keeping track of the rest of the class.
Oo, yeah, I daydreamed thru several grades. The teachers knew and let me go, for whatever reason. (Oh, yeah, I remember: apparently they gave an IQ test and I tested the highest in the history of this school...because I read all the time, duh...but that threw the teachers.) Then came 9th grade...high school, in my town...and I had never learned to do serious work. Wow. Crash. Took me a while to get my bearings.
I learned that it's important to learn how to work earlier than 9th grade.
I love this so much I can't even tell you. So awesome.
I'm dissapointed. Don't do your little girls work for her. Let her.
Talk to the teacher before you come to judgemental conclusions about what the teacher's intent was with the assignment.
Your school experience won't be your daughter's experience unless you make the same.
Your daughter hears everything you say and will find it hard to learn with a teacher that her mother obviously doesn't approve of.
23 years down the teaching road and parents still love to make the teacher the enemy and blame them for all that can go wrong.
Teachers are not all demagogues, some of us are just as free spirited as you are.
Don't make the road harder for your darling little girl.
Nancy Paris
Seriously? A Presidential Action Plan? For craps sake... Hey-- I was the mom who said, "I know you assign homework after a full day of Kindergarten. I'm not a fan. She'll do homework in first grade--but hey--thanks for offering!"
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