22 posts tagged “school”
Seems son's English class has made a huge literary leap from Beowulf to Chaucer. He asked me about some of the characters -'uh that was a loooong time ago'- as well as relevance.
Replied that first, the Canterbury Tales are a historical snapshot and thus should be of interest and second, They are a portrait of human traits/foibles which despite passage of several centuries remain as valid now as they were then, and again worthy of study today.
Then in a flash of parental inspiration, I mentioned to him he ought to look at The Miller's Tale. Now back in my day in high school, we made a wiiiide detour around The Miller's Tale as its content was deemed inappropriate (not by us) for our young innocent minds/senses. For me at least, banning something makes me that more determined to find out what it is and so I decamped to the local library, found a copy of the Canterbury Tales and settled down to read The Miller's Tale.
Sure its bawdy, but I found it not in the least titillating, which I guess those in power at school feared. If anything, I remembered starting to snicker and then laugh to a point those around me may have wondered what I had smoked and where I had gotten it.
Mentioned to son that even now, his instruction might also skip the Miller's Tale and that if he's finding the other Tales he is required to read a bit stifling, he should crack open the Miller's Tale. He may take me up on this, but I left with a question for myself in that was I appealing to his prurient interest or intellectual curiosity.
Today is Toga Day at son's school. After much fussing, son got toga'd and went off to school so attired. Saw at the bus stop, his neighborhood buddy, also a senoir, decided to wuss out.
An artifact of son's last year in public school is that besides him eventually assuming the responsibility for getting himself between schools for his Japanese language classes, is that the timing for this falls in what would otherwise be his lunch break. So, right now at least, a lunch is packed here and he munches on it while I do the driving chores.
Usually its peanut butter and something sandwich, but got bored with that and since son also likes bacon- a lot (made himself his version of the Wendy's Baconator the other day) cooked a couple of strips, overlay them with mozzarella cheese and melted it, added lettuce and our home-grown Japanese cucumbers into a sandwich.
He starts munching on it but doesn't finish the sandwich as he usually does. Ask why, and am told "The meat to vegetable ratio is wrong" and that "I am not a veggie". Told him it is supposed to be a BLT sandwich, but out of respect for his pronounced dislike for tomatoes, the 'T' was omitted. Perhaps for the next sandwich, I should slather the bacon drippings on the sandwich? (Uck! That even makes me sick!)
On the up side, he's said he wants to be an engineer, and perhaps he's starting to think like one?
Wife went out last night with another Japanese woman (she's actually ethnically Korean, which wife makes a big deal of sometimes) who lives nearby and stayed out late leaving son & I to our own devices; no problem that.
Now also yesterday after a number of follow up phone calls to a local Caribou Coffee shop, son was told they were looking more for someone who can come in early in the morning to open the store, rather than the availability son has, which are afternoons and weekends. Fair enough, and I think son did well on the telephone interview he had.
This topic came up during wife's dinner with this other woman, whose daughter BTW is a grade perhaps below son in the same high school and rides the same bus. Wife was told that according to her daughter son has no 存在感 and rarely smiles and that was probably why he can't get a job; he's too 暗い.
So I get to hear this once again. There are many times I think wife has the memory of a hare. We've been over this already. Son is an outgoing person, but he's probably not interested in this woman's daughter and my strong sense is she wants son to pay a bit more attention to her. Sorry folks but women can be like that and I can't believe that wife, being a woman, can't see through that. Pointing this out is pretty useless too for I get the 自分の息子の気持ちをわからないBS. Have given son though, a heads up, again, and he has shaken his head and said, WFT?, again.
Well, well, well. So I did have to drive son to school on the first day after all and it was he who asked me.
He went out the door on time and with the other kids who slowly trickled to the corner, waited patiently for the school bus. They waited, and waited and waited, and 15 minutes past the scheduled pick up time, son runs back to the house to me standing in the garage (car keys in hand) asking me to let him drive to school. A 'no' to that as I anticipated, and was correct in there were many other parents hurriedly on their way to the schools to drop their sweetems off too.
So he got to school at a decent time and way ahead I am sure of the school bus and the other kids. And no, I didn't rub it in, but might when he comes home :-)
Mentioned in a couple of posts down how son's high school has for the 4th straight year, messed his schedule up. Today was the day it was supposed to be straightened out, but when son called this morning, he was told wait until school opens on Tuesday!!!!!!!
I swing by the school on the way home from picking up wife, talk to staff and we get the schedule more or less set, except for the room numbers. So I am told to have son come to the cafeteria first thing on Tuesday morning to get that information.
Convey this to son and suggest that I drive him to school about 20 minutes or so ahead of the bus so he can get to the cafeteria early, get business taken care of quickly and be on his way.
"Daad, I'll get to school way too early."
"Do you think you will be the only kid there who hasn't got a screwed up school schedule. Its going to be crowded and you should get in as early as you can."
"Dad, I don't have to get there early"
"And suppose you get in when you think you should get there, find long lines and wind up late for classes?"
"No big deal, lotsa kids are late for class on the first day"
At this point I freakin' give up.
Yesterday was packet pick-up day at son's school. For the fourth straight year, the schedule wasn't not correct as the time period he was given for his Japanese IV class at the other school differed from the actual time slot. Amazing; the schools are but 3 or so miles apart and they can't talk to one another? Oh well, suppose there are F-ups in college scheduling as well
That aside, it was a bittersweet in a way since this is the last time he'll be doing this. Had a bit of sticker shock when told about the yearly parking fees at school- $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the way back home, we are about to pull out of the parking space, when a late-model, but not new, dark blue BMW pulls out in front of us.
"WTF?!, I know that kid."
"And?"
"He's driving a nice car." (The visible green envy becomes more pronounced)
"Could be his parent's car, you know."
"But its a BMW."
"Yeah and its a 3 series, probably the lowest grade they make. If you want to talk about nice BMW's, you need to have an 8 Series."
"Its still better than this car [The Quaalude}."
"No, this car is probably better; its paid for."
[Silence]
Very apt way this morning to start September; temperatures right now around a nice 60 degrees (that's 14 or so for those unfortunate to be stuck with Celsius), have the sliding door in the family room left open to let the cooler outside air in, and some neighbor's dogs are barking their heads off which mine has just now gone out to 'investigate' (and roll around on the wet grass while she's at it).
One more week and son will be back in school! I think he's in denial; as I have periodically asked him if he needs to go shopping for clothing or if there are any school supplies he needs, like an upgraded calculator for pre-calculus/Trig. His answer has been 'no' and today I'm going to let him know that he will not have me dragging him along for last minute back-to-school shopping.
He's also not made any progress about what he intends to do after June of 2010, when he graduates. Have told him numerous times he needs to look into colleges, for I am not going to send him off to any college without him first visiting one. Nor am I going to stand for him going to the community college 10 a 10 minute walk away simply because its there. He needs too to address his testing scores, either by signing up again for the SAT, or take a practice ACT test and then decide which of the 2 test he's more comfortable with.
And, he's also been told that with no plan, and no college lined up by June, he'd better have a plan to get a full-time job somewhere as a.) he sure as hell won't be allowed to lie about the house, and b.), at his age, if he's not a student he can't be covered under the health insurance we have, so he'll have to find, and pay for his own coverage. All this seems to be just background noise to him and for me it is hard to watch him piss valuable time away on his Xbox.
Son has an F for his English 4th quarter interim. He has this as his instructor has determined my son has plagiarized and violated the schools' code of honor on an important project. I disagree.
Son did take a portion out off from an internet page and in his haste to complete the project, failed to create and include this in a bibliography. The point I have made, and failed to impress on his instructor and now the school, which send a letter home which in part said. "We hope ___ has learned his lesson", is that this was not a deliberate attempt to be dishonest. That letter pissed me off.
Perhaps as I am his father, I am not being as objective as I should be, but there is a big difference in being deliberately academically dishonest, and being sloppy, stupid and careless, which my son is guilty of.
The letter from the school prompted me to write/answer back (since they've raised the issue to that level) to all concerned. Am thinking of what other options I have, but don't see many others.
Got this in the e-mail from son's school.
"Hello Parent or Guardian,
This is Mr.____ principal of ____High School, calling to tell you about our school’s new attendance notification system. Beginning the evening of Monday, April 27, 2009 this new system will automatically call AND email you. This system will clearly indicate which periods your child was absent. Please make sure that we have your correct email address on file.
Attendance and active participation in class are crucial to your child’s academic achievement. Thank you for helping us ensure that your child understands the importance of attending all scheduled classes."
Not that I have a dog in the fight, son does not cut classes. Nonetheless, this seems a bit extreme.
