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I Don't Have Any Homework....

BarkAtTheMoon's picture

Second term for SD13 starts tomorrow. She ended up with all A's and a B for the first term. One grade may fall to a B because not all of the assignments are posted, but still she lucked out.

I know we have posted about it before, but good gosh schools make it so damn easy for these kids these days!! I graduated in '87 and worked my ass off. I took Latin and French at the same time, excelled in math and blew the curve for some people in a few classes. It wasn't easy. I can't even fathom SD13 taking a language. She can barely spell English.

For the first 1-1/2 years that SD13 was FT with us, I was on her like white on rice every day after school to get her homework done. Let me just say, her work was simple!! A few math problems, a crossword puzzle or two.....I mean seriously? No wonder these kids aren't prepared for the real world, or even for college. SD13 is in 8th grade and they started SBG (Standards Based Grading) this year as a trial-run in her school. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed and she NEVER has homework. They don't give them any. I think the schools look better as a whole county-wide if their students are "doing well," so they tend to pass most students with sub-par performance.

Well, it's all relative. SD13 just plays every day like a 7yo when she gets home and retains absolutely nothing from her classes. But that's ok boys and girls, because if you forget to hand in your essay or even if you bomb a test, you get a DO-OVER!

Yaaaaaaaayyyyyy!! SD13 will be SO prepared for HS next year. Can't wait for the drama. Is it bad that I want her to have her ass handed to her this term so that she shapes up and flies right?

Oh no wait, that would mean I actually cared. I'm curious to see what happens this go round.......

~ Moon

CantKeepDoingThis's picture

Don't get me started! SheSloth is currently sitting with an F and 3 C's. How much you want to bet they are B's by the end of the week because the teachers let her turn in weeks old late homework for full credit again! Then, she will be all beaming like she did something good. I told DH just the other night when I got that email from the teacher, "I don't care if she brings home all A's and B's. It isn't impressive for teachers to allow late homework to allow her to pull grades out of her ass! It would be impressive for her to turn her work in when due, and maintain the grade the whole period!"

Rags's picture

We used to go to battle with the Skid's teaching teams for not flunking his lazy ass. On several occasions we would get a progress report with the boiler plate note at the bottom "For any grade lower than a C please arrange a conference with your child's teachers.". We would arrange the conference; the entire team would show up which was something that was new since I was in middle and high school in the 70 and 80's. They would arrange a semicircle of desks for the teaching team (5-6 teachers) facing two low chairs for my bride and I. It was like a mini inquisition and I always responded by grabbing the teacher’s chair from behind their desk and another office chair from the classroom next door to make sure they comprehended the true balance of power and authority. That made them notably uncomfortable when my 6’0” bride and I (6’1”) would raise the office chairs as high as they would go and the teachers were in student desks facing us rather than us on stubby little chairs facing them.

Each time the team lead would ask us with a quizzical look on their face "We are wondering why you asked for this conference. (Skid) is a great kid and we have no problems with him?” We would give them a copy of the progress report with the boiler plate conference instruction and any grades lower than C highlighted. “Oh, we did not even know that was on the progress report. You are the first parents to ever ask for a conference based on that. We usually call the parents to a conference for problem kids and even then they usually don't show up.”

That would start our interrogation of the teaching team. After about an hour the picture would be clear. Skid was a straight A student the first 6 weeks then did shit for nothing the next 6 weeks and would barely pass several of his classes. He would hook the teachers from day one with his very polite behavior, great work, and respectful class participation. The good teachers would give him crappy grades when he played his usual second 6 weeks games. The crappy teachers would give him the ‘I like him’ A grade even though his work and effort sucked. Watching the strong teachers lean back in their desks with their arms crossed and grins on their faces while the weak sympathy grade teachers squirmed, fidgeted, “Ummmm”ed and “Ahhhhhh”ed was always very interesting during our interrogation of the teaching team.

We invariably found out that the Skid was reading novels in class rather than participating. He was not turning in his work though we checked that he completed his homework each night. He was sleeping in class, etc…… Many of his teachers would ask him about his homework a week or so later and he would say “Oh, I forgot. Here it is” then give him full credit.

Each semester from 8th grade through 10th grade and then for the first semester of his Sr. year was the same old shit. Hook the teachers with straight A’s the first grading period then do nothing the second grading period. His Jr year was the exception because he was scared shitless during his first year at Military Boarding School. But, once he figured it out he went back to his usual pattern. The exception was the his teachers at Military School had no issue with flunking his lazy ass.

Each PTC for low grades we insisted that the teachers flunk his lazy ass, take his novel tear it in half and toss it in the trash can, take his desk and stand him against a wall near the front of the classroom for sleeping in class, stick him in weekend study hall for any missed assignment whether he had it done and handed it in as soon as he was asked or not. Put his ass in Sat study hall for any late work. Period!!!

The strong teachers would nod vigorously and the weak ones would immediately start with the tender “We can’t do that. We don’t want to dampen his love of reading.” Bullshit. This kid would read blank toilet paper if he had nothing else to read. He has consumed every printed word within reach since he was 5yo. Tearing up his novel and pitching it in the trash is not going to kill his love for reading, it is going to get his attention, piss him off, and motivate him.

“But what if it is a library book?” Tear it up and throw it away. He will replace it by working his ass off on every unpleasant chore we can devise to earn the money to replace any disposed of library books.

“There must be something wrong. He is such a well behaved and intelligent kid. Is he on drugs? Are things okay at home?” The only thing wrong is that you, like most of his previous teachers, have fallen for his manipulative bullshit. He earns straight A’s at the beginning of each semester if he has new teachers. Once he hooks you he then does shit for nothing and too many of you buy his bullshit.

We are on your side but we cannot be in your classroom to deal with his usual manipultions. Only you can do that. We are telling you that you should fail him. We will back you all the way to the school board if necessary. Send the kid a message and pry his head out of his own ass when he is in YOUR classroom!!! PLEASE!!!!

FLUNK HIM!!! Make him repeat a year. Barring his ass to his peers and forcing him to walk the halls a year behind his buddies will get his attention. We are instructing you to fail him. So please do it.

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly do that! To flunk a kid for the entire year they have to fail the same two classes two grading periods in a row and then not complete summer school to make up the credits.”

This is where my bride and I give them the crossed arm shit eating “you really are idiots” look and they go “Oh.!!!!” And find clarity that they are being played by the master manipulator that is the Skid. He is a great kid. Smart, polite, Kind, respectful, and he is playing you to get exactly what he wants when he wants it. }:)

When we have the repeat of lecture 27-B about buckling down and doing what he knows he should be doing and how much more work it is to flunk a class than it is to make an A he would in all seriousness look us in the eye and say ….
“Mom and dad. I know I can do it, you know I can do it, my teachers know I can do it, so why should I have to do it?”

At the end of that sentence was the only time my bride I were in in complete agreement to kill him. But one or the other of us usually changed our minds a fraction of a second after we should have gutted, scalped, and slow roasted him over hot coals and he survived yet another day. Wink

I am so glad to be past his school years. Great kid but infuriatingly smart, logical, and laaaaaaazzzzzzyyyyyy. My mom's curse came true. I did end up with a kid just like me even though I purposley avoided spawning just to avoid mom's curse.

My bride asks her regularly why she cursed my bride too and what my bride ever did to my mom to deserve the curse.

Mom's answer ... you married HIM!!! Pointing at me. :? Blum 3 Dirol

Frustr8d1's picture

You couldn't be more right about the schools making things too easy these days. When my SD's class does bad on a test, the teacher has them play a game. A team game so they can all help each other. The team that wins gets extra points on the test. The point conveniently equal the amount needed to get an A on the test. The losing team still gets points but they get less points, adding up to a B on the test. Pathetic. SD never has homework either.

Rags's picture

No doubt that schools these days generally do a crappy job of preparing kids for college or anything else academically or job related after HS for that matter. However it is not the school's job to prepare a kid for life. That job is entirely the responsibility of the parents.

It is even the parent's job to make sure the kid is focused and performing well in school. Without the parent doing their job the teachers and schools can't be expected to do theirs very well.

It used to be that when a kid failed a class his/her ass was in the parental meat grinder. Now when a kid fails a class mom and dad are banging on the teachers desk wanting to know why the teacher failed their little darling.

When I as school aged if there was no homework on any given school night there were piles of work books poised to be assigned my mom and dad. When it was our turn to deal with the no homework crap from the Skid we assigned research papers. The most notable was a summer long research paper we made him write about ....How to Write a Research Paper. He shoved his head up his own butt just before the end of that school year when rather than complete a semester long research paper by submitting his final draft he pulled some crap off of the internet and submitted it as his final draft. He had received 100% on all of the installments on that semester research paper including on his rough draft at mid term. Even if he had just printed the midterm draft and turned it in without any changes from the teachers red lined comments he would have gotten an A. Instead he ended up getting 50% on that assignment that made up 75% of his semester grade.

He hated having to write that summer long research paper with a passion. }:) }:) }:) But, after that summer long 50 page assignment fully footnoted, cited, and submitted in both APA and MLA formats (yes, he turned in two separate 50 page long research papers along with all of his notes, outlines, edits, revisions, etc...) he knew how to write a research paper and never again attempted to plagiarize a paper.

Notacelebration's picture

So true Rags! I know a few teachers that are exceptionally good at their jobs, and they do kick the kids out of class that are disrupting. Teachers are so limited on what they can and cannot do. Respect is earned. Once they let these kids know they won't tolerate bad behavior in their class, these kids take notice. Then there are the teachers that let things go. Maybe they're burned out from years of dealing with kids, and the parents that think their kid is so "special." I understand the job is stressful. I firmly believe in parents teaching their kids to respect adults from an early age on. That just doesn't happen anymore, and it's sad.
So much is controlled by the government, and these teachers have no power over that. They have to follow the standards that are set for their school, it's out of their hands.

SecondGeneration's picture

I always find it bizzare, you go into a local shop here and you can buy maths and writing exercises for children from ages 3-4 up to 9-10/10-11 yet when it comes to teenagers theres little easily available.
My partner has started these writing exercises with SDstb4, and if there is little homework when she is in the upper school then there will be more done here.
Even know when you look at the methods used in schools for teaching, it is so different from when the parents were at school alot of parents struggle to help their own with the work.
Im not one that thinks kids should be having 3 hours of home work every night, particularly when you have kids that end up in afterschool care where they cant always do the work and by the time they are home its too late. But I do believe that kids should have homework, growing in difficulty and duration as their education increases, else they just flunk when it comes to college and university.

Rags's picture

Yep. Teachers can't kick toxic unruly and abusive kids out of class, these kids poison the process for all of the kids, then we punish the teachers for not delivering classrooms full of top performers. Back in the day a teacher could light a kids ass up in front of the classroom with a paddle and if that did not reconnect the open circuit between the kids brain and their ass then the teacher could kick the kid out of class for the rest of the semester and get on to teaching the rest of the class. The ejected POS kid was then on track for a long and distinguished career as a laborer and the kids who behaved, focused, and made an effort went on to the trades or professions.

Too bad teachers can't do those things anymore because mommy and daddy "my kid is spe-cial and should get a trophy and the teacher is an idiot" will claim all kinds of bullshit about how the schools and teachers are failing their spe-cial little crotch dribble who has been raised with the completely false notion that they are special because they exist.

I would last about 15mins as a teacher and would be fired after I lit some snarky little fuck trophies ass up with a paddle as they bent over my desk in front of the entire class then I pitched their lippy ass out into the hallway never to darken my classroom door again when they said a word other than "Yes Sir".

But I tell you what, if I did make it the full semester the kids left at the end of the semester would know their shit backwards, forwards, upside down, and sideways, they would be dressed smartly, they would be groomed and clean, they would be polite and well behaved, and they would absolutely understand the relationship between effort, quality of decision, and result. Those kids would know that they are special because their performance would prove that they are special.

BarkAtTheMoon's picture

Looks like we all have a lot to vent about. Rags, I had read your story before, about the teachers. That's how I feel about SD13, DH should go to a damn meeting. I don't know what good it would do, though. I am just trying to teach DH to teach SD13 some responsibility. Not everything is going to be handed to you when you get out in the real world. The thought makes me shudder -- SD19 and SD13 when they get their first place, constantly calling DH to help manage their budgets or whatever.

I have just sat back mostly for this school year with SD13. What she is doing in school is probably what most of us were doing in 4th and 5th grade in the 70s. For those of us that are of that age.....Why is it so damn easy? SD13 forgot to print out and hand in an English essay for 300 points during September. FORGOT. She had a 54% average in the class and I told DH, who promptly tore her a new asshole. SD13 printed out the paper a week later and the teacher gave her FULL CREDIT. 300/300 for an A average in the class!

Also, SD13 ended up with a 93% for an A in 8th grade math this term. You look at all of her assignments etc and she gets mostly As on tests with a few Bs here and there. You get a mini problem-solving worksheet on any questions that you missed on a test. This grade isn't weighted the same, but still, it gives the Skid a chance to review the material that they didn't quite understand the first time. Every single problem-solving worksheet that SD13 has done has resulted in an F. There were about 8 of them. So #1) She didn't review the material to even try and understand it the second time, and #2) She tells DH and I that it doesn't matter because it's only 10% of her grade.

Keep in mind, that we have SBG for grading so, you get a nice round number for your grade. SD13 has gotten 50% for the Fs on the problem solving. Can't get any lower than that, because even if you don't know what the hell you're doing, you still get 50%. That got her a B in another class when she didn't hand an assignment in. Instead of a ZERO, the teacher gave her 50%! This resulted in a B average overall, when it should have been a D!

Even her therapist says she is very bright and smart. It's all relative, I guess.

~ Moon

Rags's picture

50% for no work at all??? :? :jawdrop: :sick:

The idiot bottom 10%ers of the college educated that work in that district should be strung up by their short and curlies for that crap. Since when is 0% = 50%. 0 can never equal 50 no matter what branch of mathematics you consider. Not even Laplace Transforms can make that happen.

This must be the grading equivalent of this common core 500 step basic additions and subtraction method that just tires out the teachers so they just write 50/100 in the grade book since there is not even a paper to grade because the kid turned nothing in.

The last semester of my engineering program I had an advanced control systems professor who gave 100% credit for homework if you just wrote your name, class, row, and seat number on the upper right hand corner of your paper, folded it lengthwise with the information showing a turned it in. His stance was that if you made it that far without flunking out that he respected your effort and you knew your shit. In his class homework counted as 50 % of your grade and exams and quizzes counted for the other 50%. But, if you did not at least turn in a 8.5X11 sheet of paper with the information clearly written in proper format and location then you got a zero. My best friend from engineering school is a fricking genius who would fall asleep as soon as his ass would hit his desk chair. At the beginning of every advanced control systems class I would have to smack him in the back of the head and get him to write his damned name on a piece of paper and pass it to the front. Genius though he is he would have flunked that class if I had not forced him to turn in his blank homework.

He got me through the hardest classes and I got him through the drudgery classes.

CantKeepDoingThis's picture

My gripe with teachers is the same as Moon's! Why are SheSloth's teachers giving her FULL credit for assignments turned in weeks late? When I was in school, the EASIEST teacher, you had 1 week to turn in your work, and for every day late, you lost 10 points off the top. After 1 week, it wouldn't be accepted. Most of my other teachers, you had to turn it in before they handed the graded work back to the other students (which most of my teachers, was the next day), and even then, the highest you could get was a 70%...so if you missed anything on the assignment, you were getting a failing grade (and each error still counted the same as if it were a scale of 100%...so 20 problems, each were 5 pts each, and you miss one, you got a 65%).

Tests...there were no "do overs" like they have now. You could turn in corrections to bring your test up to a 70% if you had failed it, but that was it.

Oh, and then you have these stupid grades to give kids all the help they can get. If they get a progress report at the halfway point of the grade period, they get a free 100% if they turn it in signed. Then, there are these notebook checks...if you have been putting all of your graded papers in a folder/notebook for safe-keeping, you get a 100% for that every grade period also!

I took a peek today because I was curious. That English assignment that SheSloth didn't turn on on Friday like she was supposed to? Yup, teacher gave her full credit on it for turning it in late! So now she has a passing grade in that class. I also noted old assignments that were 0's earlier this week...assignments that were weeks old...now have full credit grades on them, as well.

Sad thing is, DH can access SheSloth's grades DAILY through the online system. Front page when you log in lists all of your child's missing assignments! They didn't have this system with BD23, but they did for BS19....and I checked every other day and was on his butt about his work..."Get your test corrections in...don't forget your writing assignment is due Friday!" He jokes in college that he still hears my voice in his head reminding him to do his college homework!

B22S22's picture

I've been hand-holding my DS14 all thru school. He's now a freshman, and honestly, it was exhausting and frustrating caring about his grades more than he did.

I announced that I was taking on the "fly or die" mentality. I don't look at his grades, I don't ask him if he has homework, I don't do anything because when I did it in the past, he's push back even harder.

Time will tell, especially since his grades determine his eligibility to play sports. He plays hockey, and although it's not a "school sanctioned sport" but a "club" it's still governed by this state's high school athletic association so he has to meet the same requirements (grades) that others do across the state.

He also knows if he loses his eligibility due to his grades, he will NEVER play again. Period. His choice, and he's old enough to be given that responsibility.

Drac0's picture

Total aside: I graduated in '87 too!

I also could have written this post. While bathing BS and BD, DW comes to me and says that SS's history teacher says he "may get an 80%" on his next report card (Nov 20).

I gave DW the Spock-eyebrow look and said "I'll believe it, when I see it."

SS is in Grade 9. He *should* be studying (on average) 1.5 hours a night. The MOST I have ever seen this kid study was 20 minutes. Most of the time, he is glued to his iPad.

And his progress report was Clear proof that he is fooling around in class.

Does it annoy me? Of course it does, but the standards I grew up in were FAR different. I had an A average all throughout high school AND I was on the swim team that went to the state finals; so there was swim practice EVERY! SINGLE! DAY! (and sometimes on Saturday mornings too). HS life for me was; wake up, school, swim practice, homework, sleep. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $20. I did more in one day than my SS does in a week. Dad said I should have been doing more, so I joined the Drama club and the Yearbook.

SS does eff-all! No extra-curriculars, no tutoring, no chores, NOTHING!!! I wouldn't mind if he was pulling A's and B's, but he is barely passing...

So I am with you Barkatthemoon, I hope he fails just so I can tear into DW.

Drac0's picture

Oh I met PLENTY of people who hardly (or who never) studied. In college, there was ALWAYS this one kid who never took notes. The teachers scribbling on the board at the speed of Speed Gonzales and I am having a heart attack trying to keep up.

And this kid (freak) just sits in the front of the class staring unblinkingly at the board and soaking everything in. Every now and then his arm shoots up and he says "Excuse me Sir! I think you made a mistake there!".

Teacher stops, takes a steps back and says "Ah! So I did! Thank you" and starts to ERASE EVERYTHING!

GAAAAAAAH! No, no, no, no, NO!!!!!

So yeah, while there ARE students out there that can absorb academia through osmosis, I am willing to bet my left nut that SS AIN'T ONE OF THEM!!!!

CantKeepDoingThis's picture

I do have to admit...I'm one of those strange students. I would read the material once, and take my notes. I would never go back to read my notes, however. For some reason, when it came test time, I could see the page from the book in my notes in my head and could write the answer word for word. It would freak teachers out, because they sat there and watched me take the test, and knew I had no materials on my desk! Still to this day, drives my husband crazy that I can spout off my debit/credit card number without reaching for my wallet, I can remember everyone's SSN, etc.

But, that never stopped me from doing my work! My work was always done and turned in on time...grade school and college. I was in advanced classes...lots of papers to write. In college, I had to write a lot of computer code, and would often be up until all hours looking for a missing semi-colon...all while working full time and taking care of BD23 who was just a baby at the time. I could have only wished back then that things were as easy as these kids have it! I remember the joke when I was in high school teachers believe you should have at least 1 hour of homework a night...problem is, you have at least 5-6 teachers that feel that way (depending on what classes you had). Even band...I had to practice an hour a night and have my parents sign off that I practiced! I had been playing my sax since I was 4 years old...dad was a jazz musician with a degree in music...yeah, I really NEEDED that 1 hour of practice every night, but I had to do it for my band grade, and my parents would not sign off if I didn't do it! No less than 20 problems a night for honors math classes, at least 30-minutes to an hour a night of whatever required reading we were on for honors English, section questions for history and science. Kids these days come home night after night after night saying they don't have homework! How is that possible?

Rags's picture

I graduated HS in '83. I was a 4.0 student all through HS until my last semester when I got a case of senioritis and got a B in college physics and graduated with a 3.98 GPA (out of 4.0, I know some people are on a 5.0 scale which I refuse to comprehend Wink ). My HS was a Jr. High, HS, and JC so all but one of my Sr year classes were college classes.

At a minimum all through HS we had 2.5 hrs of evening study Sun - Thurs night 7Pm-9:30PM. It was not discretionary. But, when you are at Military boarding school evening study is not a difficult thing to enforce.

In the interest of full disclosure my 3.98 GPA did not include my first sophomore year of HS. I attended a very cool, avant-garde liberal arts boarding school that year and passed only one class which was Technical Rock Climbing. So, my second sophomore year through graduation I attended my dad's HS Alma matter. Mom & dad's mandate not my choice.

My first sophomore year was amazing, I had a great time. I learned shit for nothing other than how to successfully score dates with hot girls and let me tell you I could climb the shit out of some very cool rocks. I also was a state champion and Jr Olympic level swimmer, very good lacrosse player, and one hell of a downhill skier and moto-cross rider. Like I said. It was a very cool school.

As amazing as sophomore-1 was, the three years of Military school were truly life forming and far more a spectacular experience. I should have stayed for JC but … I could not early commission in the US Army from the JC due to my Dx as a T-1 diabetic during HS so dad decided it was off to university for me. My choice. Interestingly I basically duplicated the amazing first sophomore year of boarding school experience with my university choice. Alpine sports, rock climbing, scoring dates with hot girls (hey, three years in a 98% male military boarding school will do that to a guy). So, 11 years , 7 institutions of higher learning, and the creation and sale of my company later I finished my undergrad.

The best learning experience I had was flunking my sophomore year of HS and taking a do-over. The lessons took a decade or so to sink in and a number of do-overs for various years of college but those lessons derived from failure were formative.

Many kids could benefit from the lessons of failure today if the system would actually allow them to fail by their own efforts rather than mitigate lack of effort with social promotion.

IMHO of course.

Jsmom's picture

I have seen it from both sides. The honors classes and AP classes really push these kids. The basic classes, they never have homework and the kids seem to skate through.

SS16 has almost all A's and B's in regular classes. Never has homework. BS19, had all honors and AP classes and was always doing homework. SD18 graduated with a 1.2 GPA. Didn't even know that was possible. Clearly she is part of the no child left behind...The high school they go to is one of the top ones in the state and has a 99% graduation rate. They were not going to let my SD screw up their stats. So she seemed to do really well at the end of the year and manage to graduate.