Saturday, April 25, 2009

poor teachers

I had to make an emergency run to walmart the other night. We had been busy all day, and had no time. We were completely out of milk, bread and fruit. So after we laid the kids down for bed I went to walmart. It was about 10pm by the time I had made my list, gotten dressed and went. This was a Wednesday evening a SCHOOL night! When I walked in I was amazed at how many families were there. I mean, moms, dads and kids. LOTS of them. And it didn't look like they were in a hurry, it didn't look like it was and emergency trip, it didn't look like it was out of the ordinary in any way. As I stood in line, I watched the 3 kids (probably 5,7 and 8) behind me. They were running all around, eating candy, one of them was drinking a 20 oz coke. And my thoughts were not, wow that looks like a fun family... It was, "Wow those poor kids, and their poor teachers who have to deal with them in the morning!" I could not believe so many parents were there and putting there kids in such a position to fail! Especially since, like I said, it didn't look out of the ordinary for them. How are those kids going to focus at school tomorrow. How awful must they feel waking up in the morning. And their poor teacher who has to put up with grump kids, all because of the choices their parents made.
Then the next night, at 9:15 PM one of Makenzie's friends moms called me. She said they had just started her homework and she was crying because she couldn't figure it out. This was Thursday. They got this assignment on MONDAY and it was due Friday morning. A fairly simple math sheet. But at 915pm on a school night, what kid isn't going to be grumpy, and frustrated?? She asked me if I would ask makenzie and she seemed very surprised when I told her Makenzie had been asleep for over an hour! Then she asked me a few more questions, and somehow another one of their assignments came up that they had earlier in the week. The mom asked the girl about it, and she said that she had forgotten to do it. All I could think was that this poor girl was probably getting in alot of trouble at school for not doing her work. But is it really all her fault? As parents shouldn't we at least look at what our kids are supposed to be doing??? And shouldn't we be forcing them to do there work in a timely manner, and not at 915 the night before it is due??? Now I know some of us are born procrastinators (raising my hand!) And in high school, some of us may thrive on that. But in 3rd grade, I don't think it is appropriate to allow your child to start those habits. And I know that there are single parents out there, and working parents that sometimes these things happen to. They once in a while happen around here to. But I have just really been feeling bad for these kids, who don't know any different. This is their life, late nights, missing homework, trouble at school because they are tired. And I feel bad for them. It makes me proud of the way I handle my kids. As much as it ticks Makenzie off, we do homework every day at 4 o'clock. And I look at her assignments for the day. And I put my kids to bed at a reasonable time. And I am so sad for teachers who have to deal with this stuff on a regular basis. That must be so hard, because you have no control over it. And you know, it doesn't make my kids perfect (ask miss d-hall, over here!) But I think it gives them a better chance. And it allows them to take responsibility for their own actions, because they don't have other legitimate things to blame. It just made me sad. : (

3 comments:

  1. I thank you and the teachers around the world thank you!!! :0)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You go girl! Thanks to normal moms.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AMEN! I am sitting in a smelly middle school advisory class right now wondering which of these kids ate only Skittles for lunch. (All of them?) As a h o r r i b l e procrastinator I want you to know you are doing your kids such a favor by insilling these habits early.

    ReplyDelete