Before I had children I dreamed of the conversations I'd have with the bureacrats who teach them. I'd actually have dialogue balloons in my brain when the thought came up....and know what they'd say, each answer in turn, my response, another answer. Well, it's here; the time I mean, not the balloons. I'm a father and I've sons and they go to school, and I get to talk to the bureacrats who manage their lives for 8 hours.
The school is decent in many ways. Most of the people care, though it wasn't that long ago, a townsman informed me recently, that they'd drag a kid down the hall by his ear. He knew- it had been his ear. There are smiles and individual attention. But the school is just bananas for discipline and needless process. They have a spare the rod approach. They like discipline, like a breakfast food, like religion, a way of life. All that can be fine too. We have too much Self today in our society and not enough work. But they've already gone where most much larger bureacracies eventually go- which is to invent rules for the sake of inventing rules, or, 'because we can." My son is either the highest level reader tested or the second highest for the sixth grade. That means he's tops in the whole school. But poor Carter. He only gets a C minus in reading. Why? Because a lot of weight is on homework, and guess what? Carter rides the bus 1.20 minutes to and an hour and 15 minutes back everyday. He gets up at 6 am, returns at 430 pm. Except for dinner, he does homework until he goes to bed at 8 pm. He often has to work over. All this homework; they have him for eight hours and can't teach him this? Then why not do the work earlier, while say, still in class? Well, he tried! He would do his homework in class, during those times they were allowed freedom, but the teacher found out and assigned even more homework to the class. "Because if you are that far ahead, I'm not giving enough homework." Yes folks, that's the puntitive attitude this small school in the middle of nowhere has aquired in its pride. And they believe this is rational, even glorious. If a homework assignment is turned in late to the reading instructor, it is automatically demoted. Carter figured out if he did the work on a late paper it would be nearly the same as if he did no work at all. So if he can't get to the work, it doesn't get done. Once late it's no use. Frankly, if my son works until he goes to bed, and can't get to the reading busywork, too bad. I'm not worried and not making him do the homework.
The middle boy did a science project. We were all set on the noble Box Elder Bug, but Trav came home with the news that it had to be an experiment, and not just information. So the wife and child did a project using water and gravity. It wasn't much, and Trav did not care about placing, he just wanted to do it. He wanted a participatio ribbon. Trouble was, no one knew there had been a page of sign-up left undone. So Trav's name was not on the list. He waited and waited in class for the committee to call him to demonstrate his experiement, but no one came. He sat there, and no one told him he was out. There's only 8 rooms or so, 200 plus kids, but they can't let Trav's project in because it violates the rules. What if everyone did that? He won't be granted access in the real world, they'll say, and this is for his own good.
"The committee must have had a lot of boys to do," my second grader told me tonight, 'and couldn't get to me."
So the wife called the teacher at home this evening. No, no one was going to ask Trav for his demonstration. You see, without the correct sign up sheet being done, he was ineligable. They did not even have the courtesy to hear him out, let him do his thing, and learn from the experience. He won't even get a participation ribbon. Gotta have your lines straight and T's crossed in the real World, our little school will inform one. They'll teach him what life is all about.
They sure are.
And that, I told my son, is why bureacracies are inherently flawed, and when the Federal government runs one, it's the same or worse.
He understands that.
Science project completed. A plus.
I gave him a hug tonight. "You won't get upset by all this, will you?"
"No Dad." He looked OK. I hope he wasn't lying.
Well, we watch the bastards drag them down, same as they did to us, and it hurts. His mother is making a ribbon for him tomorow.
munk
The school is decent in many ways. Most of the people care, though it wasn't that long ago, a townsman informed me recently, that they'd drag a kid down the hall by his ear. He knew- it had been his ear. There are smiles and individual attention. But the school is just bananas for discipline and needless process. They have a spare the rod approach. They like discipline, like a breakfast food, like religion, a way of life. All that can be fine too. We have too much Self today in our society and not enough work. But they've already gone where most much larger bureacracies eventually go- which is to invent rules for the sake of inventing rules, or, 'because we can." My son is either the highest level reader tested or the second highest for the sixth grade. That means he's tops in the whole school. But poor Carter. He only gets a C minus in reading. Why? Because a lot of weight is on homework, and guess what? Carter rides the bus 1.20 minutes to and an hour and 15 minutes back everyday. He gets up at 6 am, returns at 430 pm. Except for dinner, he does homework until he goes to bed at 8 pm. He often has to work over. All this homework; they have him for eight hours and can't teach him this? Then why not do the work earlier, while say, still in class? Well, he tried! He would do his homework in class, during those times they were allowed freedom, but the teacher found out and assigned even more homework to the class. "Because if you are that far ahead, I'm not giving enough homework." Yes folks, that's the puntitive attitude this small school in the middle of nowhere has aquired in its pride. And they believe this is rational, even glorious. If a homework assignment is turned in late to the reading instructor, it is automatically demoted. Carter figured out if he did the work on a late paper it would be nearly the same as if he did no work at all. So if he can't get to the work, it doesn't get done. Once late it's no use. Frankly, if my son works until he goes to bed, and can't get to the reading busywork, too bad. I'm not worried and not making him do the homework.
The middle boy did a science project. We were all set on the noble Box Elder Bug, but Trav came home with the news that it had to be an experiment, and not just information. So the wife and child did a project using water and gravity. It wasn't much, and Trav did not care about placing, he just wanted to do it. He wanted a participatio ribbon. Trouble was, no one knew there had been a page of sign-up left undone. So Trav's name was not on the list. He waited and waited in class for the committee to call him to demonstrate his experiement, but no one came. He sat there, and no one told him he was out. There's only 8 rooms or so, 200 plus kids, but they can't let Trav's project in because it violates the rules. What if everyone did that? He won't be granted access in the real world, they'll say, and this is for his own good.
"The committee must have had a lot of boys to do," my second grader told me tonight, 'and couldn't get to me."
So the wife called the teacher at home this evening. No, no one was going to ask Trav for his demonstration. You see, without the correct sign up sheet being done, he was ineligable. They did not even have the courtesy to hear him out, let him do his thing, and learn from the experience. He won't even get a participation ribbon. Gotta have your lines straight and T's crossed in the real World, our little school will inform one. They'll teach him what life is all about.
They sure are.
And that, I told my son, is why bureacracies are inherently flawed, and when the Federal government runs one, it's the same or worse.
He understands that.
Science project completed. A plus.
I gave him a hug tonight. "You won't get upset by all this, will you?"
"No Dad." He looked OK. I hope he wasn't lying.
Well, we watch the bastards drag them down, same as they did to us, and it hurts. His mother is making a ribbon for him tomorow.
munk
. My son is way above the rest of the class and sits there daydreaming all day. This has only happened since the old Headteacher (priciple?) left. She put the kids before everything else and would never have let one of her kids spin his wheels in class. The other teachers walked softly around her but the kids would go to her with their problems and she knew the names and at least one thing about all of them. 