Once again I have found myself quite completely irate at one of my children's teachers. No surprise which teacher it is, to anyone who knows me and my oldest son. Many times I have found her to be unrealistic in her demands on her students. This time is no exception. She refuses to approve my son's thesis statement for his research paper, final draft due Thursday 4/3. She has refused to approve any version of it, even those where he more or less directly copied a classmate's approved version, only changing it to include his topic's name, etc, on her suggestion, no less. So by Friday night, I was livid. He and I had stayed up til after 11:30 the night before trying out different versions, both long and short, detailed and deliberately vague, trying to find one that might suit her. None were approved.
Now I understand when a teacher refuses to accept something that is illegible, as I find a lot of my son's work to be. I have told him so, repeatedly, over the course of his school years. So when he says that that is why she refused a couple of the statements, I agreed with her. But to tell him to look at a classmate's work as an example of how to do something, and then refuse to allow him to use the same format, more than irks me.
So Chris was told, by me, to put his thesis statement together and get his rough draft done and typed this weekend. He is making good progress, although he will have to spend most of Sunday typing. I came home tonight second guessing myself on how to deal with the teacher. I didn't email her last night because I was, simply put, too furious to properly handle the issue, and would probably have ranted and accused and gotten my name blocked from her email list.
So I asked Chris how he wanted it handled. He is 15 and 1/2 yrs old and has a pretty good head on his shoulders most of the time, and after all, it is his problem and paper and teacher and grade. So he and I and his stepdad conferred and he said, without pressure from us, that he wanted to see what happened Monday and then would let us know. He also found the printout of how the points for this paper break down, and up to now, he has nearly 100% before the final draft goes in. He has an 87%--a B--in the class as of last night on Edline. So I am going to let him do what he feels he needs to, with the understanding that we will go to bat for him however we have to, should he feel he needs us to.
That may be wrong in the eyes of some, but I look at it this way--he knows we will fight the fight for him and with him when he has done the best he can do and has done it as right as he can. We know that we will not always be there to fight for him and pester the teachers, etc., so he also needs to know how to take care of things himself. We will not be the parents camping out on the professor's or dean's doorstep in college. Helicopter parents I refuse to be--and I am appalled at those who are.
I think Chris will take this seriously. He already has, by bringing his frustration to me. And I have suitably gratified him with my huge show of indignation and all the things I planned to say to this woman. He has also seen the reason behind plowing ahead with the project--and not letting her get him down.
On the lighter side, Shellie had her first T-ball practice today. She loved it!!!She is on the team with two of her cousins, and her great-uncle is the coach. She knows most of the kids thru school.
Ben also did well with the track meet yesterday--I need to go to the website to check the official results, as our local newspaper apparently finds it an unworthy sport to cover--but he says he finished in the top 50% of the runners, which is better than the last meet........
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