Crazy weekend. C.R.A.Z.Y.
When I am president, one of the first laws I will pass, "There will be NO Birthdays in December. NONE. No Exceptions. All Birthday celebrations will have to wait until after the Christmas Holiday. Birthday's can resume as normal effective January 1st."
We attended TWO birthday parties this weekend.
The first party will conjur nightmares for months.
I have never heard several kids cry because they wanted to leave A PARTY. I have never seen my girlys sit in the corner and stare at total amazement at the chaos in front of them. 21 kids ages 5-10 (mostly GIRLS). In a small house. No planned activities. No organization. No control. A phone call from a parent saying one of the kids father had to be rushed to the hospital...yeah that kid was in a total funk. One kid called his dad to pick him up early - he was so very ready to go home. I was very very proud of my girls... and me, well, you know me, I had to do something. There was no way I could sit here and watch the chaos. My girlys were ready to go home.
Yesterdays party was at a the local high schools swimming pool. 20 plus kids in a pool staffed with lifeguards. BONUS. There was no need for mommies to don their suit, displaying their winter white jiggly bodies. It was controlled. The kids were well behaved. The kids were OCCUPIED. It was organized. It was controlled. There were many parents attending and all kids were smiling and happy. Noone was ready to get out of the pool. Noone wanted to go home. The girlys had a blast. They wore themselves out totally and slept like little rocks last night.
Today I came across something that was so very insane to me, disturbingly insane. I just don't get it. I seriously don't. We are removing personal responsibility from our schools. Making every excuse and accommodating children over and above the call. My girls have responsibilities, and if they fail to do the responsible thing they are punished (of course the punishment fits the crime). If they do not do an assignment, I welcome, I INSIST that the teacher do whatever they feel is necessary to punish the kids. If they do not finish their seat work during class (and all of the other children had more than enough time to finish) then they miss out on recess or another activity. There are no excuses. Do your work and then you can play.
This is the very reason we attend a private school because I do not believe in the public schools philosophy on personal responsibility.
Read this article.
In a nutshell:
"Pittsburgh Public Schools officials may change a policy that makes 50 percent the lowest grade students can receive -- even if they do zero work. The policy is meant to help students recover from a bad grade or the odd missed assignment. But the district's teachers complain that some students refuse to hand in assignments because they're content to get the "50 percent" grade for doing nothing."
In my day (yes I am old, and I think like an oldtimer) if you missed a random assignment you were allowed to turn it in late and receive a lesser grade, but you had to turn in all assignments to receive credit, if you did not then your grade reflected YOUR inability to meet the required standard of work.
I do not agree, Pittsburgh. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Did you know that Pittsburgh also provides at most 5K/year towards college tuition for any student maintaining a 'C' average. A 'C' average. Mediocre. AVERAGE. Just AVERAGE, not excellent. No extra effort, just average work, average effort. That is a 2.0. Many universities will not accept students with a 2.0 average.
Did you know that Pittsburgh has a literacy rate as low as 20% in some of their schools.
We as a society keep LOWERING our expectations, of our children, of our fellow neighbors, of our employees, of our work, of our family, of our lives. When will it stop? How low is too low? What are we allowed to accept without causing serious hurt to our children, to our fellow neighbors, to our employees, to our family, to our own lives?
I feel sorry for these kids. Pushed forward for doing nothing or practically nothing. I realize 50 percent is still a fail, but how many nothings can you do in a year and still maintain a passing grade? If a D is 60 percent, not many. Not many at all. That is one A (100 %) for every 4 assignments you decide to NOT finish. 20% - you only have to finish 20% of your work. To get 5K for college, you only have to do about 33 percent of your assignments.
What would happen if I only did 33 percent of my work at my job?
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