Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Holiday vs School

I know in many Northern Hemisphere countries families are preparing for back to school.

What surprises me is how many Moms are overjoyed at the prospect.

I love school holidays and I am almost as sad as my daughter is when they are over so this really baffles me. Perhaps it is because my youngest is a teen and she entertains herself mostly.  When my children were younger I was a single Mom and always working so I don't really know what school holidays with them would have been like.  

Why I love holidays:

  • I get to sleep later
  • I don't have to help with homework
  • I don't get daily whining about how awful school is.
  • There are no parent teacher meetings. 

 At my daughter's school it is rather like speed dating because the teachers sit at table in a circle in the school hall and you go from desk to desk choosing which teachers you are going to spend the 5 minutes with.

The worst is when you get to a teacher in whose class you know your daughter is doing badly.

Teacher:
"What is your daughter's name?"

Me squirming in my seat:
"Jessica ."

Teacher:
"Oh her!"

At this point I know it is going to be all downhill.

There is a teacher that teaches my daughter that I went to once since then I avoid him as if he were a Jehovah's witness on a Saturday.

He has dots.

He looks in his very neatly organised ledger and then he says in his very slow and boring voice:

"Jessica, she has 3 yellow dots, yellow dots are for being late in class, 10 red dots for being absent, 3 orange dots for late homework."

That one sentence took about half an hour because he speaks so slowly in such monotone, I nearly fell asleep.  I have no idea what he said after this but I think there were a lot more dots.

There was the one parents meeting when Jessica was doing really well in English.  Michael and I wanted a bit of upliftment so we decided to go see her.  To our surprise she said:

"Why are you here?  Jess is one of my top student, I am seeing parents whose children need help."

Michael and I were very amused even though she basically said "scoot", she said "one of her top students", so it was worth it.

Talking about top student, I am thrilled as Jess' history teacher just let me know that Jess is numero uno in history.  





3 comments:

  1. I love holidays best too. To add to your list above
    No flipping packed lunches to make
    No worrying about them getting run over on way to school
    No sending them out in torrential rain ( I hate that )
    No asking them if they have got everything and
    Oh yeah no going to work for me either!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seeing that my comments are only allowing myself to comment I have decided to post your comments:


    I love holidays best too. To add to your list above No flipping packed lunches to make No worrying about them getting run over on way to school No sending them out in torrential rain ( I hate that ) No asking them if they have got everything and Oh yeah no going to work for me either!!!


    by Rachel http://www.blogger.com/profile/17875808936389030446

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with all of the above of course because you are a teacher it means holidays for you as well ;-)

    ReplyDelete