Monday, September 10, 2012

School Stuff, part 2

The kids brought home homework for the first time today.   Up until now, they've brought home some classwork to show us and some 'homework' for us to do (forms and such).  I find myself unnaturally excited, and had to force myself to let them unwind first, instead of diving right in.

I'm worried that I'm going to be one of those parents I've been specifically warned not to be, one who places so much academic pressure on their kids that even if they're perfectly capable of excelling, they refuse to even try.  As I think about it, I'm trying to figure out where this intense desire for them to do well at school comes from.  Yes, there's the expected culprits--how will it look if the teacher's kids flunk out, what will their future be like if they don't do well in school, blah blah blah.  But I can get over all of those (she says after one week).  I think my real issue is--I just want them to like school. 

They are going to be there a lot over the next 12 or more years.  As a teacher, I've seen how miserable that is for kids who aren't happy at school.  The kids who are happy fall into one of two categories--those with naturally sunny personalities, who would be chipper in a coal mine, and those who find learning truly interesting.  I was more of the latter, and even in the darkest days of Mordor middle school, I still remember enjoying several classes.  I was a geek, and picked on, and I somehow thought it was okay to pick on other people who I deemed even geekier than myself, so I also had a lot of self-loathing because I knew that wasn't really okay.  Kids that age can be seriously mean, and they also don't have the armor to handle it, or at least I didn't.  And I don't know why people think "social bullying" is just a girl thing--some of the most painful things that were ever said to me or about me were by boys with half-changed voices. 

But I liked my science class okay.  And I adored my English teacher.  And social studies was great fun, leading me into a history major in college.  I remember the Time Man of the Year (because that's what it was called then!) cover I made for Sir Francis Drake.  I remember tracking John Anderson's failed 3rd party bid in the 1980 election.  I remember reading Shakespeare, and learning public speaking, and spelling bees, and astronomy.  (I hated math, which is unfortunate, and led to a math phobia I'm just now getting over.)  I remember the computer lab that was installed my 8th grade year, and how we'd race for the chair in front of the Apple 11E (because there was only one computer per two kids). 

My point is that even when the social aspect of school was so miserable that I wrote in my (gag) 8th grade diary, "I have cried every single day this month," I still liked school.  Come to think of it, the same could be said of my college experience.  So that's what I really want for my kids--to like school, to feel like they're getting something out of it, to wonder what they'll get to learn next.  I want to pull out their homework and see if I can contribute to the sense of--look at this!  Look what you can do now!  What will you do next?  Wow!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you are doing great in going with the flow and follow your thoughtful mind! And like they are doing GREAT, all considered!

    ReplyDelete