Thursday, August 28, 2014

"Let's get the parents involved."

Pablo I received an assignment recently - his teacher admitted that it's really a parent's project and not the kid's. I saw last year's batch of projects and was a little taken aback because it didn't look at all like the child had any input at all. Then I received the instructions last week and yes, very little involvement is expected from the child in actually putting the poster/timeline together. But the kids will need to present it in class. So aside from making the presentation, I also need to get it done early enough so that Pablo & I can practice this weekend.

Can you tell that I'm not happy with this scenario? Oh, and there'll be a project every quarter.

Maybe it's because I teach Middle School where parental involvement just means supervising their kids. Or maybe it's because I have a full-time job during the day and evenings are spent chilling with my family, but I am not a huge fan of let's-get-parents-involved type of things. Last year's projects were fairly simple so it wasn't very stressful - Pablo's teacher really made it a point to keep things low key. But this time around, it was emphasized to make it pretty/artistic and all that plus little nudges here & there in the letter to guilt a parent into doing it well AND on time. This does not bode well for the Type A side of me (which I am usually able to successfully smother into silence).

So I've been working on this thing since I got home yesterday afternoon. Trying to keep my balance between a little boy that wants to play, the project I'm drafting and the pork chop defrosting in the sink. And because I insist on involving Pablo in some way there's the added fun of setting things up for him and cleaning up afterwards.

Did I mention I have to plan for my classes tomorrow? The 3 different grade levels that come one after another. Yeah. Good times. (Not.)

After dinner I continued working on the thing while Pablo played beside me. When he asked me join him I had to say I couldn't. When he asked why not, I said it was because I was working on a project for his clasd. Again he asked, "Why?"

Why indeed. Because your teacher is an arts & crafts person and probably does not understand that it does not come as easily for others. Because your teacher thinks that the long weekend last week should be spent doing homework not realizing that families need time to unwind together. Because your teacher thinks parents need to be more involved. I. Am. Involved thank you very much.

I know I'm not the target audience, but man this stinks. I wish we had been given more time (like a month). It annoys me that we were expected to use our holiday time last weekend to work on this thing (which I didn't). Now I'm too stressed to enjoy the project, which is a shame because it's a cute little thing and the draft is working out nicely. And I hated the sound of disappointment in Pablo's voice when I couldn't play with him because of a project that is supposed to get me more involved in his life. The irony of it all.

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