Good Ole Fashioned Hard Work

It's a Tuesday night at the high-school and the halls are packed with parents making their way through their child's scheduled classes. They go from one class to the next meeting the teachers and hearing a little about the classes they are taking. They have the opportunity to ask questions in some classes but in most it's just a 'sit and listen' type of session.

Ryan and I walked through Tyler's classes and learned this will be a challenging year for Tyler, academically speaking. She has AP US History, or APUSH as it's called by the kids, honors English, geometry, Chinese, and two elective classes.

While listening to Tyler's Chinese teacher tell us, in her best English, what she expects in her class and how she teaches both 1 and 2 in the same class room a cell phone rings. There is always one. The owner of this ringing cell phone is sitting in the front row and the teacher is answering her question. The parent picks up her purse, gets out the cell phone and answers it. YES, she answers the cell phone and has a one minute conversation with the person on the other end. Using her hand to cover her mouth and the phone was supposed to make her less rude... not really. I was shocked and amazed at her utter disrespect for the teacher.

And you wonder why kids act the way they do...

After that we moved on to several more classes ending in honors English. Tyler was assigned Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies to read over the summer. They were to answer questions about the book and take notes in the margins of the book as they read it. The expectation was that this would be collected on the first day of school. As Ryan and I listened to the teacher speak a father spoke up and asked why the kids weren't getting any credit for the summer reading. The teacher explained that those assignments were created by the other honors English teacher and she had picked up this class after the assignment was sent home. She explained further that the assignment wouldn't have been something she would have assigned and that she will be grading the kids differently.

This did not sit well with a few parents. The father who posed the initial questions proceeded to grill this poor woman about her teaching style, her grading scale, and insisted that his child get some sort of 'reward' for all the hard work he/she put in over the summer to complete the assignment. The man continued his line of questioning for at least five minutes, past the final bell, to where I almost stood up and defended the teacher. Here is what I wanted to say to the parents who said "but they did all that work"...

It's a shame that you expect your child to receive some sort of tangible pay off just because they worked hard. It's a shame that you are teaching your child that they deserve some sort of tangible pay off when ever they work hard. Couldn't the pay off be that they had to learn how to balance the work they had to do with what they wanted to do or that they learned a great skill to take with them to college, or that some times you work hard only to have it pay off later.

I was really disappointed in the parents at this open house. That conversation should have taken place privately if the parents felt that strong about it. They should have never blasted her like that in front of others. I felt horribly for her. I was embarrassed and uncomfortable. I think another parent felt the same way and she just interrupted the father and asked if the teacher wanted our surveys regarding the open house event.

Ryan and I left the class room angry. How is that people feel so comfortable attacking another person like that? Common courtesy is fading fast. I was the only one after each 'class' that thanked the teachers for their time. Not one other parent spoke up. They just got up and moved on to the next one.

It wasn't until after open house that we found out that Tyler forgot to tell us her English class and geometry class were switched when she picked up Chinese. We weren't even in the right English class. Tyler happens to be in the class where the kids are being graded on the notes from summer reading.

Ryan commented this evening, "so we had to listen to that jackass for nothing". No, I don't think it was for nothing. While it was painful at the time it just reaffirmed that Ryan and I are doing it right. We are teaching the kids the value of hard work. You don't always get a monetary pay off or a reward you can see. Sometimes the reward is a feeling, a feeling of pride or accomplishment. Those rewards are ones that will carry with you for a life time.

So what... rewards do you look for in life?
So what... are you teaching your kids about hard work?
So what... motivates you to complete the task?
So what....