OT: wondering why

Gee Elizabeth, I'm surprised at you. You actually expect a young mother to take responsibility for what her kid is doing.

Everyone knows that's the job of the schools. ;__)))

RD&H

Heavens no, she wants to remote parent the whole town and adores the "zero tolerance" bs. She was one of the ones that wanted a parental permission slip for kids to check out certain books (Harry Potter, Redwall books and one other "magical"series). Wanted the parents to know these weren't Christian books.

Thank heavens they moved. Let some other town deal with her.

Elizabeth

I'll be the Wee Frees wear skirts - don't they ???

No - Scotish (sic) skirts!!!!

Rdh, C

For me the wild reading/teacher story was when I was in either 8th or 9th grade. My English teacher used to give us an hour's reading every Friday afternoon, aka busy work so she could do her paperwork. I was a voracious and very advanced reader so at that point my mother wouldn't even dream of censoring me. Innocent me, I brought a copy of "Forever Amber," which was at that time was considered wildly erotic and under today's standards would probably be PG rated.

The old biddy threw a fit and made my mother take a day off from work to come to the Principal's office to discuss this terrible thing. Luckily my mother wiped the floor with her and told them to stay out of her business.

I never forgot the embarrassment of being hauled off to the Principal for reading a book.

Lucille

Not exactly the same issue but this story reminds me of my 9th grade English class where the teacher would not believe that I had actually read "Papillon" when we had free time in class and had not just watched the movie. I had to write up a very long descriptive book report and orally answer questions to satisfy her. Just because none of the other kids in class were readers didn't mean I wasn't - that annoyed me to no end. Of course I grew up in a family of readers so it didn't occur to me that other folks wouldn't...and why would you lie about it?

Of course this is coming from the person who got sent to the principal's office for taking affront to my US History teacher telling the class that we were all dumb and didn't know anything. I offered to put my IQ number up against his any day and for some reason he didn't like that :P

MelissaD

Oh my! You've just reminded my of my own misspent youth, Elizabeth! Yeah, I was also a voracious reader, but the nun didn't catch me with a book in my lap: she caught me with my stitching!!! LOLOLOLOL! We had a good old laugh about that, years later.

Sister didn't stitch, but she did tat, which is close enough. She said she hated dampening my enthusiasm by confiscating my stitching (only for the day, though), but that she feared for my Mathematical development if she didn't. LOLOLOLOL!

Aren't there ducks called Scoters?

Maybe that's what the whole misunderstanding is about? Maybe it's

Yes, I had the same thing. I took a copy of Reader's Digest to school for reading time and was hauled up to the Boss' office to read and answer questions on it. They thought it odd because I was six at the time. I'd been following a series about this bloke called Joe, who apparently had a lot of difficulty with his organs. I was reading 'I am Joe's Thyroid' when I got caught...

Poor old DD had a worse time when she was six. Two of her classmates had mothers who taught at the school. They had been taught to read before starting school and so they were permitted to go to the class above at reading time. I had purposely not taught DD to read before school, thinking it would cause boredom and behaviour problems for her in kindergarten.

She took three weeks to become quite proficient in reading (helped along on the sly by her older brother who had been teaching her without my knowledge). So of course by the time she go into First Class, she was reading chapter books. She read 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in about a week. When she began bringing home supplementary readers which contained a large picture on one page and about six words on the facing page, I toddled up to the school and said 'She's finished reading 'Harry Potter' and really needs a bit more challenge. Could she possibly join the other two girls in the upper class for reading?'

They said 'No'. They wouldn't believe DD could read Harry because the other two advanced girls couldn't read it. They wouldn't even test her to find out! So we left that school and did much better elsewhere.

Thing is, no one knows your children as well as you do and if you want them to read, *you* set the standard for them. Don't let schools hold your kids back!

Man, Trish, you are a bad, bad girl. A troublemaker,,yet!

Gill

O nonononono! I am a duck scholar (really, I am! Been a dedicated swampwatcher since 1977) and only wish to help. Really. Honest.

Ok, I will believe you! I am an official rainfall monitor for the county and state satisitcs. I like that word, but meant "statistics".

We is perfect!

There are indeed Scoter Ducks, we have them on Orkney. However, very few folk on Orkney wear the kilt

and how many of the ducks wear one?

Yes. That is so.

When I was young, I read just about everything - from non-fiction (I wanted to be an archaelogist or a doctor - so read tons of Egyptology, histories), and science-fiction, and anything with horses. And of course, Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey twins, all of Dickens, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and - here's one "Cherry Ames - Student Nurse" . Plus, my folks would have me read adult novels that they thought appropriate - I remember reading "Giant" and Showboat - and the Last Hurrah when I was still in elementary school. And my dad rad mysteries - so I got those and crime fiction from him and my uncle. They weren't happy when the girl next door (older than me) and I "borrowed" Valley of the Dolls - IIRC I was still in elementary school - say

It seems to me that our godchildren, and nieces/nephews all have found some youth aimed books to read. But that might have to do with our friends who are parents being of an academic bent - for the most part.

ellice

LOL - when I was in undergrad, in the dept which I didn't like (double major thing) one of the profs espoused the "reverse definition" for the strugglers. As in, if you can't think of what something means, then use the name and reverse the words to come up with a meaning - as in "CAD - computer aided design" means Design with the Aid of a computer. I hated that - the guy taught Quality Control and a manufacturing processes (not basic, but an advanced industrial class) - and it bugged the heck out of me. We had to do a project doing process improvement - find a business, etc that would let us do our study there. My partner and I totally revamped the inventory control and handling system at a Wine Distributor (it was fun), including writing some code for thme, changing their wareshousing system, etc - which the company even implemented. Some other goofs in the class actually claimed to not have understaood, and used the example in the textbook - and got a B; How sad is that.

In my last 2 medic classes (special pops and advanced medical care) we actually had to do a short paper. One even had to include a presentation. It was hysterical - I think only I and one other friend (he's the dept head in another dept) actually knew how to put a paper together with references - especially multiple ones. The instructors had to completely lay out what were acceptable - and what is plagiarism. Although, I will say - it was actually hard to find good resources that I could take down to an appropriate level for the paper on "helmets and sports injuries) - the other paper - well, let's just say I now know more than I ever wanted to about West Nile Virus.

Thing is, for me - I can't write a paper unless I've done my reseatch and can then just write my thoughts - with appropriate citations. I honestly don't understand how people just paraphrase or copy someone else. The problem for me is that I always end up at t he last minute because I spend so much time having to read/research. I guess it's just the thinking versus regurgitating thing, and students being afraid of saying the wrong thing - or being lazy. Oh, well. My impatience to some extent is why one of my friends thinks if I started teaching at her University I'd be going crazy banging my head against the wall - she says the good students are fine - but the others -well - it would drive me nuts....or more nuts.

Ellice

"Cheryl Isaak" >>>>

Oh, you go girl. I cannot stand his oh so careful mangling of foreign cookery terms.

Dawne