Mar 24 2009
No extras here…
My middle son D is having trouble remembering his homework again. This time its in math, as he has forgotten it three times this month. Each time I have to sign his workbook. The other day, I told him to not only grab the sheet he forgot, but ask his teacher for extra work to make up for it. This is the response she wrote back in his book to me:
“No math again today. He asked for extra work due to his grade dropping. I will not give him extra work when he isn’t finishing this expected work”.
Now, to a point I can understand his teacher. You don’t reward a child for bad behavior. However, he wasn’t asking for bonus work, or extra credit. He wanted more work to bring back up his grade. I remember back when I was in school. When you forgot your homework, not only did you have to do it during recess, but you were given more! Maybe its just me. I’m not excusing him for not bringing home his math work, not one bit. But if a child is willing to work harder, why not give him that chance?
The one thing I really wish is that the school would get together an honest to goodness honors program. When we moved here last year, they didn’t have one. During the summer they realized how many kids his age should be in a more rigorous program and they threw together a split class. I give them credit for recognizing the need, but not for the half backwards way they went about it. The first half of the year, they worked these kids like crazy, as should be. So far this year, nothing. No projects, no essays, not a thing they wouldn’t do in a normal class.
The whole point to an honors program (which he was in for two years before we moved here), is that the kids need extra. They need harder work, more challenging subjects. Otherwise you end up with bored kids who start to disrupt the class. For now we will work harder on what he does have, and I will continue to let him do the extra worksheets his sister brings home from middle school for him.
First, congrats on having a smart kid!
I can see how it can be challenge to keep him in engaged. When I was in middle school, I was in the extended learning programs. It was supposed to do the same thing…keep me busy, challenged and engaged so I didn’t shut down and raise hell.
I was in a fairly good public school system in a small college town, but it wasn’t a great program. It wasn’t full time. We only connected with that group a couple of times a week, and then I would go back to my regular classes and be bored.
High school didn’t improve, so my parents sent me off to a rigorous college prep school. Expensive, but well worth it. Fortunately I had a lot of scholarships and some financial aid.
Is there any after school activities you can get him involved with? If he’s not getting stimulated in school, maybe there’s a way around it? Is he old enough to tutor other kids? I found art classes kept me centered, so my parents signed me up for a lot of after school and weekend workshops for art. Those classes are probably what got me through middle school on the honor roll and kept me from getting bored.