I'm out of words . . . yesterday I wrote a six paragraph email to my son's Honors English teacher about the amount of homework he has been receiving along with the reading assignments for The Catcher in the Rye, and my screed contained references to Alfie Kohn's book The Homework Myth, a link to a newspaper article about how many districts are easing up on the amount of homework given to honors students, my teaching credentials, the fact that I'm the Middle School soccer coach, some ideas on how to mix up the homework assignments and this insane gem of a sentence:
The “default setting” of always assigning homework is a vestige of the Puritanical and industrialized origins of our education system.
which was also Stacey's favorite sentence in the letter . . . I did exactly what you're not supposed to do-- I wrote something and sent it in the same day (although I did get it approved by my wife) and, of course, after I pressed "send," I thought of a few other ideas that I should have added-- such as the fact that I understand that the assessments and rigor of an honors course should be more intense than a regular class, but just because it's an honors class doesn't mean that you need to do a ton of grunt work . . . anyway, the teacher responded promptly and with a clear explanation of how things would work in the future, and her explanation was reasonable enough to mollify me (for now) but it looks like I have the potential to be that parent.
7 comments:
Since you're so receptive to parental advice, you probably thought this was fine.
Alex will just have to work little harder in his other classes to make up for the "C" you just got him Honors English. Well done, Dad.
Mollified but not mortified?
that teacher framed that email and put it up in the lounge at ian's school. you're a legend. and not just in your own mind this time.
i sacrificed alex for the good of the cause.
You don’t have “potential to be” that parent. You are that parent. Ian’s first boss is going to love your letters complaining that getting to work at a set time is a vestige if the agro-industrial, capitalist hegemony that dominated the early 20th century and that he should be allowed to pick his own working hours.
that's a good point, marls-- i'm going to file that sentence away for later use!
agro-industrial, capitalist hegemony!
Excellent. Expect more not less soccer email ideas.
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