The Parent's Meeting
Last night there was a meeting at the local middle school. It was for the parents of the incoming 5th graders to get acquainted with the school and the way things operate.
I'm a big fan of the principal as my oldest daughter already attends the school, and the best thing about the meeting was hearing his passion and love for middle schoolers. He's an administrator, and generally, I'm leery of such types. But I guess all I was looking to hear at this meeting was what might be different than when my oldest went through the same process, I was honing in on his love for his work. It came across, and, if nothing else, made the meeting worthwhile in my opinion.
What ruined the experience for me was the parents.
Their cell phones went off several times. When will people learn they have a silent/vibrate function and you can walk out and take the call...or better yet, turn it off and return the call an hour later. The room wasn't full of brain surgeons checking up on patients, I can assure you since I heard several of the conversations. I have another suggestion for cell phones, but that might require surgery by a proctologist.
Anyway, some parents would ask a question and then talk to their neighbors instead of listening to the answer. Yes, some questions were asked twice.
The tone of the questions was scary, too. It was all "advanced placement" oriented or test score oriented...as it every stinkin' sixth grader in the world was destined for M.I.T. and if the events of 6th grade would have a large impact on that reality. Open note to parents: Stop making icons of your children. They've been entrusted to your care for a quarter century. They're blessings from God. They've got a specific "way" they're supposed to go, designed by the Creator of the Universe. But that's true of all of them. Yours isn't the most special and neither is mine. Stop worshipping them and start praying for them...and then trust God to work in their lives. Stop trying to help them manipulate systems to achieve some vague (and usually incorrect) perception of success. To use a quote I never get tired of: "...a well-worn path to successful mediocrity."
I could go on and on but my heart rate is up already...
Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups.
Last night there was a meeting at the local middle school. It was for the parents of the incoming 5th graders to get acquainted with the school and the way things operate.
I'm a big fan of the principal as my oldest daughter already attends the school, and the best thing about the meeting was hearing his passion and love for middle schoolers. He's an administrator, and generally, I'm leery of such types. But I guess all I was looking to hear at this meeting was what might be different than when my oldest went through the same process, I was honing in on his love for his work. It came across, and, if nothing else, made the meeting worthwhile in my opinion.
What ruined the experience for me was the parents.
Their cell phones went off several times. When will people learn they have a silent/vibrate function and you can walk out and take the call...or better yet, turn it off and return the call an hour later. The room wasn't full of brain surgeons checking up on patients, I can assure you since I heard several of the conversations. I have another suggestion for cell phones, but that might require surgery by a proctologist.
Anyway, some parents would ask a question and then talk to their neighbors instead of listening to the answer. Yes, some questions were asked twice.
The tone of the questions was scary, too. It was all "advanced placement" oriented or test score oriented...as it every stinkin' sixth grader in the world was destined for M.I.T. and if the events of 6th grade would have a large impact on that reality. Open note to parents: Stop making icons of your children. They've been entrusted to your care for a quarter century. They're blessings from God. They've got a specific "way" they're supposed to go, designed by the Creator of the Universe. But that's true of all of them. Yours isn't the most special and neither is mine. Stop worshipping them and start praying for them...and then trust God to work in their lives. Stop trying to help them manipulate systems to achieve some vague (and usually incorrect) perception of success. To use a quote I never get tired of: "...a well-worn path to successful mediocrity."
I could go on and on but my heart rate is up already...
Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups.
.jpg){kind=avatar}
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home