Why oh why

Finally the honeymoon is over. I am not happy about it but I can feel the difference. Suddenly parents are email me wanting a conference. They want to know why their child is not doing well in class. I tell them that they play around, talk too much, do complete an assignment, make bad choices, and other reasons.

But I do tell parents that if they want me to continue to give “FLUFF” grades I will be happy to. It want be any better when they head off to high school but it will make my job easier. I will just give their child a 100 and move on. I saw it happen last year and now I hear back that the girls that I tried to help with lower grades last year are struggling this year in HS.

It is early in the quarter and grades can be fixed if the child changes his or her ways. They can have the grade that they want if they settle down and do what is asked. Or I can just give them fluff and parents can deal with it next year.

I was hired as a transition between all the fluff that students have gotten for the last 7-10 years and a look at what High School will be like in the future. After 23 years of public school working with AP class from the HS’s in the area you would think I know what the students are about to face.

Last year I refused to change several grades but the administration went over my head and changed them anyway – just to make their parents happy. I knew what was going to happen and sure enough these girls are having problems in HS this year. They are struggling and filing several class, I wanted to help them get ready but was told “NO” and here they sit in HS without the safety net that our school laid out for years and years.

I get to meet with several parents today about the playing around their child has done over the past two weeks. I KNOW these kids can do the work and CAN make good grades but they need to settle down and show me what they are made of. They also need to stop “pulling the wool over their parent’s eyes” and show them what they are really made of.