Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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<p>Bill Powers (now dean of the University of Texas in Austin) was a visiting prof my first year in law school. At about the middle of the first semester, he spent the entire class period trying to de-stress us. He told us, “Half of you will be in the top half of the class and the other half of you will be in the bottom half of the class.” Statistically that’s true, but it’s still a hard thing for a bunch of high achievers to grasp.</p>

<p>Similar thing (with a UT tie-in) - when we went to HS freshman orientation for Son, the principal said, “There is one thing I can absolutely promise you. 90% of your children will not be in the top 10% of the class.”</p>

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<p>Got and email from my S, he wants to be picked up this Sat so he can come home and have his clothes washed. Ah dirty laundry keeping the family together</p>

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<p>Yes, got email the other day from D who said, “I miss our magic fridge.” </p>

<p>(Though ours had good things like ripe peaches and yogurt in the flavors she liked, not beer.)</p>

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<p>My newspaper is a big one, with different tabloid sections for the different cities. </p>

<p>Of course the debate article was relegated to the tabloid section for our city only (never mind that neighboring cities also have debaters who compete in the same division). That wouldn’t be the case for a sport. </p>

<p>Two years ago the writer wrote about my son and another debater from his school.
There was a picture of the two of them with their coach. The lead paragraph was about the other debater, who was a semifinalist in the state competition. No mention was made of my son WINNING the state championship. Son was mentioned as winning the regional competition in forensics (even though the article was about debate). Both the coach and I wrote to the paper to complain. They wouldn’t correct it – didn’t think it was important, as my son was written about, too (although not for winning the state championship). Just think if this kind of mistake was made about a sport! </p>

<p>My paper does not accept volunteer article submissions, btw.</p>

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<p>Deja - I think our local paper only has 1 MAYBE 2 reporters (2 sections). If we didn’t have volunteer submissions there wouldn’t even BE a paper. Now this is our town paper and comes out once a week not the local “city” daily paper which is also way small with about 3 maybe 4 sections (national, local & business, living (comics etc), and sports). Again very small paper…</p>

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<p>So it took until D’s senior year for the HS to get an email to me, so guess what I got today?
I want to move on from HS (seriously), they just don’t want me to go, I guess.</p>

<p>One more thing about HS: It’s so nice reading about all the school’s which honor all types of student achievement. I though schools like that were an urban myth.</p>

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<p>Heard from D2 again today. She was shocked that some kids turned in a class assignment on sheets of paper that were torn out of notebooks and hand written. She hasn’t been allowed to turn in handwritten assignments since 6th grade. Do some schools really accept handwritten papers? It was just a few paragraphs but she was truly surprised that other students would think it was ok.</p>

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<p>Anyone else not miss HS? I drove by it the other day, almost didn’t realize it was there. Felt great. HS was fine, but I did my time there. It feels so nice to not have that relationship anymore- no more volunteering, no more teacher meetings, no more back to school nights, no more info session on college, no more college tours, no more chatting with people I just didn’t like, no more packing lunches, or buying food for lunches, no more teen dramas.</p>

<p>Sure there is some stuff I will miss, the theatrical productions were amazing. So were the musical groups and chorus. But other than that, eh, I am moving on. ANd it feels so light and airy!!!</p>

<p>I am not sad its over, I am not missing Ds friends all that much, I am in contact with the mom’s I got on with, </p>

<p>When it was the night before D was leaving for school her friends were over, it was nice, but a little awkward. D was the only one going really far away. Since then, I guess she facebooks with them, but I don’t get the sense she feels lost or misses them so much she needs to talk to them much. </p>

<p>My Ds got used to the fact theirs and most other non athletes weren’t going to get the recogniztion from parents they deserved. That is what makes their and other students activities and non sports achievements, and efforts so amazing. They did it for others, they did it to learn, they did it because they loved debate, or the theater, or the yearbook, they didn’t do it for appause, nor did they need aplause or cheers to get the hard work done. I think that makes them pretty awesome. </p>

<p>Deja, I can imagine the frustration you had after reading that article. I bet your son, while irritated, moved on and kept doing well, though he saw that his activity wasn’t given the honor it deserved.</p>

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<p>Re: classes. Interesting about the college work being turned in on notebook paper! Son’s handwriting–not good, so I’ve always advised to type, even if it’s not requ’d.</p>

<p>Son (comp sci major) does not like his comp programing class (Python?). But loves his history class. Thinks he might minor in history.</p>

<p>I’m really glad at this point we didn’t gamble on ‘lucrative future career in programing’ to partially justify the super expensive schools we were considering, and went for the scholarship option!!!</p>

<p>Just hoping he gets some programing classes he likes in the future…</p>

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<p>NM, my son attempted to hand in a hand-written paper and it was not accepted. In high school, he hand wrote everything except final drafts (largely because work was always done while at school rather than home). In college, he banged out the writing assignment between classes and didn’t have his printer set up yet. However, when the teacher let him know it had to be typed, he thought that was fine too, just didn’t know.</p>

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<p>Jolynne, interesting comment on the computer science class. Interestingly, our oldest son’s least favorite classes are those in his major but he stuck with it anyway (is a senior now). He has gone to summer school and January terms to take electives he likes but considers them to be just for fun. He doesn’t expect to work in engineering but for some reason likes the idea of a degree in engineering. He has started job interviewing and is not looking at engineering jobs but still believes the major is helpful. Utlimately, he plans to get an MBA and looks at undergrad as just a basic foundation.</p>

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<p>A pity parents didn’t give your D the recognition she deserved. Maybe you should have organized something for her and the others.</p>

<p>Honestly, build the world you want – don’t expect others to do it for you!</p>

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<p>JS – Is it Python he doesn’t like? Or the way it’s being taught? Or the prof? Presumably it’s not programming or Comp Sci itself. Maybe Python is just one of those things in comp sci he doesn’t or won’t care for…</p>

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<p>What I mean to say is that high school culture is such that there is organized cheering for athletes, but seldom fur the stage hand, the news paper writer, the peer tutor etc., and many parents have no clue that a large number of students are doing that work. But they know who is running in the race or playing goalie.</p>

<p>I don’t need anyone to cheer on my daughters for all they did, nor cheer on the other kids they worked with, but it would be nice if other parents were at least given a heads up by the school, via alumni magazines, etc,. </p>

<p>My girls didn’t need and I shouldnt have to organize parents so that they recognze those students that do things behind the scenes. Schools should be better at that, instead of jus organziing parents for sports. </p>

<p>It is the nature of the beast, I understand that, but its still sad that those that really work hard often most parents have no clue and often don’t take as seriouslly becuase its not all about winning and scorinjg.</p>

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<p>Jolynne, S1 doesn’t care much for Python, either.</p>

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<p>Interesting, TheAnalyst! I’m hoping son doesn’t generalize against comp sci from one class (he seemed like he might be going in that direction…). Engineering is a solid degree to have, I’d imagine, even if your son didn’t pursue it. I met a girl recently w/an EE degree from a tech school who was managing a country club (very successfully, too).</p>

<p>Zetisis–I think it’s both the subject & teacher. Apparently teacher is a non-native English speaker who is difficult to understand, and the TA is not easy to understand either (TA teaches a good bit). I told son this was very, very common in big schools, and that things could change. He also said he likes ‘visual’ programing classes (Python is not). Hopefully he’ll have some fun ones in the future, because he said previously he liked the ‘logic’ of programming & it ‘fits how my mind works.’ Seems like it fundamentally appealed to him.</p>

<p>Counting Down – could you refresh – is your son a CS major also? Interesting. A CS PhD on CC told me that Python wasn’t widely used & he was surprised that it was offered to freshmen (if I remember correctly). Hoping this is an aberration.</p>

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<p>So write the darn article and submit it! Such things don’t magically happen, you know – someone has to do it. Honestly, you are complaining about something that could have sooooo easily been fixed if only you’d been willing to fix it instead of complaining about it! </p>

<p>And I’m saying this not as a parent with a kid on the football team or some such, because I don’t have one of those kids – I’m a non-athletic person with a non-athletic kid!</p>

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<p>D gets to take Intro to Programming in the spring, which she is pretty excited about. She likes mathematics and foreign language so I’m hoping programming will be a good fit for her!</p>

<p>Jolynne, D is taking physics right now and has a non-English instructor; fortunately the TA, that meets with them weekly, is a bit clearer in his speech.</p>

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<p>Actually around here, just for a few athletes. All football games (even the freshman B team) have cheerleaders. HS volleyball doesn’t - the games are at the same time as the football games. The three cheer squads (freshman, JV and varsity) take turns having a few girls “cover” basketball. Sorry cross country, gymnastics, swimming, gold, track, baseball, tennis, etc…no cheerleaders. (I guess tennis is the lonliest sport because, according to my friend, it’s only the two players, and their parents watching.)</p>

<p>I do think there’s a lot of self-selection. The kids running sound or lights at the plays aren’t dying to be up on stage - they’re doing what they want. </p>

<p>I actually had a little Facebook chat with Son…it’s kind of intimidating because the person wanting to chat with you knows you’re on, but it took me a while to figure out how to send the message…I kept looking for a “send” key.</p>

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<p>Our high school doesn’t organize parents to recognize or cheer for athletes or any other group. The parents opt to do it themselves- through booster clubs. That’s how the stage hand, newspaper editor/writer, forensics/debate team member, etc, are recognized. Schools have enough to do as it is with education-surely some parents can organize to create booster clubs for recognition purposes? </p>

<p>Missypie, fb chat has been great to talk to my kids. There’s a way you can hide if you’re online- which I suspect they do to me from time to time. D is a bigger fan of google chat.</p>