<p>corranged: ?????? Having the name and logo is against the school's rules?????</p>
<p>Any writing or logo on a shirt is against the rules, and you must wear a collar at all times. They changed this last year, though, so now the logo/name just has to be less than a square inch or something. Nobody wears schools clothes that I know of, though, so it's not an issue.</p>
<p>No shorts before May 15th regardless of the temperature. Since female students can where dresses/skirts, every year some male students show up in their skirts too! This is not against the dress code, as long as the skirt/dress is at least as long as the end of your hand when your arm is straight to your side.</p>
<p>I don't think my kids go to schools wiht dress codes-
D1 did look at a catholic girls school for high school, but once we saw that you only could wear jeans that didn't have any holes, we realized she would have had to get a whole new wardrobe ( she rode & ponies bite!)</p>
<p>At my son's public middle school, kids weren't allowed to wear the hoods of their sweatshirts on their heads, even in bad weather. No idea why. Son said it looked like "gang attire." No hats, of course.</p>
<p>My favorite is when my daughter was in first grade at our local public school. She was not allowed to bring a library book (Charlotte's Web was the prohibited tome that caused such a fuss) from home to read at school because the other kids would see it and feel bad that they couldn't read yet.
:eek:</p>
<p>Once at our high school a few years ago the principal said the girls basketball team should not play in a tournament because they might lose and it would hurt their self esteem.</p>
<p>On making up for test errors: As a teacher, the catch to allowing test corrections is that you have to have a VERY accurate key so that you can mark points off WITHOUT noting the precise error, so that the student has to find the error and correct it. Many students do this by finding a student who got all the points and copying his/her answer, so they don't actually learn much, alas. I never gave more than half the points back. I also found that students who had A's and had only missed a few points could be obsessive and extremely obnoxious about those few points, so I always dreaded the conference with the student who was trying desperately to get a 96 instead of a 92... </p>
<p>When I was in high school (a million years ago), the school insisted that parents call if you were sick. My mother's prime working hours were, like mine, from 8-12 in the morning, after that she just didn't work as effectively (she was a writer); she refused to call the school and told them I was to call, and they were to accept my call as if it were hers. So I cut school one day/quarter for all four years in high school. I'd be surprised if my mother didn't figure it out, but she never said anything--and neither did the school.</p>
<p>my d school requires a note rather than a phone call- saves them answering the phone and I suspect they save the notes that excuse abscenses in case of questions
the school also calls that day if the student missed one or more classess</p>
<p>gosh, to write about all the ridiculous things they told me about my son's education would take pages. The one thing that made me nuts....I was a single mother, worked from 7am to 7pm. the ONLY time I could meet with teachers was 7:45, no after school meetings, no lunchtime meetings, only 7:45, and that gave you 10 minutes before the bell rang and the teacher had to leave. Not to mention that I had another child at home that I had to get ready for school. I had dated several teachers who had often stayed late for parents meetings or even met on saturdays. But no, not one other parent ever complained about that ridiculous expectation. my other complaint is that no matter what happened, went wrong or was just not quite right, it was always my son's fault. from the time he was in kindergarten, everything was his fault because "he's older now, so he has to learn responsibility". But for some reasons the teachers never had to, like when I had to pay for a library book because the teacher accidently put it in his desk, and found it months later. no apology, nothing. just sent it home with a note.</p>
<p>Our middle school decided that instead of Parent-Teacher Conferences, they would have "Student-Led Conferences". That was where the student would show the parent their work and how they were doing. I knew how my daughter said she was doing; I wanted to hear what the teacher had to say. So I started showing up at these conferences -- with no kid. Then they HAD to talk to me!</p>
<p>And according to the Principal, I was the only parent that ever complained about Student-Led Conferences. Everyone else loved them. According to all the Moms at the baseball games, each of them was also the only parent to complain!</p>
<p>OK - here's the biggie. My son attends a brand new high school. This year it is just freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Last week the principal held assemblies each period to talk to the students. The subject? On the last report card, 1100 Fs were given. One third of the students have at least one F on their report card. I believe the principal also spoke with the teachers. Who did the principal not communicate with? The parents, of course.</p>
<p>peggy -- that's exactly what they've started doing at my brother's middle school. completely ridiculous. </p>
<p>when my history teacher assigns essays, he'll give them back with random check marks in the margins and at the end it will say "A+ great work!" or "A nice job" what exactly did I learn from that? These were not particularly well written essays either. One time in an essay that was part of a test my friend randomly wrote a few sentences in spanish in the middle of her essay and the teacher didn't notice at all... think he was reading it?
Another time my other friend got an A- on one of her papers and wanted to know why considering this same teacher didn't put any criticism or comments besides 'good' on her paper. The teacher said it was because she used too many run on sentences and her conclusion paragraph was weak, however, he couldn't provide any examples of "run-on sentences" in her paper that didn't have "good" written right next to them, and he had a check+ next to her conclusion.</p>
<p>Peggy: Totally understand!!! </p>
<p>AND, if you parents had tried to express your dissatisfaction with "student led conferences" as a GROUP, the school would have REFUSED to give you a forum. SCHOOLS refuse to allow a "group complaints" because then they can't claim that your singular complaint is unique or claim that your concern has no merit. OF COURSE schools claim that they won't allow group complaints because of "confidentiality issues" but if parents waive the confidentiality, there is none. Not to mention there is no "confidentiality issue" when parents, as a group, are complaining about "student led conferences" or other "non private" issues. Frankly, if a group complaint is put in writing (with signatures from all and sent with signature receipt required) then the school won't be able to claim that a complaint "is the only one".</p>
<p>How about "peer reviews" of each others' essays!!!!! My son's new English teacher is having the kids exchange essays tomorrow and find each other's mistakes. What makes kids "experts" at finding mistakes??? Kids might be able to find obvous mistakes, but if the child who is reviewing your child's essay is a poor speller and/or is bad at finding syntax, tense and other errors, then your child's paper will not be marked correctly. THEN the papers are returned and each child writes his final paper (never knowing if all of his mistakes were identified). I told my son to bring his paper home and my husband and I will "review" it after the "kid" reviews it.</p>
<p>On my son's AP Biology paper, his teacher made NO notations of anything being wrong, but did write "Excellent Paper, you have a true understanding of Biology" at the end of the essay. But at the top of the paper, his teacher put 14/20 THAT is a 70% the lowest C- !!!!!! I didn't bother to complain because his average is an A+. But still that is weird..................</p>
<p>Actually, JLauer, tons of schools do peer reviews, as do all college and above creative writing classes. Peer review is extraordinarily useful. It's generally not to find grammar and typos but to give a thorough critique on the work. During the crafting of the final draft, the student should consider the comments made by whoever reviewed it as the opinions of a helpful reader. It is useful to see how an outside reader takes and understands a piece of writing.</p>
<p>This can, of course, fail if the students do not take the time to write a good first draft, come in with questions, or come in willing to read and critique another essay. The process is a widely used and accepted one, though.</p>
<p>fire: 1100 "F's" were given?????? This is crazy. How many students are there at the school (I know you said 1/3 received at least one "F") Have the parents gone and asked why so many "F's" </p>
<p>AND were the "F's" given by just a small handfull of teachers or were the "F's" spread around by all the faculty. I ask because if it is just a few teachers who are giving out all the "F"s" then THEIR teaching skills need to be looked at. </p>
<p>Frequently when a new school opens, the other schools in the district use this as an opportunity to get rid of teachers that aren't good - so they transfer those teachers to the new school. The process is called: "the dance of the lemons"</p>
<p>After having kids in the same high school for seven years I have seen quite a few examples of stupidity. My biggest peeve though is mandated classes. Pennsylvania has mandated academic standards (due to no child left untested) and each school district throughout the state then figures out what classes can meet those standards in each classes curriculum. Our school district went overboard and mandated tons of must-have classes that make little sense. While our MS and HS are supposed to be working together, somehow it's thought that the students need keyboarding and basic computer classes for all three years of middle school (taught in 5 week mini-cycles) and then two more full years at the high school. No testing out or taking it anywhere else allowed. Besides core classes of math, english, science and social studies every student must also have 4 years of gym (actually 4 semesters, but they cannot be taken one after another, has to be 1 semester every year), drivers ed, tech ed (like high tech shop), 2 years (actually 2 semesters, again not concurrently) of health, and two years of a language. The language is not required but that's like reading the small print, the gc's act as if you must take it. Math and maybe one class of social studies can be taken at local CC, but it's not a given.</p>
<p>That works out to one elective a year until junior year when you might be able to do two if you stop your foreign language and none until junior year if you do band or orchestra. Since it's a fairly small HS (1,000 kids) there's also a real good chance that you won't get the classes you signed up for because it may be taught in just one time period.</p>
<p>Also, they always schedule AP physics during band period so those kids have to choose. This coming semester, my senior son, who had no electives until last year when he took a computer programming class, will have 2 1/2 study halls a week because there are no 1/2 year classes to fit into the spaces of the 1/2 year classes he took the first semester. The irony is, as ticked off as I sound, this school is better then his younger brother's middle school. but, that's another rant....</p>
<p>corranged: I can understand doing this at college level or at an AP English level. But in a high school Freshman English class where you have students that don't know what they are doing, then it is a waste of time. In the past, my son (who is an A+ student) ignores the comments from these "peer reviews" because usually the "advice" is silly, pointless or just plain wrong (Yes, the reviewer does attempt to "correct" grammar and other errors). Usually the "peer reviewer" just writes anything just to write something. (This would be like asking my husband to give decorating reviews -- he would write something/anything just to get it over with.)</p>
<p>Most of my english classes have done this. I guess it would depend on the students in the class as well as the teacher.</p>