Well, school doesn't let out for some days yet, but my kid tells me just about all they've done at West for the past week is watch movies.

I know I complain about this just about every year, but is it too much to ask that our schools at least ATTEMPT to provide something related to education during the last couple of weeks of school. It isn't as tho our school year is overlong already, especally when you add in all the days off/late arrivals/early dismissals.

My Senior was diligently working on a project this weekend - coincidentally, it is a movie!! They are seniors and already admitted to college if they are going that route. This is about the best time of their lives. Today Seniors headed to their "last Tuesday of high school," as I was reminded this morning.

My younger West student still seems to have plenty of work to do, if that makes you feel any better. Plus the underclassmen are readying for finals.

Also, Gramps, I would wager they are using DVD players or other digital devices to play the movies, not projectors.

GEMom2, my senior was doing the same thing. He had a movie he had to make for a final project (although he turned it in on Friday so he didn't have to worry about it over the weekend). Last week he also had a major paper due. But yeah, this week is pretty much fun time for seniors. (Don't worry, Dinsdale; all the other kids have finals, don't they? I think that qualifies as more than busy work.)

quote:

Originally posted by GEmom2:
...I would wager they are using DVD players or other digital devices to play the movies, not projectors.

Dinsdale was probably the AV assistant (teacher's pet) who threaded the projector.

My daughter says the same thing...she did have a couple of papers due last week but other than that it's a virtual cineplex! I think the teachers at least try to find flicks that relate to the subject matter Even AP Calclus has an appropriate movie... Stand and Deliver!

As a parent of a Senior, it's kind of a bittersweet week. When my oldest was a Senior 2 years ago, I actually cried when I realized that the lunch I was packing for him was going to be the last.

Same here, Agnes - last one in the school system, graduating next week; it's a very bittersweet time. I cried at the last band concert last week; I'll cry on his last day of school. My oldest graduated 2 years ago, also, and it hit me right before he left for college. Standing in the grocery store, I suddenly realized I did not have to buy his "usual" items; just looking at the bottles of blue Gatorade that I'd never have to stockpile again made me sob like a baby.

Of course, he does come home now and then. And eats a lot. Necessitating many grocery trips.

Of course, there's freedom to it, too. As a writer who works at home - and a night owl, to boot - I've hated having to get up at 6:30 every morning. I really do look forward to sleeping in a little!

Still, I was talking to a friend whose youngest is also graduating, and we both agreed that it will feel odd not to have children in the school system. It really makes you look at the community in a different way; you don't feel quite so much a part of it, I think. You look at the parks and the playgrounds and the schools and you have no one there anymore, and you feel detached. We all joke that we're now the grumpy old people who will continually vote "No" to any school referendums. I do see how you feel as if it's simply not in your best interest anymore - true or not, there's just that feeling.

quote:

Originally posted by scribbler:
Same here, Agnes - last one in the school system, graduating next week; it's a very bittersweet time.

Man, sorry to hear you guys are experiencing any bitterness, but we are in a similar boat and it has been all sweet for us! We've been gleefully celebrating each "last." Were thrilled when that incredibly L-O-N-G last concert was over, and will find some way to celebrate Wednesday's last senior convo. And we are joyfully aware that every day brings us one step closer to getting that last kid out of the house! Yippee!

Felt the same way when we attended our last functions at Ben Franklin and Hadley. Ready for a new chapter, with the best still to come.

The other day I was at a party and spoke with a single woman in her 40s who had a 5 year old adopted daughter who is going to start school next fall. This woman was going on at length about enrolling her kid in kindergarten. Apparently one of her factors was whether the school offered Mandarin every day or only 3 days per week. I had to wonder if she had ever seen that Cheetos commercial ...

She just couldn't imagine that my wife and I were ready for our kids to move out of the house. Couldn't comprehend that after 20+ years the joy of playing full-time parent to live-in kids grew kinda old!

And Ron, never was in the AV club myself, but I always found something cool about those old projectors, the way the reels would change speeds as the tape rolled, how the loose end would whip around ... But I was undoubtedly denying my inner geekiness!

I'm not a teacher, but ISTM that a teacher could come up with some sort of fun and/or stimulating activities other than simply staring at a movie. Structured discussions, in-class puzzles or competitions, applications of the material learned beyond the classroom, discussion of current events, whatever. But I'm sure some teacher will explain why that is just impossible.

And scribbler - the way our school districts operate, I suspect there will be ample reasons to vote NO other than simply having had your kids graduate!

Oh, Dinsdale, don't get me wrong - we're definitely planning ahead for this new time in our lives. More travel is on the docket, for one thing. I'm looking forward to cooking the kind of meals my kids would never have eaten - experimenting with different kinds of cuisines, etc. We're already eating out more (since our youngest is rarely around for dinner on the weekends), and that's a nice change of pace. (Not to mention enjoying cocktails at home, something we never did when the kids were small.) And too, I have a new book coming out in January, and there's lots I have to do for that, right around the time I'm moving my youngest into his dorm. So it's hard to wallow too much in the past, because there are definitely things to look forward to.

Still, aren't you just a little bit sad to see the end of these parenting years? Maybe it's different for women; I do (did) enjoy being the full-time mom, never saw the downside of it, and so it's natural to feel a little bit of sadness now that my services are no longer required in quite the same way. But it's not our decision when this period ends, is it? It's our kids'.

But I do agree with you in that I'm really happy we're still relatively young heading into this new time in our lives; I cannot imagine having small children and starting all over again now. And I'm in no hurry to have grandchildren, either; I want to enjoy a kids-free existence for a while!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GEmom2:
My Senior was diligently working on a project this weekend - coincidentally, it is a movie!!/QUOTE]

That would explain the kids I saw this weekend in a local park putting on boxing gloves and filming themselves fighting...

quote:

Originally posted by DTM:
That would explain the kids I saw this weekend in a local park putting on boxing gloves and filming themselves fighting...

Don't you know the first rule of fight club?

Happy to report the senior is actually working on one assignment - a frigging arts and crafts project for anatomy! Man, I thought we had left that crap behind some while back!

And mine has one more big paper due tomorrow. Of course, he hasn't started it yet - while he has been working diligently on his costume to wear to the "Senior Most" event Friday night. Priorities, priorities....

Don't get me started on Senior Most.

NOT my favorite school activity. I do not understand why the school sponsors - let alone tolerates - an exercise in which some of the designations are downright mean. (Seriously, name me any senior whose life is in any improved by being publicly designated "most awkward"!)

There are enugh opportunities for the popular sh*ts to praise each other and dump on their perceived inferiors, that they don't need the school's encouragement.

Hmm. Honestly, I never really was aware of it until recently. I don't recall my older son going to it at all - he just wasn't the type to care about that sort of thing. My youngest is, though - as long as he can treat it like the joke it probably is. Hence, the intense preparation of a costume to wear that makes fun of the theme. (Something about future careers; he's going as a Power Ranger.)

So - I wasn't aware that most kids take this at all seriously.

quote:

Originally posted by scribbler:
... as long as he can treat it like the joke it probably is.

...

So - I wasn't aware that most kids take this at all seriously.

So, kindly explain to me the HS student who is likely to take it as "a joke" to be publicly declared "most awkward" by and in front of his or her peers?

Fan, feel free to check in in a decade when you have any clue what it is like to have kids in HS.

quote:

Originally posted by GE Fan:
I'm sure the "Most Awkward" award really ruined the kids High School experience....what a shame.

Nice exaggeration. I never suggested it really ruined anyone's HS experience. Instead, I suggested it was mean, and ought not be a part of a school sanctioned activity.

Yeah, it is a cruel world that kids are going to have to learn how to live in. But I don't see any particular reason why our schools ought to support unnecessary cruelty.

quote:

Originally posted by GE Fan:
Dinsdale - it's like any High School sanctioned activity....kids get their feelings hurt and kids get excluded.

...

It's harmless tradition in my opinion. How about all those poor dears who don't get selected for the Prom Court and/or Prom King/Queen? What to do with their feelings?

Fortunately I know you are intelligent enough to understand the distinction between not being selected for an honor or distinction, as opposed to being publicly designated in an insulting manner.

Someone who didn't know you other than from your posts in this thread might think you had difficulty comprehending such concepts.

Don't ever get Fan on the phone....."Most Boring Conversationalist"....EVER!!

I know it hurts to see your kid hurt; we've all suffered that. I know high school sucks for the vast majority of kids, in varying ways. But c'mon. How's this any different from those silly blurbs kids used to put under each other's pictures in yearbooks?

Actually, I find the Senior Most a refreshing departure from the usual attitude the administration takes concerning seniors and graduation. They usually seem hell bent on taking all the fun out of everything - all the dire threats concerning graduation, senior ditch day, pranks, etc. I think there's a difference between sanctioning unruly behavior and taking all the joy out of an event - a difference that District 87 usually seems unable to discern. (I'm remembering a horrible beach ball incident during graduation of 2007, in a sweltering Biester gym with no working sound equipment....)

quote:

Originally posted by scribbler:
I know it hurts to see your kid hurt; we've all suffered that. I know high school sucks for the vast majority of kids, in varying ways. But c'mon. How's this any different from those silly blurbs kids used to put under each other's pictures in yearbooks?

Well, if this qualifies me as a no-fun, stick-in-the-mud, so be it. But I stand by my position that clearly negative labels ought to be avoided in school-sponsored activities including "senior most" and yearbooks.

I'll hazard a guess that folks who think that the less complimentary labels are no big deal have not had the pleasure of having themselves or their kids labeled in such a manner. Yeah, HS kids will seize upon any number of ways to be mean to each other. I simply do not see any reason why the school ought to encourage such efforts.

I suspect most kids would vastly prefer being left out of the "senior mosts" over being recognized in a derogatory manner. Please explain any group benefit that outweighs the harm to the individual in this situation.