Last night the freshman parents at Big Brother's high school were invited to a meeting, followed by a reception in the Gallery AKA cinder-block-lined hallway in the basement.
(Don't even get me started on how my tuition dollar$ were used to fund the libations for the reception, which included water, soda, wine and beer--not just any beer, not your average Budweiser, but Sam Adams, thankyouverymuch....whatever happened to coffee and sheet cake at these affairs? Obviously they think that plying the parents with alcohol will make us more willing to participate in the Magazine Sale....)
We ran into a few parents from Big Brother's eighth-grade class, one of whom was the librarian at the kids' former school. The conversation turned to the topic of the summer reading assignment, and this mom observed that at our local public high school, the kids were assigned to read The DaVinci Code. Her point was that the public school kids were reading something "current" while our kids had to read Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes--and she thought that our kids were missing out, somehow.
Her complaint didn't go far with me, and I let her know that in my Former Life I was an English teacher. "They can assign my kid all the literature they want."
I think that the kids will rise to the occasion. That's what school is for, right? To challenge the kids? To push them a little? Or have we all given up on the idea of Getting an Education in favor of Getting an Easy A and Getting Into a Better College (where they'd really need the Education they should have gotten in high school)?
If my child is ever assigned The DaVinci Code at school, a Big Stink will be made. Bring on the literature.
(Don't even get me started on how my tuition dollar$ were used to fund the libations for the reception, which included water, soda, wine and beer--not just any beer, not your average Budweiser, but Sam Adams, thankyouverymuch....whatever happened to coffee and sheet cake at these affairs? Obviously they think that plying the parents with alcohol will make us more willing to participate in the Magazine Sale....)
We ran into a few parents from Big Brother's eighth-grade class, one of whom was the librarian at the kids' former school. The conversation turned to the topic of the summer reading assignment, and this mom observed that at our local public high school, the kids were assigned to read The DaVinci Code. Her point was that the public school kids were reading something "current" while our kids had to read Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes--and she thought that our kids were missing out, somehow.
Her complaint didn't go far with me, and I let her know that in my Former Life I was an English teacher. "They can assign my kid all the literature they want."
I think that the kids will rise to the occasion. That's what school is for, right? To challenge the kids? To push them a little? Or have we all given up on the idea of Getting an Education in favor of Getting an Easy A and Getting Into a Better College (where they'd really need the Education they should have gotten in high school)?
If my child is ever assigned The DaVinci Code at school, a Big Stink will be made. Bring on the literature.
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