Venting

[suziquzie]

Yeah I think she said concentration..... yeah right.
Getting your kid to bed at 8 not 10 after 16 zillion errands helps them stay awake in class too.

[Fisher's Mom]

Originally Posted by Barbara L

Many of the parents in our area can't read well, or at all. Way too many of them say that teaching is the school's job, and they refuse to do anything. Many of the kids were never read to and don't know any of the typical nursery rhymes, etc. It is really sad. The parents (not all of course, but the ones I am talking about here) had no interest in school growing up, and they see school partly as an imposition and partly as a way to get the kids off of their hands for a few hours. Many of them had their kids so young that they were either growing up with them, or the grandparents are raising the kids. I repeat, it is very sad.

It would be nice if all parents and the school worked together for the best of the children.

Barbara

You are so right, Barbara. I've met so many "functionally illiterate" young people! People who can read just enough to get by, but it's a struggle. Certainly there is no "reading for pleasure" for these people. So when they have children, they are unable (and/or unwilling) to read to them regularly, if at all. There are actually many young children who have no books in their home! None at all! It's a wonder that teachers manage to teach whole classrooms of children who have never seen a book up close before entering school.

[suziquzie]

That is so foreign to me!
I actually just straightened up the kids' books today.... what a mess....
But I can't imagine having less than a bazilllion kids books!
Although I wished today we had a couple fewer.....

[Fisher's Mom]

I know - it's amazing to me, too! I can't imagine life without books.

[Barbara L]

Many of my 4th graders (and some of my 2nd graders before that) stayed up as late as 1:00 or 2:00 many nights. Even the ones who went to bed earlier were up until 10:00.

When I was a kid I had to be in bed at 8:00 on a school night, and even as a high school senior I had to be in bed by 9:30 on a school night. I hated it, but I was rested for school. (I make up for it now by going to bed at 5:30 a.m., but that's another story! lol).

Parents are too often not being parents. Too many kids are raising themselves.

Barbara

[Barbara L]

Originally Posted by suziquzie

That is so foreign to me!
I actually just straightened up the kids' books today.... what a mess....
But I can't imagine having less than a bazilllion kids books!
Although I wished today we had a couple fewer.....

I was raised with lots of books, and when we couldn't afford to buy them, I spent every Saturday (my choice) at the library.

Not only do many of the kids in our area not have books at home, their families don't subscribe to magazines or newspapers, and many don't have the basic "school supplies" that most kids have at home, such as crayons, glue, scissors, etc. Some have to bring their pencils home from school so that they can do their homework.

Barbara

[suziquzie]

Wow!
It must make you cringe having been a teacher...

[Barbara L]

It did. I allowed the kids to take books from the classroom library home to read (I bought many of them myself), and I let them take things like glue or crayons home if they needed to work on a project. I also often gave the kids things like 8-packs of colored pencils for Christmas.

Barbara
P.S. I also gave a prize to everyone who showed me a library card the first month of school (it had to be their own), and I tried constantly to convince the other teachers that we should take a field trip to the library, but I was always shot down.

[Lynd]

Well it's a great idea, at least you tried

[Barbara L]

Thanks! I would have just done it on my own with my class, but the school has a policy that the whole grade level has to go on a field trip.

Barbara