My 4th Grader:\u00a0<\/strong> Nothing.<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0<\/strong> You always say that.<\/p>\n My 4th Grader:\u00a0<\/strong> No, really, I mean nothing.\u00a0 We’re just sitting there.\u00a0 We don’t have any more tests.\u00a0 Tomorrow we have field day.\u00a0 Oh, I need a new water bottle.<\/p>\n My 3rd Grader:\u00a0<\/strong> My teacher said we’re going to need a lot of water because we’re going to be outside all day.\u00a0 I want a new water bottle too!<\/p>\n Great!\u00a0 Another last minute trip to Target.<\/p>\n And then the memories come flooding back in a wave of nauseating cynicism….<\/p>\n But hey, at least by 10:30am it was 17 degrees, so I guess the delay was worth the 2 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n The memories subside and with crisis averted the kids get on the school bus with their new water bottles.<\/p>\n After an easy hour-long commute from Gainesville to Chantilly, I get the stories from co-workers….<\/p>\n Not only are the kids doing nothing, the teachers are evidently not doing anything either.\u00a0 I feel bad for the teachers – I’ve talked to a couple who are just as frustrated as I am.<\/p>\n As the 17 year olds sit on the gymnasium bleachers, one asks:<\/p>\n Ha, don’t be silly.\u00a0 The basketballs have “…been inventoried and are stored.”<\/p>\n Well, at least they’re keeping track.<\/p>\n It got better in the next class.\u00a0 The kids had a contest to see who could get the paper airplane into the trashcan.\u00a0\u00a0 At least flying paper airplanes exposes the kids to the principles of aerodynamics and physics.<\/p>\n Not so in the next class, where kids were either sleeping, or kicked back in their chairs on their phones.<\/p>\n Okay kids, time for staring at your cell phones!<\/p>\n At least some kids took some initiative and just skipped class.\u00a0 And with seniors and juniors together in some classes, some class-specific priorities and testing leave some classrooms with only a few students.\u00a0 This one is nearly empty…<\/p>\n The teachers are victims of this too.\u00a0 No goals, no curriculum to advance, and graduation ceremonies set for a week before the end of school, what are they supposed to do?\u00a0 Well, this…<\/p>\n The School Board insists that we have limited recess, extended days and a school year that goes 3 weeks after the start of summer swim team practice.\u00a0 But the academics shut down as soon as the last SOL is turned in the week before Memorial Day.<\/p>\n So, School Board, if you’re going to lecture us limited recess, extended days, a long school year, how about if the kids actually learn something?\u00a0 At least, something other than what a joke the last 2 weeks of school has become?<\/p>\n How are we as parents expected to do our job, extolling the virtues of going to school, getting an education, and thriving academically, when the reality is that the kids are going to school and goofing off 7 hours a day for a full 2 weeks, and in some cases more.<\/p>\n\n
And their stories are WORSE.<\/h2>\n
“Can I at least get a basketball?”<\/h2>\n
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