fuck it

I am sick to death of trying to fight the war that the mistakes of the education system has caused. William just won't do his homework. Won't. Okay, I'm 54 and went to the best public schools in the country in the 50s and 60s, courtesy of Cedar Rapids IA.

Half-day for kindergarten NO HOMEWORK.

9-3 or 3:30 (can't remember now) for 1st thru 3rd NO HOMEWORK.

We had recess BOTH mornings and afternoons, and as I remember 40 minutes for lunch, or was it an hour...and we LEARNED!!!! Fancy fucking that. We learned, with less time in the classroom and no homework. We learned more than kids learn today. We had mastered cursive by the end of third grade (William's 3rd grade class didn't even start), we had mastered the times tables by the end of 3rd grade (well, I hadn't quite, but I still did just fine).

Homework started in the fourth grade, it was a rite of passage, we were big kids now. I am sure my parents had to bug me some, but I just do not remember the ongoing, hair-tearing, nail-pulling, tortuous ordeal that I have to go through with William to get him to do the little piddly bit of homework that he has. And why? Because he's had homework since he was fucking five years old!!! No chance to be a kid, home-fucking-work.

Just when I had made a pledge to stop using the f-word and all its derivatives I finally come to the end of my rope about homework. I also stopped spanking...actually I stopped that some time ago, because all it does is make him angry and in the end makes things worse.

Here's how school worked 4th thru 6th grade for me. Half the kids would have homeroom in the morning, that is one teacher all morning who taught history, social studies, and language arts. The other half of the kids had that class in the afternoon. The other half of the day we had math every day for an hour, and then alternated music with art and science with PE. If you had music and science on MWF and art and PE on TTh in the fall, then in the spring, you'd reverse, along with reversing homeroom--fall morning kids became spring afternoon kids.

It worked, music and art were not referred to as "specials," they were a regular part of the curriculum. And we had homework from homeroom, math, and science. Sure, I was a slacker, and I know I didn't do it sometimes, but I also know I did not have this constant battle with my parents about it.

With a kid like William, and I think a lot of other kids, they are sick and fucking goddamned tired of homework. They've all but done away with recess, the poor kids have to be there at 7:50 in the morning (we got there at 9 and left at 3), and leave at 3:05. For several years he had lunch as early as TEN THIRTY in the morning!!

I won't even get into the whole issue about if you add the white, black, and Asian kids together, it still wouldn't equal the Hispanics, so all the assemblies have to be translated for parents who either can't or won't learn the language of their adopted country, and won't stop talking for teachers and admins who speak at these things...constantly running off at the mouth and letting their smaller children scream and carry on....because of course, if I say anything...I'm labeled a bigot. Which I'm not. I just think that if you move to a new country, do not expect everyone to change what THEY do to suit your laziness.

So, I'm going to sit William down and tell him: Homework is YOUR responsibility, not mine. I can't browbeat you into it, I can't do it for you. So...if you still want to be in the fourth grade at 15...I suppose that's your issue.

I'm sure that makes me sound like a horrible mom...got any suggestions?