Wednesday – F? No, U!
Nov. 3rd, 2010 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermore.
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I signed my first ever report card today. Well, that is if faking one of my parents' signatures on a report back in the day doesn't really count. I don't think it should, anyway. Rather than A, B, C, D and F, his kindergarten class is graded using the E-S-N-U system. E is for excellent, S is for satisfactory, N is for needs improvement, and U is like S but with an un on the front of it.
First the good news: my son has perfect attendance. The faculty and staff may have hoped and prayed that he would get sick and give them a few days of rest, but he’s remarkably healthy and keeps on showing up, day after day.
As healthy as he is, he made two Unsatisfactories in P.E., both for Acquiring skills for lifelong physical fitness and the more basic General conduct. P.E. is not his favorite class. The P.E. teacher got bit today, for example, and not for the first time. To be fair, she had him in a restraint hold at the time and he probably considered it self defense. She doesn’t get bit every day; she gets kicked a lot, too. He doesn’t like going to the principal’s office much, but judging from the number of times he goes there during P.E., it seems he likes it a heck of a lot better than he likes the gym.
He also made two Unsatisfactories in Music class. He loves music, but only certain music. The treacly little-kid songs they sing in elementary school music classes are the kind of thing he has hated since he was an infant. If they want him to sit still and pay attention, they should be teaching him rock and roll. Since they aren’t, they reported that he is failing to acquire musical skills and concepts, and as for General Conduct, I’m sure you can guess. Having to learn nursery rhymes without the use of some catchy guitar chords and a heavy drum beat just isn't going to inspire him to pay attention and sit still.
When it comes to reading and writing, on the other hand, he is about on par with the rest of his classmates. In math, he got straight Es in everything except counting, because he keeps forgetting about the numbers 13 and 15. He’s never had much use for the number 9, either. He tends to skip the numbers he doesn't like. Because 9, 13 & 15 were counted as part of his grade, he made a U in counting. We’ll work on that at home, and see if we can’t warm him up to those numbers three odd numbers.
He made an E in communication, because they have noticed he is good at listening and speaking. This does not surprise me, as he can give you a blow-by-blow account of every Sponge Bob Squarepants* episode he has ever seen. Fine motor skills were a little shaky but passing. He made an S in art, though they said his General Conduct Needs Improvement. He likes Art, and that teacher does not get hit or bit much.
The Social and Emotional Development section was a wash. It turns out that is a big part of your grades when you are in kindergarten. He made an S in Attends to self-selected tasks, because if he gets to pick the activity then he is generally happy to be doing it. However the other 8 categories, which include: Accepts & Respects Authority, Follows Teacher Directions, Demonstrates Self-Control, Listens While Others Speak, Participates in Groups, Accepts Responsibility For Own Actions, Works and Plays Well with Others, and Attempts to Solve Problems Independently were Unsatisfactory across the board.
Under Work/Study Habits, he got an Unsatisfactory for Uses Materials Appropriately, because they seem to regard throwing his school supplies across the room when he gets angry to be “inappropriate.” He also fails to Stay On Task. In this light, the Ns he got for Completes a task with a giver period of time and Strives for Quality Work looked pretty good to me.
I have found that the secret to happiness is having really low standards, and relishing in the didly squat you get rather than sulking about all the great things you missed out on. Hey, sometimes my son manages to stay on task. He’s not good at it, but once and a while he pulls it off. Say Hallelujah and pass the tequila, it’s gonna be a long school year. What it all boils down to is this: his intellectual skills are okay, his social and behavior skills are not. I had kind of figured that out already, so none of this was really a shock.
“They have that he does not play well with others, but I don’t see anything about him running with scissors on here,” I told my husband. “What’s the education system coming to, when they don’t even grade you on something as important as that anymore?”
I blame the No Child Left Behind Act. If the tests don’t cover not running with scissors, no one is going to bother teaching kids that they shouldn't do that. This is a damn shame: my son never runs with scissors. Sometimes he may throw scissors, but he never runs with them. He would have gotten an E if they still graded for this very important life skill.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * # * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
* He does not watch Sponge Bob at home, because I have led him to believe that we don’t get the Nickelodeon channel on our TV. I hate Sponge Bob. But he watched it at his babysitter’s house a lot, and thinks it’s hilarious.
.
.
I signed my first ever report card today. Well, that is if faking one of my parents' signatures on a report back in the day doesn't really count. I don't think it should, anyway. Rather than A, B, C, D and F, his kindergarten class is graded using the E-S-N-U system. E is for excellent, S is for satisfactory, N is for needs improvement, and U is like S but with an un on the front of it.
First the good news: my son has perfect attendance. The faculty and staff may have hoped and prayed that he would get sick and give them a few days of rest, but he’s remarkably healthy and keeps on showing up, day after day.
As healthy as he is, he made two Unsatisfactories in P.E., both for Acquiring skills for lifelong physical fitness and the more basic General conduct. P.E. is not his favorite class. The P.E. teacher got bit today, for example, and not for the first time. To be fair, she had him in a restraint hold at the time and he probably considered it self defense. She doesn’t get bit every day; she gets kicked a lot, too. He doesn’t like going to the principal’s office much, but judging from the number of times he goes there during P.E., it seems he likes it a heck of a lot better than he likes the gym.
He also made two Unsatisfactories in Music class. He loves music, but only certain music. The treacly little-kid songs they sing in elementary school music classes are the kind of thing he has hated since he was an infant. If they want him to sit still and pay attention, they should be teaching him rock and roll. Since they aren’t, they reported that he is failing to acquire musical skills and concepts, and as for General Conduct, I’m sure you can guess. Having to learn nursery rhymes without the use of some catchy guitar chords and a heavy drum beat just isn't going to inspire him to pay attention and sit still.
When it comes to reading and writing, on the other hand, he is about on par with the rest of his classmates. In math, he got straight Es in everything except counting, because he keeps forgetting about the numbers 13 and 15. He’s never had much use for the number 9, either. He tends to skip the numbers he doesn't like. Because 9, 13 & 15 were counted as part of his grade, he made a U in counting. We’ll work on that at home, and see if we can’t warm him up to those numbers three odd numbers.
He made an E in communication, because they have noticed he is good at listening and speaking. This does not surprise me, as he can give you a blow-by-blow account of every Sponge Bob Squarepants* episode he has ever seen. Fine motor skills were a little shaky but passing. He made an S in art, though they said his General Conduct Needs Improvement. He likes Art, and that teacher does not get hit or bit much.
The Social and Emotional Development section was a wash. It turns out that is a big part of your grades when you are in kindergarten. He made an S in Attends to self-selected tasks, because if he gets to pick the activity then he is generally happy to be doing it. However the other 8 categories, which include: Accepts & Respects Authority, Follows Teacher Directions, Demonstrates Self-Control, Listens While Others Speak, Participates in Groups, Accepts Responsibility For Own Actions, Works and Plays Well with Others, and Attempts to Solve Problems Independently were Unsatisfactory across the board.
Under Work/Study Habits, he got an Unsatisfactory for Uses Materials Appropriately, because they seem to regard throwing his school supplies across the room when he gets angry to be “inappropriate.” He also fails to Stay On Task. In this light, the Ns he got for Completes a task with a giver period of time and Strives for Quality Work looked pretty good to me.
I have found that the secret to happiness is having really low standards, and relishing in the didly squat you get rather than sulking about all the great things you missed out on. Hey, sometimes my son manages to stay on task. He’s not good at it, but once and a while he pulls it off. Say Hallelujah and pass the tequila, it’s gonna be a long school year. What it all boils down to is this: his intellectual skills are okay, his social and behavior skills are not. I had kind of figured that out already, so none of this was really a shock.
“They have that he does not play well with others, but I don’t see anything about him running with scissors on here,” I told my husband. “What’s the education system coming to, when they don’t even grade you on something as important as that anymore?”
I blame the No Child Left Behind Act. If the tests don’t cover not running with scissors, no one is going to bother teaching kids that they shouldn't do that. This is a damn shame: my son never runs with scissors. Sometimes he may throw scissors, but he never runs with them. He would have gotten an E if they still graded for this very important life skill.
* He does not watch Sponge Bob at home, because I have led him to believe that we don’t get the Nickelodeon channel on our TV. I hate Sponge Bob. But he watched it at his babysitter’s house a lot, and thinks it’s hilarious.
