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oh there's more
2005-05-18 - 9:38 a.m. Dear god -- Anyway, further conversations with N. about the importance of keeping up with schoolwork yielded results. She worked hard on her paper. She cleaned her room and studied. We studied latin vocab in the car on the way to school/work this morning. What prompted this was a message from her latin teacher saying that N. seemed to be struggling more than she would expect, given her aptitude, and that she (N.) had gotten a D on a quiz N. had assured me she'd gotten an A on. (It was a quiz taken a month ago. She was supposed to take it the day she skipped, but made it up the next day. N. assured me she'd gotten an A -- I suppose it's possible she'd actually forgotten. Yeah, right.) Anyway -- one of the prerequisates for attending Large Urban Public School is that you are capable of dealing with the fact that you are on your own, and that no one is really checking up on you. It means you really have to be responsible, and aware of what work you need to do, and know how to ask for help if you need id -- because no one is going to offer. So if she really can't handle it -- and I can see how it may be too hard, especially for a fairly shy and stubborn person like N., then we're going to need to do something else. God knows there are about 80 billion children for whom LUPS really doesn't work, and lots of those actually have delusional parents who claim all is well and it is working when it pretty clearly isn't. So there's not really any shame in having it not work. It makes me really angry, though -- there's all this talk about how the school has to be equitable and for everyone, and that's why they can't let kids like N. who come from educated backgrounds be in academically challenging course, which makes you wonder -- where are the three kids for whom this school is really working? Anyway. Maybe she will turn the corner, but in the meantime I think I'd better start finding options just in case. Of course, the options cost $20,000 per year, which pretty much rules out any college beside Cal State Hayward. Oh well. Ugh.
find me! - 2008-02-12 |
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