Wednesday, November 04, 2009

My Sadistic Side



My son, even as a young high school student was always thinking and planning. He worked hard, did all his work until report card grades were in and then stopped working. His philosophy was that we would see good grades and skip parent teacher conferences. He thought his work for six weeks would buy him a semester of goofing off.

The only thing he never counted on was crazy parents who knew him well and never believed.

Every year, dad took off from work and made the trek to his high school. Every year dad came home sick to his stomach, vowing never to return without a bag over his head, thus becoming the unknown parent. Every year mom got involved, putting her teaching skills to good use.

My son was lucky. Most teachers loved him and were willing to let him off the hook if he did not miss any more assignments. I loved him too and I was not so willing. Each year, I made him collect all his assignments and do them all. It didn't matter that the teachers did not care. I cared. He had to learn. He spent weeks without a television and computer, whining every step of the way, but he did the work.

Did he learn his lesson? Absolutely not! Every year the same pattern was repeated. What was gained from all of this? Mother's satisfaction. The sadist in me enjoyed watching him suffer.

7 comments:

ChiTown Girl said...

OMG! I thought I was the only one who did that! If I had a nickle for every time I heard, "But, it's too late, I can't get any credit for doing it now!" I'd be able to pay his tuition! ;-)

Son of Pissed Off said...

Its not that I thought you wouldn't find out, I just didn't think (and still don't think) I should have had to do the work in classes I did well on the exams proving I knew the material. If you look back the classes I did the least outside of school were the ones I did best on. The purpose of HW should be to help learn the material. If I knew it there was nothing to be learned by doing it.

Schoolgal said...

Most likely the course wasn't challenging. However, you were still responsible for the assignments since they should count towards your final grades, even if you passed every exam. Your parents should have been notified before the PTC. It would have eased the shock of the report.

Pissedoffteacher said...

Oh Son, you always have all the answers. Too bad you didn't stick to the questions.

Besides, those study skills would have helped you in college and we both know what I mean by that.

Kim Hughey said...

Pissed Off,

Your son sounds just like my oldest son. And his comment on the board was almost word-for-word what my son told me so many times in high school when we were getting into it over his lack of effort.

The amazing thing is that he has done wonderful since leaving for college. I guess he does better in a situation that bases almost your entire grade on exams.

He is now a biology major and math minor. Who would have ever thought that possible from a kid who barely passed every math class he was in, including the one where I was his algebra II teacher and I thought we would kill each other before the end of the year!

Pissedoffteacher said...

Ny "miserable" son is really very terrific. He is now a computer engineer and just got a job in Baltimore making $$$$ (more than twice the salary of a starting NYC teacher) He is only 27 and has not completed his masters degree.

Son of Pissed Off said...

Maybe if there really was differentiated education so that the coarse work challenged me I would have done the work. If you have ever seen Goodwill Hunting, the scene where he burned the work he did that is how I often felt, some of the stuff assigned to me was such a joke I could just not be motivated to do it.