The first quarter of school will be ending this
Friday. We’re very busy this next week having
students finish projects and assignments, so we can get all the grades in. On Friday a fourth of the school year will be
over already.
Parents are most anxious during this first
quarter of middle school, and I’m relieved when we get past it. Instead of 10 to 15 long emails from parents
every morning, I’m down to just one or two – or none!
The kids will get their progress reports in a week or so,
and it’s rare for anyone to be failing at this point. Everyone is breathing a
little easier. But there’s information
that parents won’t get on these progress reports that I wish they could know.
Parents won’t know how bright and happy their kids’ eyes
are when the bell rings. Every 45 minutes
they get a fresh start. Whatever is
going on in class is over and they move on to something new.
Parents won’t know how good the kids feel about mastering
their schedules and lockers. They
now know where they go eight different periods a day. Two periods a day they negotiate the A-B
schedules for PE and Electives. They
breeze through shortened schedule days and block schedule days. Ten times a day they twirl the
combination locks on their lockers and pull them open without even thinking.
Parents won’t know that the kids aren’t sad about not
having their old friends in their class because they’ve made new friends.
Parents won’t know that their student has figured out
that Mrs. Sneldon is not nearly as scary as they thought. She has a mean bark when they are messing
around in class, but she’s a sucker for sad looks and sorrowful excuses.
Parents won’t know that the kids have figured out Mr.
Ableman forgets to announce the homework sometimes, and he can be talked out of
a due date the next day by telling him he never told them when it was due –
even though he did.
Parents won’t know that the kids have figured out that
Miss Crawford hates her students to get bad grades on tests and she gives tons
of hints if you go up and ask her a question during the test. If you get a bad grade, well, you’re just not
using the “tools” available.
Parents won’t know that even though there’s a lot of
homework in math, most of the kids have figured out that math is one of those
subjects you can’t learn by just watching someone do the problems on the
board. You have to do some math problems
on your own.
Parents won’t know that the kids have learned that a
novel can start out confusing and hard to understand, but by the time you finish
it, it’s “the best book you’ve ever read.”
And there’s six more books in the series.
Yes, it was an anxious, scary time starting middle
school. But it was scary starting 5th
grade, and 4th, and 3rd, and 2nd, and 1st,
and especially scary starting kindergarten.
It was scary leaving your child with a babysitter for the first
time. There was a lot of anxiety leaving
your baby in the church nursery for the first time.
It was scary going into labor and giving birth.
But all these anxious, scary times starting new adventures
are turning out to be doorways into bigger, brighter rooms.
(from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - no joke intended)
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