The Teenager is a freshman in high school this year, in the Honors Program. He's had an extraordinary amount of homework these first couple of weeks. HWK and I assumed the teachers were getting the kids back into the swing of school and homework. Well, last night we went to "Meet the Teachers Night".
First, we had to go to each of The Teenager's classes, in order. The high school has two stories, and - I am not kidding - the classes alternate from the first to the second floor every other class. The high school is shaped in an "H", with stairways set with no apparent rhyme or reason (and HWK's an architectural designer, so he knows a thing or two about such things). Luckily, they gave us a map...oh, wait...that was my wishful thinking. Luckily, the wings had signs listing room numbers...oh, wait...they didn't. It was fun! Dash up this flight of stairs, whip a look down the hall to spot a room number or two, then move on to the next...dodge the parent yakking on their cell phone/blue tooth who WILL stop mid-stride, gesturing wildly to make their point to the person they are yelling at. I actually smiled at two people who were on blue tooth (how was I supposed to know - they were looking right at me). They didn't smile back. One actually looked at me like I need medication. *sigh*
After navigating the wings and stairwells, we had 9 minutes per each "mini class", where we had to sign in, listen to the teacher's presentation, take notes, and hopefully be able to formulate any questions into something that resembled intelligence. Then the bell would ring. I kid you not. They rang the bell. And anyone who dared be late to the next class got The Look.
We heard a lot about state testing, and Regents testing in NY is BIG! The Teenager has DAILY homework in the bulk of his classes. And when I say daily, I mean they have calendars with homework for every day, including the weekends. Every night. Every weekend. Every break. He is expected to navigate, review, retain and spit out information found on a myriad of websites, in audio files, textbooks, workbooks and worksheets.
Now I am all for pushing kids. We love the fact that we were able to get him into such a progressive, aggressive school system. We know their structure will help ready him for what has become a competitive arena of college. But come on! Shouldn't there be a little more work/life balance at 14?!?!?!?
HWK and I were exhausted after running around the high school for 2 hours last night. Both HWK & I did well in high school "back in the day". Both of us were in College-bound classes. Since HWK is bringing home the bacon, the house and homework supervision IS my job. I fear, lovely reader, that I may flunk high school the second time around. There's a lot. I mean A LOT to learn. And multi-media is wonderful, but can we get some moderation? Read the material, listen to the audio file, go online to review the website, "play" the related "games", come up with a "uniquely you" way to regurgitate the material (small film, essay, poster, etc.), then turn around and do it again tomorrow...now do that for your other 6 classes, as well. Good gravy! No wonder kids are stressed!
This morning, as I toasted a whole wheat waffle and poured his milk, I wracked my no-coffee-yet brain, trying to think of positive, motivating things to say to The Teenager. And when he left, following HWK around the corner to the car, I barely suppressed the urge to yank him back...to spend one more day at the pool, or riding his bike, or playing a video game. In essence, to let him just enjoy being a kid for one more day.
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