A Shrewdness of Apes

An Okie teacher banished to the Midwest. "Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats

Friday, February 05, 2010

Well, certainly, let's make an education the last priority!

I received a royal summons to attend to a counselor when he was actually in the building in between his numerous workshops. He wanted to talk to me about one of our students. Seems the young lady has overextended herself-- has taken on a bunch of leadership positions and extra-curricular activities, and is feeling very stressed. As the counselor recounted the list to me, it certainly WAS formidable.

The counselor asked the young lady if there wasn't anything she could cut back on, and she really didn't want to give any of it up. But here's the punchline: the kiddo was most concerned about my class, and basically wanted to be excused from doing most of my assignments for the next six weeks so that she could fulfill all her other activities, but didn't actually want to approach me herself (I wonder why?). So instead, she thought it would be okay if the counselor talked to me for her, and the counselor asked if I couldn't somehow do something to lessen the load.

I'm thinking about presenting a lesson on the concept of "opportunity cost" and prioritizing.

Labels: , , ,

6 Comments:

At 2/5/10, 6:17 PM, Blogger Ms. H said...

Are you FREAKING kidding?!?!

Wait. Scratch that.

I know you're not kidding....that's the kind of sh-tuff that you can't make up.

The fact that the counselor actually exerted the effort to ask you is a cryin' shame.

Hold your ground...last I checked, they don't give diplomas for extra-curricular-izing. (I just made that word up, but you're welcome to use it if you need to....LOL!!)

Enjoy the weekend!

 
At 2/5/10, 6:22 PM, Blogger Ricochet said...

Ditto. Mrs. H nailed it - now have a great weekend!!

 
At 2/5/10, 8:53 PM, Blogger Miss Eyre said...

I have a student like this. She's very involved in dance and constantly uses it as an excuse to not do her homework. I have her mother coming in next week for a meeting and I'm hoping that a few strong words will nip that excuse in the bud.

 
At 2/6/10, 7:33 PM, Blogger teachin' said...

That's CHARMING.

 
At 2/6/10, 10:18 PM, Blogger Friar said...

"the counselor asked if I couldn't somehow do something to lessen the load."

Sure. You could go ahead and flunk her now and save you both the trouble.

 
At 2/9/10, 6:59 AM, Anonymous Exurban Mom said...

I'm with the Friar: let her know that she can just relax and have fun in all her activities, without worrying about her grade in your class--she can just expect a failure if the work doesn't get done.

And I'd write up the counselor for trying to undermine academic achievement at your school. Bleh.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

free statistics