March 2, 2001

• Still here.  And another boring post of drivel.  I never was very good at writing while in school and never handed in reports until high school.  I can see now that had I had the resources of the internet and word processing, I may have been more inclined.  I suspect that could just be wishful thinking though.  The reason I mentioned that is because by default, I have become the editor of my children's school projects.  (I wrote a fantastic report on the Dietary Habits of the Ancient Greeks!  I got 90% on it too, however, my son received the credit.)  For the past three weeks, Adam has been aware of the need for a report on the moon.  Now, at grade 6, this doesn't have to be too in depth, but there is quite a lot of information out there that can be found and used to create a pretty comprehensive report.  I vowed that I was not doing this report for him.  I swore that I wasn't even going to edit it.  They could use the word processing program to check for spelling errors, and just leave me out of it.  Yeah right!  My husband was compelled to scream at Adam everyday regarding the status of his report.  So I was included in this tirade because I wasn't enforcing the laws that were being laid down.  As far as I was concerned, if Adam handed in a crappy report, then he could live with the consequences.  It didn't work that way.  I am not proud of the fact that Adam handed in a 17 page report today with his name on it, but very little of his own work in it.  It wasn't as if I didn't help him do any of the initial work either.  I found some books in the library for him, I did searches on the web and gave him a list of websites to visit.  He would call them up and stare at them, then declare them useless.  I wish I could have just left him alone and let him catch the flack.  But between him and the screaming from my "motivational" husband, I just couldn't.  The paper Adam wrote was a joke, but I fear that the one he handed in is more of one.  What am I teaching this kid?  It angers me that I don't have the backbone to stand up to Jim and tell him to shove off and leave it alone.  A 12 year old is old enough to understand that if he chooses not to do the work, he will have to suffer the consequences.  If he fails this topic, that doesn't reflect back onto me.  OK, I'll go bang my head on the wall and berate myself for being such a wimp.  Then I will go and try to catch up on my own overdue work.

  • 2:36 pm
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