More Response to Tiger Mom

 Okay, so I seriously can't let this go.  The Tiger Mom intrigues me, what can I say!  (Yes, I am using more big words again that I have trouble spelling.)

The list of no-nos the Tiger Mom has really interests me.  Some of them, I completely understand.  Some of them make no sense at all.  Some of them are just plain un-American.  But I guess that is the point.

Tiger Mom's List of No-Nos     plus my comments
• attend a sleepover     Totally justifiable.  I think children could live their whole lives without this.  It is a  bit harsh, but really, there are a lot of crazies out there, and some of them are disgusted as perfectly normal looking parents.  No big loss here. 
• have a playdate  Sorry, I'm from the sticks I guess.  Who makes dates for their children.  Really?  Send them over to a neighbors house, have the kids come over for a while after school, but don't call it a play date. 
• be in a school play   Don't really understand this one.  Don't understand the evil behind theater arts.  It was my favorite class in school.  You don't want them to be confident, entertaining, and have to memorize long bits of literature.  : P  is all I have to say.
• complain about not being in a school play  All for it!  You shouldn't complain!
• watch TV or play computer games  And now you have brought up your child to be completely out of touch with most other Americans, but that's okay.  You can live without theses too!
• choose their own extracurricular activities   Boo!  Obvious, since they can't even be in a school play, but, of course, parents should approve all these things.
• get any grade less than an A  Yeah, well, I have to say okay to this one.  What happens if they don't?  I worry about the answer.
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama  Shouldn't this depend on the class and the classmates therein.  You can't expect to be best at everything, especially with competition.  What if they were twins?
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin  What exactly is wrong with other instruments.  Many of which are much harder to play.  I like a good trombone solo.
• not play the piano or violin.   Yeah, okay.  Fun times.

Testing Question

This past week I had to give a state test called the TAKS test to the fifth grade class. At part of the test, students are given a piece of paper that has measurement info and rulers printed on it to use on the test. The test instructions called this a "seperate mathmatics chart". The instructions I had to read repeated the fact that the students could not write on this chart probably seven or eight times. It got a bit rediculous. Anyway, all the students were feeling a bit tense and everytime I had to read that part again I would kind of grin at the craziness of it. The kids would roll their eyes. Finally I got to the end of the instructions and, of course, it asked, "Are there any other questions?" I looked around at the class. One boy raised his hand and a smile came to his face. He asked, "Mrs. M, are we allowed to write on the seperate mathmatics chart?" With this, the class collectively laughed and a rush of tension left the room so we could begin the test. Someday that kid is going to write sitcoms for TV!

Vegetarian Vultures and Other Tales from the Classroom

There are so many tales. Some of which are so old I may not remember them. I am an elementary teacher. I have been teaching for seventeen years. Yes, I have lots of stories. Stories that will curl your hair...some might make it fall out! I will start posting them here as I remember them. Here's a new fresh one.

I have recently divided my class into two groups for a special project. I thought I would use our school initials to name them so that there would be no A, B...A's are better than B's business. So they were group B and group V. Well, in the course of calling them I discovered they are so close sounding that I needed to name them. So I started calling them Buffalo and Vultures, just to be silly. When one girl whined that she didn't want to be a buffalo I told her that it was better than a vulture because they eat dead stinky skunks. Then, my comedianne from the V group said..."Ewww. If I have to be a vulture, I am going to be a vegetarian vulture!"