Patrick: Back-to-School

Patrick is attending the senior high school this year. I was able to get in touch with the woman who runs the infamous SAP program I blogged about before. She says that the program is in place to "find resources" for children who "fall through the cracks" and really, she wishes more parents were around to actually take care of their kids and get involved. (Sad, but does that make parenting the school's job? Arg.) So, she said, if she gets a "referral" for Patrick in the system, she will just tell me the nature of the alleged problem and figure that Mom is handling it.
The paddling rule? Still on the books. Probably will be forever at this rate. The board member I wrote to before about this being a ridiculous thing to do in 2009? Has not responded to me or acknowledged my letter in any way. Which really bolsters my faith not only in public education, but in the idea that someone in an elected position is accountable to the voters. Go her.

Patrick is taking theoretical chemistry, Spanish III, gifted English, AP World History, Digital Electronics (something with "circuit boards?"), Algebra II, Honours Science and Orchestra (he plays cello). He has quite a bit of homework each night.

He was to write some sort of English paper about the deeper meaning of a satirical comedy yesterday. He came up with some theory about how Wallace and Gromit explore the idea of "taking care of the environment." Good grief! But Patrick explained that he had to think of something "liberal," because all the gifted English teachers are liberals. And the process of "education" involves giving the person assigning the work what they want, right? When he gets a job, he'll have to do the same thing. Right?

I guess I can't argue with that. But it saddens me that he feels that way and wouldn't write what he truly believes. I know that he is learning and no longer receives strange comments in the margins like, "The only race is the human race" on his paper when he is discussing Frederick Douglass. He'd rather see things like, "Excellent thought!" and talk of the environment and saving our earth instead.

Well, whatever. He's making the choice to stay, and I couldn't very well jump in and be his theoretical chemistry or orchestra teacher on a moment's notice if he wanted to come home tomorrow, anyway. My job is to sign the papers saying that I've read the "please don't run with beakers full of chemicals because someone might get hurt" rules and have discussed them with my child. (Hey Patrick, did you read all your papers? Ok, I'm signing.)

Patrick thinks his science class will be particularly fun. It's a brand-new teacher, too, and he sent a form home to fill out about his fave classes and sports. I told Patrick it's ok, he probably just wants to "get to know" the students and isn't data mining. He decided that his favourite sport is chess and his hobby is Pokemon league. :]

Overall, Patrick seems to be doing well in the senior high so far.