Comments to Alice in Suburbia:

opalanne - 2004-06-18 23:24:04
I think we had the same gym teachers!
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Heather - 2004-06-18 23:39:57
I had the same gym teacher and gym experience too. God I hope my child never has to go through that.
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christopher - 2004-06-18 23:51:21
Let me tell you this as a teacher, your kid should not have failed the class without the teacher letting you know far in advance. Any teacher who does not inform a parent and child that failure is imminent is the failure, not the child. I am pissed, pissed, pissed. How unprofessional! What kind of educator allows this to go on in their classroom? I am incenced.
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Caesar Spritopias - 2004-06-19 00:05:58
I would also like to add, after having read your comment in response, that I can never be a parent myself because I am the kind of parent who would BULLDOZE the school after something like this. I know gym teachers, they are drunk on their own arbitrary power.
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Thom - 2004-06-19 07:22:52
As a teacher too, I agree that not notifying a parent of an impending course failure is a serious abrogation of professional responsibility. Nonetheless, I think your reaction to the situation was a good one; your son was negligent in his responsibilities too, regardless of how the teacher could or should have handled things. As it is, he seems to have learned a valuable lesson that will serve him well in the future, whereas if you had simply "bulldozed the school" the message he would have taken away would have been considerably less healthy. (It also occurs to me to ask - even though it's really none of my business! - if his grades have been low in gym all year. Otherwise, it's hard to see how one test and one paper the last marking period could cause him to fail the course for the year...)
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Inkdragon - 2004-06-19 08:09:04
Bum...mer. I agree (as I do almost every time) with Caesar Spritopias, you should have been notified. And the drunk on the power ... yep, agree with that one also.
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Caesar Spritopias - 2004-06-19 11:36:30
I bet if Gym Teachers weren't such tyrrants that America wouldn't be such a fat nation. I trace people's unwillingness to go to the gym to gym teachers fostering and enviroment where gym class is a horrible place to be. I took classes to be a gym teachers - all Elementary and Middle School teachers do - and they teach you how NOT to be a jerk. Unfortunately I think many of the teachers who take that up full time miss out on that lecture. I've known some really good gym teachers too, I shouldn't paint them all with one brush. One paper should not make or break the grade and the responsibility over the grade is important too, I recognize that. I hope your kid is okay. Geez.
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nancy - 2004-06-19 19:00:36
yea ive always liked my gym teachers, but not everyone did. it is hard to see how one project/test can give the kid a failing grade. my daughters gym teacher grades on how well they do, not the effort they give, which i think is unfair. some kids just arent coordinated enough for basketball. oh well, not much i can do, they have to deal with it and work hard.
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Saikai - 2004-06-20 01:23:13
Wow that's really messed up. I've actually known people who've failed gym. But in your son's case I think that was plain wrong. Teacher should've told your son or notified you about approaching failure. Wrong wrong wrong! Bad teacher bad!
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Carolyn - 2004-06-20 07:49:28
Your entry reminded me of the year that Mike (oldest son) flunked Automechanics. Bill is a mechanic and Mike has "helped" him for years. When I asked him "How could you flunk mechanics - you know that stuff like the back of your hand?!" He replied "He doesn't do ANYTHING like dad does. When I would tell him that he would get all pissy." I said "Dad's a diesel mechanic, this was gasoline engines....of course somethings are different." He answered in a defiant 17 year old voice "Well...still. He was wrong." Oh the joys of living with teenagers!
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