Break It To Me Gently

My children are coming of age. At least two of them are. My oldest at 17 is in the midst of 11th grade torture. I remember that year well. It was the year of Chemistry, SAT's and in my case Trig, which is now meshed into Math A & B. Of course, now that my second son has only one year left of this math experiment they have discovered what we parents knew all along, that it was a miserable failure. Lumping algebra, trig and geometry into 2 courses instead of giving each its own year wound up costing me a fortune in tutors. Combine that with certain teachers these last two years who felt oh so superior to the high school students they were teaching(big accomplishment)and decided that parents should be seen and not heard unless of course they wanted to complain to us AFTER report cards came out. I am a firm believer that teachers and parents need to work together to get children successfully through school. Call me a nuisance but over the horrified looks of my children, I email each teacher at the beginning of each school year, introducing myself and giving them my email address. I indicate to them that I would appreciate a heads up BEFORE report card time as to any problems my child may be experiencing in class, such as failures on tests or not handing in homework. Inevitably each year, one or two teachers miss my email and I am greeted with a very disagreeable grade come report card time. This is when I step up the pressure both on my child and on the teacher to PLEASE keep me informed so that we can work together to insure a positive grade each quarter. Someone told these teachers that high school students are mature enough to know when their grades are suffering and that they will tell their parents themselves. ARE YOU KIDDING??? I do not believe any high school student goes home and tells their parents that their grades are lousy!! WAKE UP TEACHERS!! For a while I had my boys getting weekly progress reports signed by the teachers. They hated it and the teachers tended to resent doing them. In some classes, though none this year, I was able to keep apprised of homework and tests through a teacher website. These were my favorite teachers. I could see what the homework was without asking my kids and then ask them if I could see the work they did on page so and so. It kept them honest and me up to date. I was informed by the administration, however, that they could not force teachers to have a website with homework and projects listed. It was voluntary. I don't get that. If a website helps to insure the success of your students why wouldn't every teacher want to have one??
Once I get through 11th grade again, I get to revisit the whole experience, yet again next year when my second son enters that grade. I will also be dealing with college application and financial aide forms. Oh yeah, what does this have to do with the law? My second son advises me that he wants to go to Law School. I guess he hasn't' be reading my blog.