Pre-K teacher rebukes parents who slack off at end of school year
“You only have one child.”
WARNING: THIS ONE MAKES ME MAD! Well, there are a few methods that you can use to keep away unplanned pregnancies. If you didn’t want them then don’t have them.
Or better yet, give them to someone who actually wants a child.
~ Preschool teacher Karen Harrington (pictured), responding to parents who make excuses as to why their enthusiasm slacks off at the end of the school year, Mrs. Karen’s Preschool Ideas, June 2
(Among the excuses parents with multiple children have given is that Karen can’t possibly understand their feelings, because she has only one child.)
Jun.05, 2013 6:00 am |
Pregnancy |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Yeah. This teacher and I wouldn’t last too long in the same room together.
lol, preschool.
Just because you lack energy or have other things going on doesn’t mean you don’t “want” your kid(s). Sorry everyone else isn’t as absolutely perfect as you are, Mrs. Single Child Gravy Job.
I commented. It was not nice.
I wonder how she feels about abortion or if she’s ever had one.
Um, despite the obvious ‘what a rude thing to say’ point, excatly what does ‘wanted’ness have to do with the physical and scheduling demand difference between 1 and 3 or 5 or 7 kids?? Just because a kid is ‘wanted’ doesn’t suddenly mean they require less work or somehow take care of themselves. Or that being ‘wanted’ means that a parent doesn’t get tired of the same inane ‘specialness’ cerimonies for every single kid. I went to an end of the year party at a local elementary a few years ago and there was an ‘achievement awards’ cerimony. When I saw that I assumed it would be a couple of attendance awards for kids who hadn’t missed any school that year, probably a couple honors students awards for straight A’s, you know, awards for *achievements* that were exceptional enough to merit awards. No, it was an hour long ‘cerimony’ which included *every single child* getting some, usually absurd, award for things like ‘best garden helper’ or ‘best smile’ or ‘best playground listener’. Excuse me for having expectations of my kids, but if my eldest was in line for *gasp* ‘most fearless playground climber’ along with 42 of his classmates parading up to get a printed sheet of paper and a bag of candy…I’d stay home with the little ones and not try to keep pre-schoolers and toddlers busy for an hour of politically correct self-esteem ‘awards’.
Agreed, Jespren. There is a LOT of crap going on that we just don’t bother feeling stressed to attend or complete.
It’s not preschool, but we started slacking off on the first grader’s required reading weeks ago. Not because we don’t value reading. But because the reading he’s given is basically geared to make anybody hate reading. He is assigned five books each week that he’s supposed to read out loud, and then he is allowed to choose five additional books from the library to read. He likes to choose books that are too hard for him to read but are thematically more interesting, so we read those to him, which I suspect is already “breaking the rules.” Of the mandatory books, they are often just plain freaking boring, stupid, or absurd. One was about a Japanese exchange student who taught the class all kinds of stuff about Japan, including – of course – phonetic anglicized spellings of Japanese words. The whole book was a painful process of, “Is that how you pronounce that?” “I don’t know. Sure. Keep reading.” I’m sorry, we’re still on breath versus breathe, can we hold off on sounding out the Japanese word for flower?
So now we read the books that he chooses from the library, and we pick a book from the ones we already own for him to read to us. But we are supposed to sign the sheet saying that he has done the schoolwork. Do we lie? Or force him, night after night, to whine and sigh and struggle through the most boring books in the world? We lie. We sign the sheet. We do, at least, write the title of the book we read, to note that he didn’t actually read THAT book but that he read a book that we feel was appropriate. Rarely are they “easier” than the books he gets from school, but they are just better. Iggy Peck, Architect; The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore; etc.
Bonus: with about 30 minutes more per evening (thanks to the lack of whining, complaining, stumbling over strange plots or words, etc) we have more time to, you know, see each other. Play. The 7-year old practices his guitar in that time, with his dad, who also plays the guitar, and they strum out chords together; the 3-year old and I use those 30 minutes as crazy imaginative free-play time.
Does his teacher think we’re “bad” or “slacking off?” Probably. Do I care? Not the slightest bit.
Alexandra (my youngest’s name btw :) ) “Basically geared to make anyone hate reading” yeah, I don’t even have kids in school (my eldest in almost 5 and we’ll be homeschooling) and I’ve had enough interaction with elementary students in the last 10 years to see that too.
In order to be offended(because I really am slacking off)I would first have to value her opinion.
And I do not.
6 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!! WHOOOOOOT!!
Great name, Jespren! ;)
Ughhh so I clicked through and read the whole article and man is it basically just a collection of my most rage-making bullet points, or what. I could pick it apart piece by piece but I think that in general it is all summed up near the end where she gets into the “these years are so short! Your kids want TIME WITH YOU more than anything and therefore you must smilingly read the notes I prepare for you each weekend, about what *I* did with your kid!”
First of all, The “all your children want is time with YOU” fallacy. No. Ellen Galinsky surveyed over 1000 children from all kinds of families and age groups and found that “more time with mom/dad” was NOT at the top of those kids’ wish lists, even the kids whose parents worked. Most PARENTS thought that the kids’ top wish would be more time with the parents, but the most common response from the kids was that they wished that their parents were less stressed and less tired. And you know what contributes a LOT to stress and fatigue? Bull faux-obligations like going through a teacher-prepared folder to make sure you hit all the bullet-point of everything you “should be” talking about this week. Me refusing to play that game IS me doing what is best for these kids, because what is best for them is that I am sane and calm enough to weather the joys and difficulties of minute-by-minute life with kids. And that means that random unnecessary crap doesn’t make the cut.
And that “enjoy it while you can!” stuff is so unhelpful. Do I enjoy and love them? Absolutely. Do I enjoy every moment? No way. Sometimes, “enjoy it!” is just ONE MORE THING TO DO. And you’re no more of a failure for not “enjoying it” than you are a failure for not lovingly reading through every teacher-sent post-it note about every science experiment.
But also, like, you know what TAKES AWAY actual, enjoyable time with the kids? Crap like going through their school worksheets. Our time together involves talking – yes, talking about the cool stuff they did at school – but I’m not going to check teacher notes to make sure that we hit on EVERY SINGLE THING they did at school, just to prove that I’m “involved.” No. They tell me and I listen and we talk. We go to Little League and we go to the pool and we play Wii (which is definitely a group activity for us – lots of shouting and suggestions etc from the observers) and we read fun books and we color. We prepare dinner and we set the table and we sweep the floor after. What we generally DO NOT do is sit down and formally discuss last week’s lesson plans. If they don’t mention something voluntarily, it probably doesn’t get discussed. Sorry, preschool teacher. Your job is very important but it is not more important than even 15 minutes of unstructured play time.
One blog has 3500+ comments on it.
The other has 8.
Guess which one?
There is one preschool teacher who sounds like she is ready for summer break.
And it is SUPPOSED not SUPPOSE.
I think Karen Harrington would feel like a heel if she actually read more of Jen Hatmaker’s blog. Jen is amazing. And Karen should read this post of Jen’s to see just how much her complaining self is appreciated:
http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2013/04/30/dear-teachers-everywhere
You know what I was always excited about at the end of the year? Summer.
Just sayin’.
I read Hatmaker’s post a few days ago and died laughing! We’re homeschooling and (Thank HEAVENS) do not have to deal with the interminable end-of-school “awards” ceremonies, etc., but we’re slacking off too. Because it’s been a long, freaking school year! Everyone’s tired and the kids would rather be working on their individual hobbies and chasing bugs than diagramming sentences and who can blame them? I loved the realistic portrayal of the end of the school year and applauded her for being real.
We’re homeschooling and (Thank HEAVENS) do not have to deal with the interminable end-of-school “awards” ceremonies, etc., but we’re slacking off too. Because it’s been a long, freaking school year!
Amen, sistah. It sure has.
Poor Mrs. Karen — only had one kid.
Dummy. Slacking off at the end of the school year is an American tradition! LOL! I think Laura Ingalls even slacked off at the end of her school year. But treating children as objects to increase your own area of selfhood is a relatively recent practice. TGI Home School.
Dude even one kid can be exhausting, some kids are harder than others. My son was a nearly perfect baby but my daughter went from a colicky baby to a screaming toddler and still has never calmed down. That’s parenthood.
I’m soooo glad that this lady’s kid is perfect and she never gets tired or overwhelmed. Must be nice being Superwoman.
Right Jack it’s laughable! She sounds like a loose cannon.
my son’s (who is #4 of 6 FWIW) pre-K teacher, in the fall when I had to pull my son for two weeks straight due to a death in the family and then a family emergency) told me “Hon, this is PRESCHOOL.. not Harvard. Do what your family needs to do as that’s more important.”
Just like a marathon runner… I’m not going to “sprint at the finish to show enthusiasm ” I’m going to keep on trotting the same pace to show that I finished the race. However, teachers have this extra burst of energy at the end of the year because they know, just like the kids, that they get the next 10 weeks OFF to DO NOTHING! The parents… no time off. So this teacher can KMA.
And as a side note… I am a traditional homeschooler (meaning it depends on where we’re stationed as to if we’ll put our kids in the local schools). Homeschooled for 5 years till we moved to our current station. I am NOT a parent that dreads my kids being home (hell, I look forward to sleeping in!!!) So I will enjoy them being home until they get back to the school grind. :) :)