[email protected]

Beth wrote:Kyle has strong math skills and is deveopling a sound foundation in
reading.........
He works slowly and carefully in all areas, and sometimes gets off task
talking to his friends. Often he is not finished with independent work when
it is time to move on to the next activity>>

My elementary report cards always said something about me finishing my work before everyone else and then bothering the other kids by being a "social butterfly". Guess I must have thought that was bad because now as an adult it is hard for me to begin conversations with strangers. Also by 7th grade I was so burnt out with all the busy work that I couldn't bring myself to complete much school or home work. Fortunately my test scores always kept my grades up to at least a D. Now there's something that has always bothered me....if the child aces the tests does (s)he deserve a D? How about you just average the tests....or move the kid up to harder classes. (Though in my case that wasn't possible since I was already in the highest classes and my mom wouldn't allow me to skip grades). So needless to sat this is one of my many MANY reasons for unschooling.

Heather~who was shocked and amazed by the sight of falling slush from the NH sky this morning





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Beth Burnham

Hi Heather glad you survived the ps to live to tell about it here! You would
have probably been put into a gifted program in lots of schools nowadays.
They don't have them up here. BTW who are you voting for tomorrow email me
privately if those teachers made you feel too shy to say here in my little
hs poll!
Beth

----- Original Message -----
From: <heatherhada@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 10:58 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] report card


> From: heatherhada@...
>
> Beth wrote:Kyle has strong math skills and is deveopling a sound
foundation in
> reading.........
> He works slowly and carefully in all areas, and sometimes gets off task
> talking to his friends. Often he is not finished with independent work
when
> it is time to move on to the next activity>>
>
> My elementary report cards always said something about me finishing my
work before everyone else and then bothering the other kids by being a
"social butterfly". Guess I must have thought that was bad because now as
an adult it is hard for me to begin conversations with strangers. Also by
7th grade I was so burnt out with all the busy work that I couldn't bring
myself to complete much school or home work. Fortunately my test scores
always kept my grades up to at least a D. Now there's something that has
always bothered me....if the child aces the tests does (s)he deserve a D?
How about you just average the tests....or move the kid up to harder
classes. (Though in my case that wasn't possible since I was already in the
highest classes and my mom wouldn't allow me to skip grades). So needless
to sat this is one of my many MANY reasons for unschooling.
>
> Heather~who was shocked and amazed by the sight of falling slush from the
NH sky this morning
>
>
>
>
>
> *** Free voicemail and email, by phone or Web! Free phone calls too! Get
it today at http://www.myTalk.com ***
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>
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Tom & Nanci Kuykendall

>> My elementary report cards always said something about me finishing my
>work before everyone else and then bothering the other kids by being a
>"social butterfly". Guess I must have thought that was bad because now as
>an adult it is hard for me to begin conversations with strangers. Also by
>7th grade I was so burnt out with all the busy work that I couldn't bring
>myself to complete much school or home work. Fortunately my test scores
>always kept my grades up to at least a D.
>> Heather~

Hi Heather. Your experience sounds similar to mine in some ways. I was in
the GATE program from 3rd grade on, but always got reports that said I
didn't do assignments, didn't finish work, that kind of thing. I frankly,
didn't care. I was so disillusioned and disgusted with the IS's offerings
and their entire system, that I was already unschooling myself as much as
possible as early as I could. I had access to great museums, libraries,
and cultural things in the city, as well as learning opportunites presented
by peers and other factors. I got failing grades in most things and often
ended up in summer school (which was a waste of time and rediculously easy
work, not to mention getting beat up every summer!) but I really did not
care a whit about any of it. If it were not for the terrible blows my self
esteem were taking in the IS system, I might have largely ignored it
alltogether. I ALWAYS, from day one, hated, HATED school. I used to hide
under my bed when I was little or feign illness to avoid going. When I got
older, I just began to cut school as often as possible. My parents never
did anythig to try and improve my schooling, change my evnironment,
interest me in school, etc. They just trusted the system to "educate" me.

Nanci K.