Is this too sarcastic?
 

My daughters 8th grade science teacher has assigned parents the task of grading our own childrens formal lab writeup. WTF? The parameters for grading are specific and daunting. It will take a while and require my own notation for each section justifying the points I award my daughter. Here is my letter to her teacher;

Dear Ms. Smith,

Imagine my excitement when I learned that I was to be given the opportunity (assignment) to grade my daughters Buoyancy Lab Report! At first I was unsure if you thought I suffered an abundance of free time during my 60 hour work week or you simply thought my understanding of the tenets of buoyancy were incomplete. I have decided that this exercise is likely a sophisticated new public school contrivance designed to encourage “quality time” for my daughter and me.

With this in mind, I have attacked my assignment with deliberation and enthusiasm. I am thrilled to report that after careful analysis, my daughter Anna will not only recieve a perfect score of 55 points on her assignment, but the quality and style of her work has compelled me to award her 50 extra credit points!

Should you wish to appeal Anna’s score or the extra credit points she has been awarded, I will consider written requests. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,


Moses

If you actually send it you'll be my hero:)

Whoo HOOO! That letter would rock.

rjp

Not at all, I love it. You can be a drone like every other parent or you can challenge it which you are doing. I would show your daughter the letter and explain to her the reason why you are doing this.

Also, the teacher does have a good idea about involving parents with kid's homework however I dislike the approach. I think parents should know what is happening with their kids homework. My mom who teaches continuation high school has so many students with parents who don't give a care. She kicks students out of her class for misbehavior and where do they go, nowhere. They are back the next day. The only place after continuation school is the streets or jail and most of her students are already in gangs, are pregnant, or have been in juvenile at least once. She has saved many but she is their last hope IMO.

were it a private, catholic school, i'd say sign the letter 'moses'...no way in hell she'd argue with that.. :D

How about, "You do your job, babe, and I'll do mine...or you'd better hope when I have you on the operating table that I don't contract out the surgery to YOUR father!"

+10!

I like your style. However, having an 8th grade daughter myself, my kid would die of embarrasment if I were to pull a stunt like that. If your kid is OK with it, send the letter!

I am also sick of schools that think parents having nothing better to do with their free time than dance to their tunes. I PAY them to teach my kids the things I cannot, the rest of their education (moral values etc.) is up to me. I don't ask them to do my parenting job, so don't ask me to do your teaching job!

whoa!? bouyancy in 8th grade? damn i must have been on the short bus and was too dumb to even notice.

i think you will make your daughther a target. damn good letter though. i hope this starts a letter writing feud between you and the teach. hope he/she is a sarcastic bastard too! it will be great.

send it doc!

yeah..i'd only think long and hard about whether it may have negative repercussions for your daughter..otherwise, i like the letter, too! :)
ryan

I like!

I think you need to add a bit to it. Assign the teacher some of your work to complete. Tell her/him it's due Friday. ;)

Wow, first they rarely work a full month with out several extra days off now they don't even need to do their own work. I guess being under paid (grade school teachers in my area are making around 50-75k for 9 months) they are due so many breaks.

Grade your kids homework? I'm with you in that the teacher should be doing their own job. Send the letter.

dare ya,
good letter, shows your involved and care enough to send her your very best.
Rika

do it

DONT DO IT!!!! with out a rewrite, i think you are losing face by actually assigning a numerical point value.


Its not your EphEN Job to grade your child, What are the Parameters for grading the assignment, to what extent can you liberally interpret these parameters.

...there is quite a bit of bias among parents, even if you grade accordingly and fairly, Jonnys mom, Mrs Dumbo, will Give her son an A++ and more dutch chocholate treats.

maybe it's a 'social engineering experiment'...??? ;)

Good point! I await the results (likely unflattering)

If you want a social experiment, grab a beer and sit on your couch and watch LOST on Wed nights

nooooooooooooooooooooo! oh, the humanity..! :eek:

Do it up. Love this.

I agree with this. While you may be a good parent, there are plenty of others (most IMO) that hardly acknowledge the existence of their kids. They are too busy with their own lives to be bothered by a kid. I would bet that there have times where the teacher would send home a note about a problem and be completely ignored. In this light I would cut out the complaint of your work week. I would focus on why they thing you as the parent are more technically qualified than the teacher to grade the subject matter.

Good idea (involve parents) bad implementation.

If I were you, I would send it and then make damn sure there weren't any repercussions.
Excellent +1
You get an A.

I sent it (with my daughters permission).

That's great, you gotta report the fallout.

Sweet. That's just messed up.

I think you coulda done better, Moses. You are an excellent writer.

I think the teacher will likely just regard this as another data point. Some yawning. My guess is that Moses, daughter is an otherwise good student, and that this score is consistent with the scores awarded to this student by the teacher. And yes, it is likely a stab at getting some parents to become minimally involved in their childrens' education. Either that or the teacher is just a typical, lazy gubmit worker looking for a new way to neglect their already-light workload, as others here have suggested.

I figure the "assignment" is an evaluation of the parents. The teacher is probably looking to see which parents have a realistic understanding of their childs performance. It will also give the teacher a good idea of which parents she will have problems with whenever she give a student poor grades.

Bravo for sending it. Besides, it's halfway through May...how much longer would your daughter have to put up with this particular teacher?

+10!

LAST Friday. :)

I think you should have mentioned a billable rate and asked for an address for where to send the invoice.

Bravo for sending it.

I think the teacher went about this the wrong way. When I taught 8th grade sicence I would have the kids periodically take their science folder, with all of their assignments previously graded by me, home to the parents for quick review and signoff on the front page. So the parents could take an hour or a few seconds to complete this. I could get feedback on both the curriculum and my method this way.

I'll go against the flow of opinion and say it was a good concept (just not too repeatable).
To many parents are completely unaware of what their kids are learning, and need to, to become sucessful in lifes everchanging environment.
Also, back in JHS when we graded each others papers, we learned an element of other's conceptual approaches, qualification of judgment, and the concept of someday being an adult teaching something was quite a needed shock.

If I had the time or inclination to home school my kids, I would do it.

I do not need the public schools to launch their social engineering program in MY family. Truth is, the public schools have demonstrated marginal competence at teaching. I am not ready to let them bring the same degree of expertise into my home family dynamics.

Agreed, but then again few are the exceptions to the rule.

Moses - permission to plagiarize? I shall use all if not certain elements when the time is right.

XXXxcelllenttt...

Always! :D

Moses, what's sad is that the public schools ARE....doing their politically based social engineering. If you wish your child to be a follower of secular humanism, send her to the government schools. If you believe otherwise, proceed at your child's risk. I suggest you do some research on this. I couldn't begin to expose the tip of the iceburg here...