I waited a day or two until I calmed down a little before writing this post after I spend a great deal of time answering phone calls and emails from parents who wanted to know why I failed their children. They want to know why I didn't call them when their grades started to fall, why they failed and if I had any suggestions to help their child find more motivation in school. They don't understand how to motivate a child who doesn't want to do anything but skateboard, snowboard, bike or play video games. My suggestions included have them get a job (now I realize that they are freshmen and 14/15 years old, but they can still mow lawns, babysit, rake leaves, dig holes, whatever) but the parents all say, "Oh no, I couldn't do that, he/she would be devastated!!
While I was feeling a bit downtrodden and depressed, I came across teachers of these lovely freshmen who were in the other core subjects, and a veteran teacher who almost quit his job when he had this class last year as 8th graders. It's not just me, my classes, my high levels of failures. It is this whole class, but in all reality, I don't blame the kids too much. They have parents who just don't care. They don't check for homework each night, they don't access the powerschool that always has the most up-to-date grades, they don't send the students in to talk to me when the mid-term grades show up at their houses with the students failing. They just want to know the day before the quarter ends what their child can do in the next 24 hrs to raise their grade 20-30%. And they are genuinely upset with me when I tell them nothing.
I don't feel like it is my responsibility to bail out a student who doesn't do anything in class all quarter long. I don't feel like I need to find tons of work for death bed repentance from parents who couldn't discipline their children well enough during the quarter to keep from failing. And I have very little patience for parents who want to know why I wouldn't pass their child when they only missed a few assignments (generally to the tune of 12+).
I want to know what happened between my parents generation and mine that parents are so apathetic and don't feel the necessity to encourage success in school. I want to know what parents are telling their students at home that makes it okay to not pass school. I want to know what the parents' five year plan is when their student hasn't passed high school, can't get a decent job, and wants to keep mooching off of their parents. And the sad thing is this isn't just a select few. The sad thing is this isn't the first quarter most of these students failed my English class. The sad thing is that one failed quarter of English can keep a student from graduation. The sad thing is of the 102 freshmen students that I teach, 37 of them failed. (the other English teacher has just about as many this quarter too) And the truly sad thing is, considering 30 have most likely failed at least one other quarter of English this year, I have had 5 who are willing to accept the consequences and take the steps to make things up. They haven't even finished their first year of high school and are already not on track to graduate.
But how do you get rid of something someone doesn't care that they have?
While it seems strange that Easter is this yearly in the year (not to mention in the middle of all my kids' birthdays) we still like to have some fun. The kids dyed Easter eggs at Grandma Janet's house this morning, and then when Enoch went 
out to hide them outside, he discovered that the Easter bunny had come to Grandma's house the night before (the kids spent the night while Enoch and I had a much needed date night). I think one hunting for Easter eggs is one of the greatest experiences of childhood. I don't really know who came up with the idea to have a bunny take eggs around, seeing as the two aren't really related in anyway, but if it had been an Easter chicken, that could present all sorts of complications like a chicken was trying to get rid of his/her children, etc (Wow, random thought of the day) 
Anyway, since it is still chilly and gas could cost me one of my children, we decided to just hang around in Cedar today. Actually, Enoch and his dad are clearing out a shed at Grandma Bruce's (a lovely lady who used to be their neighbor and never had kids of her own so kindof adopted Enoch's family as hers) and making a dump run (Woo hoo, I know you readers are just jealous over that thought). The kids and I are hanging out. Low key, but we have Ellie's birthday on Thursday and Will's is the Monday after that, so I promise we will meet our excitement quota for the month of March.
I have had a computer on the fritz enough that I just have to fight the temptation to throw it out the window with almost any function I try to get it to perform, and now 
I'm at my mother-in-laws house blogging away and getting caught up on life. For those of you who don't know, 
married me. I inherited this love of being crazy during the holidays from my mom and it is continuing on through my kids. This year we had green stroganoff, green bread, salad, punch and green Jello-filled cupcakes for dessert. This was followed by a scavenger hunt through Grandma Decker's house for the pot of gold - a big plastic cauldron filled with gold wrapped Snickers, Twix and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. 
Well, we did it - we made it through the terrible twos and one to the adventures of another three year old (however, I have heard it said recently that three is the new two). We had lots of fun for Catie's birthday, including going to see Horton Hears a Who. It was a great movie, had a weird Japanese anime part in the middle which I just didn't understand, but the whole movie was well done. None of the stupid crass jokes they like to try to through into movies like this and the plot was closely related to the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it as did the kids. Then, feeling Seussish we went and ate Whocakes which we thought we just yummy and too much fun.
Catie had a Dora on her ice cream bar cake, which had whipped cream dyed her favorite color, purple. 
I long ago realized that my cake decorating abilities were nothing compared to what they should be considering who my mom is, and decided that instead of trying to live up to her amazing capabilities, I would spend the five or so dollars on a toy of preference for that year and stick it in the cake, thereby giving my children the themed cake they want while still maintaining my sanity, a decision I have not yet regretted
to do both mini Mohey and a dress rehearsal for the little competition she has in April. I wasn't sure if she would get tired of dancing, as mini Mohey was an hour practice three days in a row on top of her regular dance once a week. She loved it.
understand what is going on is great. We let her watch the end of School of Rock about a month or two ago and since then she has been asking for a guitar on a semi-regular basis. She currently loves to sing along with Alicia Keyes song No One whenever she hears it on the radio and claims that the reason she loves to dance is because people love to watch her dance. I have a serious performer on my hands and I figure as long as she is enjoying what she is doing, I'm going to encourage this current love of music in all forms that my daughter is experiencing.
