What's it going to take for you to stay in school?

That apparently was the talk J's Chemistry teacher was trying to have with her Thursday, her first day back after battling a 102 degree temp. and a sinus infection for four days.

Jennifer called me at 8:30 am that morn (I was going into work late)and I could tell she was crying.

"What's us," says I, wondering how thing could have gone so wrong in the first half-hour of the school day.

Apparently the Chemistry teacher, who has a rep for being a little PMSy, took Jennifer aside, asked her about the absences and all the times she'd been gone during the year.

"All the times?"

Opening up her class calendar page, she pointed out where Jennifer had been absent 36 days since September.

I personally was speechless, and I knew she hadn't been gone that long or that much. But then the truth came out. Each time she missed an entire day, that counts as 6 absences (one per class) and each time she was late to first period (yes, I know, some of that is my bad for letting us stop by Starbucks first) that too was counted as a full absence in her book.

"But you're getting an A in her class," I sputtered.

SHe told the same tale to her dad, who promptly (after I proofed it) shot of an e-mail to said teacher saying in essence - look, our daughter is a straight A student who happens to love science..what's up? Let's talk.

We got a short reply back saying that Jennifer didn't seem to want to do the catch up homework, which again seemed in error, as she brought it home last night.

To be continued....

Meet the teachers

It was open house at J's high school last night. And since Gary went last night, my turn.

So that meant arriving late, as usual, and then trying to find her class in the maze that can be this Auburn high school.
First up was her history teacher, which Jennifer and I agree gives off the vibes of a lost puppy. But he has a love for vintage guitars, and jazz, and he's a lute, and his wife is going through chemo right now...so I told Jennifer to have his back and be nice to him. I like him.

Math teacher is her v-ball coach, and when I asked about ways to push Jennifer, she rolled her eyes.

"Frankly, she's so good at math, I'm not sure you can push her now," Ms. Farris said.

Great. I'm not going to tell J that.

Chemistry check, senior project group (led by the lead football coach) check, and French teacher, check. Alas, most of the time is was a handful of us showing up for these meetings, maybe 6 or so. Sometimes as few as 3. And I could tell that we weren't the parents that really needed to show up.

In fact when Farris asked her class if their parent were coming tonight, J raised her hand along with a few others.

"Of course," she said, looking at Jennifer. "Your parents are always there."

Finally, last check in.

It's her AP lit teacher, who seems like a sharp man. Of course no one asked questions but me, usually (I asked gary if it was the same for him last year and it was)

But after his speeal, I came up and asked him his favorite books or book and how many times he'd read it (for me and J it's GWTW, I've read it 4 x, she's read it 2x).

He looked at me blankly for a second and then sputtered out The Great Gatsby, and a few others that I can't remember, having read them in college but yeah, that was about it. When I asked what he liked about it, I could tell a. he'd never been asked this before and b. certainly didn't want to engage in follow up questions.

OK, fine. Time to go home anyway and engage myself in the mindless TV program of dances with stars.

Switching teachers

Jennifer's decided that as much as she feels sorry for her history teacher, she'd had enough. She's dumping him for another teacher - in the same times slot I guess.

"You're really going to leave that poor guy to the wolves," I said in the Top Foods check out line.

"Mom, he's ...he's just odd," she said. "Today he scribbled something on the board I couldn't even read...and told us to study it."

"Number 9? What's the frequency kenneth?"

"You are just about as weird as he is and I have no idea what you just said," she snapped. "Can I have lunch $$ for tomorrow."

Sure spawn, don't laugh at my jokes.

I think her history teacher is dead meat

While shuffling to get out of a trig course with a teacher who wasn't that good, Jennifer ended up in a history class, not AP, where the teacher seems to be ....intimated by the class.

From J's description of her first period class, most don't want to be there, but are just taking it to get the credit out of the way. I told her to pay attention and consider this an easy A. And try not to get mugged the way to second period.

He seems to be trying to use self-effacing humor to loosen things up a bit, but the kids might just see him as an easy target for ridicule. Really?

An example: He asked them not to carve (insert his name here) in the desks and that he sucks like the last class did. And when explaining something on the board, he misspelled alphabet.

This doesn't look good.

And the kids might not know how to spell alphabet either, but they can smell fear. Believe me.

We should pay teachers more, period.

I read this NYT's piece, and was applauding it all the way along.

I think it would help with the instability and discouragement I see in the ranks here, both at Auburn Senior High and J's former middle school, Cascade.

If you want good people to walk away from jobs that pay 50K, 70K or in the six figures, and go and "do good" in troubled schools, not only to do you have to give them support, but I think you need to give them a better salary range than $36 K, or maybe 42K if you have your masters. And this goes not only for career changers, which I considered doing for awhile, but those who have chosen teaching as their first profession.

I see heroes every day - and no they don't have superpowers like the TV series, which I love - who take kids from dysfunctional homes (and that's being nice) and try to get them to care about math, reading and science. I think raising the salaries, which intrinsically means giving this job a higher value in our society, is a place to start.

So What About This Teacher That Got a $10,000 Grant?

That is what I asked J. casually, when I heard about a middle school science teacher at her school getting a $10,000 grant for his science class and to help a nearby salmon stream. No info. She had never had the teacher, since he didn't teach honors classes.

Well, what's he like? Mean. Fun. Good natured? Pick one.

No info whatsoever. If you're not in her line of sight, well, you don't exist in middle school. Here's the story anyway. But from this blog post, this seems to be the norm among middle schoolers.