Sunday, February 27, 2011

Fifth Grade Panic

#SOCsunday


I am participating in Fadra's awesome Stream of Consciousness Sundays and I am actually doing it on a Sunday.  (weird, huh?)  The idea is to set a timer for 5 minutes and just let your fingers fly.  No editing allowed. If you go to Fadra's site you will see the others who have linked up for SOC Sunday, but let's dive in my consciousness for the next five minutes:

My daughter is in fifth grade this year and earlier today I was talking to a friend about middle school looming on the horizon.  Middle school stinks and there is no way around it.  Everybody looks a little bit goofy and everyone is a little bit crazy.  It's just a terrible time in life.  With all that in mind, I have one thing to say to all fifth grade teachers everywhere..
STOP FREAKING KIDS OUT ABOUT MIDDLE SCHOOL, THEY ARE FREAKED OUT ENOUGH ON THEIR OWN!  Seriously.  No more, "when you get to middle school your teachers aren't going to ...." or "when you get to middle school you are going to have to " STOP IT!!!  
My son is now almost done with middle school and NONE of your predictions came true.  THe transition wasn't hard because of teachers or schoolwork or classroom expectations.  It was hard because of adolescence.  Plain and simple.  we cannot change what stage they are going thru, but we can stop making it worse than it really is.  now.  It makes me crazy that we take something already difficult and spend the entire 5th grade year making them even more nervous.  Let's be honest, the kids who are listening to what you say are just getting freaked out, and the kids who aren't listening to you are not going to listen to their middle school teachers either.  So give the kids trying to do their best a break, and let's try to make it ever so slightly less awful to think about middle school.

And with that my time is up.  And it's a good thing because it is Oscar night.  My secret boyfriend, Colin Firth is up for an award so I should really tune in! Hope you all have a great start to your week. 

5 comments:

The Plus Side! said...

Amen and amen!

Melisa S. said...

I don't look forward to having to deal with these issues with my kids. I remember elementary and middle school...it was awful for me!

Melissa {adventuroo} said...

Oh middle school is such a crazy age-- they aren't quite full on teenagers but they aren't kids anymore either. I feel for you!

Hope to see Colin Firth win!

Deb said...

I agree with your sentiment. And as this comment is written AFTER the Academy Awards... Congrats on your Colin's win! (he forgot to mention you in his speech! rotten fella!)

all.things.fadra said...

Awesome post, Amy! And you know it's been xx decades since I went to middle school and I can still remember the exact same speeches!!! You totally need to come write on AndNobodyToldMe.com. For realz.