Smart A**

Last week were Andy's parent/teacher conferences.  In our district they do "student led" conferences, which means your student comes and tells you what they've been working on and then you spend a few minutes with the teacher and they tell you a little about your kid.  I'm not going to sugar coat it, I think student led parent/teacher conferences are stupid.  I don't understand them.  I want to go to the conference and talk openly about my kid and find out if he is being good or bad or respectful or not and I don't feel that the teacher can honestly answer that question with my kid sitting right there starting at them and waiting for an answer.  I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.  I think this new way of conferences is being dictated by helicopter parents such as the one my neighbor overhead in one of her daughter's 8th grade conferences who asked the teacher to make sure her kid drank his water when he got to her class because by sixth period he was a little dehydrated.  Yeah, like the teacher has nothing better to do in a class of 13 year olds than to make sure one of them is drinking enough water.

Anyway, Andy was fully aware how I feel about these conferences because I may have gone off about them at the dinner table on more than one instance last week.  That was because a) I hate them and b) he was supposed to be babysitting the girls while I went to them but since I had to bring him I had to make other arrangements and ask another favor of one of my friends to watch the girls yet again.  Luckily I have nice friends.  Prior to the conferences, each of the teachers had the kids fill out a personal evaluation as to what they have learned so far this year, how they think the school year is going, if they are struggling with anything...you get the idea.  Then when we got to the conferences they were supposed to share the evaluation with the parents, show them a few things they have been working on so far, and then we got a few minutes with the teacher.

Knowing my frustration with the situation, Andy decided that he didn't need to take the evaluations overly serious.  His answers were not disrespectful, but some were a little sarcastic.  One of the statements from his math evaluation was my favorite by far.

 Statement:  This is what I have learned this year from having to collaborate with classmates:

Andy's response:  Be a good colorer, or you can't help.


Man, I love that kid and I sure hope he is learning something besides the fact that his coloring skills are lacking.  By the way, his conferences went fine, it wasn't as bad as I thought, he is being respectful to his teachers and fellow students and is currently rocking straight As.