Parenting as Anthropology
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| Tue, 10-09-2007 - 4:44pm |
My DD's school has an annual "Open School" day, where parents are invited to spend the day with their kids. It's instead of "curriculum night", which is common in elementary and middle schools. Anyway, I love this day. I love meeting the teachers this way - in action, with the kids - much more informative than if they're doing a presentation to the parents. Last year at O.S. day, I discovered that the French teacher was, indeed, incompetent for her job (spoke worse French than I do and made several easy errors), and spoke to the PA president and the department chair about it. Since this is the six-year school - this is my fourth time at O.S. day (I missed one year - otherwise perfect attendance).
This year, I sat in five classes - and learned alot about how my daughter's day goes. It reminds me of the scene in Freaky Friday when the mom has to go to school. Whew! Their school day is fast and jam-packed. There is no time wasted and the pace of discussion is very fast. My DD doesn't participate much, but I realized today that it's because she's mostly too busy taking notes (which pays off at exam time - her notes are very detailed). DD and her bff had 40 minutes to go out and get lunch - she says they usually do Starbucks (ugh - that is NOT lunch) - but today I took them to a diner. For the most part, the teachers were good - Physics teacher gets a little off-track and forgets what he wanted to teach, Math teacher is a little goofy for L's taste, but he's OK. But there's alot of information they have to process in one day - where else would you have to think about Jackson's presidency, Hester Prynne's sin, the past tense in French, equations for elipses, and Newton's laws of objects all in one day?
For most of the day I felt like an anthropologist - watching teenagers in their natural habitat! Where do they sit? Who do they talk to (or not)? What do they wear? Above all, I always get such a kick out of seeing my DD so confident. When she was younger, it was a real insight - since I was used to seeing her in more adult-driven environments - at school she was in her own element.
Unfortunately, not too many parents are able to attend - I'm lucky to have a job with flexibility - and by 11th grade, the number of parents has diminished. I did overhear a few kids admitting that they didn't tell their parents about O.S. day. It is on the calendar, but it would be easy to miss.
Well, I've got one more Open School day next year, and I'm already ready for it. It definitely gives me some real insight into the teachers and school, and an appreciation for my DD's life!


What a cool thing Sue :)
I'm glad you enjoyed your day, Sue!
How cool is that? I would love to be able to follow one of my kids around all day. I used to volunteer in elementary school and I could see what was going on. Then in MS I did some volunteering, but didn't as much, but I did attend several of their classes. I haven't even thought of it in high school, but wouldn't that be great. Of course I'm not sure my dd would want me to shadow her, but I bet ds wouldn't mind
I'm sure they couldn't do that at our HS though, we have almost 2000 students and they are about at their capacity. Don't know where they would put the parents! The halls are jam packed already too.
Sue, mom to Leah and Seth
I can certainly see why the kids are so exhausted at the end of the day - my DD is sometimes so mentally drained that it seems like she cannot deal with one more thing before she takes a nap after she gets home