I alluded to this a bit in the callroom, but...I want to discuss this as a 'parenting' thread.
My daughter (grade 4) is failing music. It's not just that she's failing music...she is FAILING music. They have taken two exams and she failed each of them. Then, her teacher gave her the opportunity for a make-up exam for each test...and she failed those too.
I saw one of the exams...ok...it was not 'Montessori'-style thrilling, but it wasn't impossible. She had drawings of all different kinds of instruments banjo, violin, cello, etc etc and asked the children to identify them. I think Amanda got the...piano right.
What bothers me about this, is that Amanda doesn't CARE. "Music is stupid" she says...and furthermore "Papa failed music, so what is the big deal".
And it's true...thomas failed music in highschool. It was required for him and his final exam was to have to sing a solo. Unfortunately, he is terribly tone deaf, and the teacher thought that he was making fun of her when he sang his solo (truly...don't quit your day job, Thomas) and that is why he failed. He has told Amanda to 'not worry' about music in the past and basically he does not care that she failed music.
Well...I care....because in my eyes...correct me if I'm wrong here...this is about a larger issue...namely attitude. I explained to her that there are a lot of things in our lives that we have to do that we think are 'stupid' but we have to jump through these hoops in order to get to our goals...I also told her that no matter what we do, we have to do our 'best'...and that I was concerned that she was setting a precedent for herself that was not a good one.
Both she and Thomas kind of looked at each other with that "music really IS stupid, but let's just nod and say 'ok' to mom" look and then she said "ok"....
help....what can I do to impress upon her that it is not ok to just 'fail' at something we find unimportant?
kris
My daughter (grade 4) is failing music. It's not just that she's failing music...she is FAILING music. They have taken two exams and she failed each of them. Then, her teacher gave her the opportunity for a make-up exam for each test...and she failed those too.
I saw one of the exams...ok...it was not 'Montessori'-style thrilling, but it wasn't impossible. She had drawings of all different kinds of instruments banjo, violin, cello, etc etc and asked the children to identify them. I think Amanda got the...piano right.
What bothers me about this, is that Amanda doesn't CARE. "Music is stupid" she says...and furthermore "Papa failed music, so what is the big deal".
And it's true...thomas failed music in highschool. It was required for him and his final exam was to have to sing a solo. Unfortunately, he is terribly tone deaf, and the teacher thought that he was making fun of her when he sang his solo (truly...don't quit your day job, Thomas) and that is why he failed. He has told Amanda to 'not worry' about music in the past and basically he does not care that she failed music.
Well...I care....because in my eyes...correct me if I'm wrong here...this is about a larger issue...namely attitude. I explained to her that there are a lot of things in our lives that we have to do that we think are 'stupid' but we have to jump through these hoops in order to get to our goals...I also told her that no matter what we do, we have to do our 'best'...and that I was concerned that she was setting a precedent for herself that was not a good one.
Both she and Thomas kind of looked at each other with that "music really IS stupid, but let's just nod and say 'ok' to mom" look and then she said "ok"....
help....what can I do to impress upon her that it is not ok to just 'fail' at something we find unimportant?
kris
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