I don't know of any teachers that get sabbaticals. We get 2 personal days a year. Those are the only days we can take off without being sick or having a sick child, outside of going to court for the school system, being called for jury duty, or a death in the immediate family. College professors are the only poeple I know who can take a sabbatical, and they don't get paid when they do, so it is pretty rare.
That is completely different that arguing for educational content in something. There is none in Mission space, and very little in Ellen. I don't think the possibility that something might spark a child's interest justifys it as an educational experience in and of itself. A trip to the candy store might spark an interest in candy making. Taht doesn't make it "educational" unless ther was some sort of curriclium being followed, and a lot of content was being added. The primary purpose of a family vacation to Disney is rarely an educational experience. Can educational content be forund? Absoultely, just like in a trip to the grocery store, but that does nto make it an "educational trip".
Could be, but it cou;d also be that she doesn't want to overload him while he is sick, and it thinking that she will help him catch up when he is feeling better. I had a child in my Chem class in the hospital this week with Norwalk. I didn't send him any work. He is too sick to do it, and will need my help with some of it anyway, so we will take care of it when he is back and feeing better. Sending him the work would only serve to stress him out, and he doesn;t need that right now.
Put quite simply, we don't have that kind of money. Must be nice.
If he was a middle school or high school student I might agree with you but he's in 1st grade. The truth is that the packet we were given in December made my eyes roll......it was alot of busy work (but we did it). This packet I have now makes sense.
There is no doubt in my mind that, concious or unconcious, she was sending us a message by giving him all that work in December. It had nothing to do with him 'needing' to do it to keep up.
And to LeaJess: thanx for the kind words....yes he is home today and feeling much better
nope, not ASMS. They pull form all over the state, and are a boarding school. They are not part of a school system at all, but they are state sponsored. I guess they would be closest to a charter school. They are not the only school in Mobile with bright children. Far from it. The students there are specifically talented in the sciences. I don't particularly like the environment there as iti s very socially insular. They do not participate in any sports, academic competiotns, or music programs. Nothing that takes them outside of the school. Other schools specialize in different areas. Most are inner city schoosl that have developed magnet programs to draw in suburban students with a sepcalized talent. There is a school that does specifically engineering, one for Health Sciences, a couple with specalized performing arts programs, and two IB schools, each offering different facets of the program. All have talented students, and all have had perfect nad near perfect ACT/SAT scores. MY school specifically routinely has 35 ACT scores. There has been at least one 35 and multiple scores above 33 every year i have been there. It was the norm for these schools when i was in school as well. It was rare for anyone in the top 10% of a magnet program school to score below 33. Students are required to mantian a certian GPA in the full honors program to remain at a magnet school if they transfered in for that program. The children districted for that school are typically not part of the program. The really bright students are the top 10-20% of the population at any given school, and are spread out over the system, whihc is why no one school stands out when you look at the statistics. If you put all of the magnet program students together in one school, it would look much more like ASMS does on paper.
I HATE busy work, so I would have probably been upset as well. I do my best not to do that to students, because I remeber seeing things and thinking "And why am I doing this?" Glad to hear he is home and doing better.If he was a middle school or high school student I might agree with you but he's in 1st grade. The truth is that the packet we were given in December made my eyes roll......it was alot of busy work (but we did it). This packet I have now makes sense.
There is no doubt in my mind that, concious or unconcious, she was sending us a message by giving him all that work in December. It had nothing to do with him 'needing' to do it to keep up.
And to LeaJess: thanx for the kind words....yes he is home today and feeling much better
It is not a matter of valuing education versus not. The money is simply not there. Thge majority of the state lives in poverty, and we are a balanced buget state. We don't have money for luxuries like sabbaticals. It is the same concept as a family buget. You have to live within your means. My state desn't have the means for that many paid vacation days, and semester long sabbaticals. It is less aobut valuing education, and more about making sound financial decisions. It keeps us from ending up like other states who have exceeded their means and are now in real buget trouble.
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