Oh Curriciulum Night!

I HAD the pleasure of another couple of days of Curriculum Night at the local junior high and high school. Yikes, it can be a night I do dread. But, dread is too strong a word. Meeting of the kids' teachers and seeing where they sit their little bottoms all day can be comforting. I loved the elementary school days of hearing the teachers talk about math curriculum in kindergarten.

I smirked a little when the parents were bombarding the first grade teacher about why their darlings had to go out to recess with the BIG kids. These children were in tird grade. It really is all in the perspective. I was as obnoxious a kindergarten mother as they came. I was daily letting my daughter's teacher know about how she was "gifted" and that she already knew how to read. Ay-yi-yi! I was brought back to reality a few years later when she started missing words on her spelling tests. Oh, back to Curricullum Night.

So I was not thrilled and trudged off to the junior high. After two classes I was all settled in and almost ready to ask a question. I was surprised that the teacher had made the class so cozy and welcoming, as I had expected a more foreboding scene from an advanced algebra class.

I learned alot and had a few "loaded" questions to ask my seventh-grader about his classes and about his pop quiz coming up, etc. The next night I sucked it up and went over to the High school and loved every single class. I was amazed. Still am actually.

I have come to the conclusion the women and men that teach junior high and high school are American heroes. The junior high crew of teachers teach kids that are in the weirdest times in their lives, or so I experienced as a student in junior high. The high school teachers are teachers to "almost adults," who are searching and achieveing all at the same time. It must be something to watch.

As I come away from these two experiences I am thrilled that the Lake Washington School District is where my family landed. I came home from both nights and hugged the kids and said, "Well, another curriculum year is over, and it really wasn't that bad."