Kindergarten - my child "going postal" every morning...

Marion Baumgarten wrote:

: for one school. Also we have a separate parent organization that
: sponsors the instumental music program- parents are asked to pay about
: $150 per year if their child is in band or orchestra and do some
: fundraising as well.

So what if there's a parent with ample means and no significant excuse to
cough up the extra $150 dollars yet has two kids in band. The kids will
go on one less away trip because of this parent. Do you allow that
parent has no obligation to the band department?

If the Feds are paying only 17% of the cost of each student, I have no
idea why the anti-obligation posters can begin to think their tax paying
completely absolves them from helping out more.

Noreen

Post sent Tuesday, 8/26/03, 6:09am PST

Noreen Cooper wrote:

So what if there's a parent with ample means and no significant excuse to
cough up the extra $150 dollars yet has two kids in band. The kids will
go on one less away trip because of this parent. Do you allow that
parent has no obligation to the band department?

The $150 is an obligation to your child, who is in band. It's not an obligation
to the school.

beeswing,
can we move on now?

In article ,
Noreen Cooper wrote:

chiam margalit wrote:

: Yeah? Tell that to the people marching up and down the streets on
: Saturday evenings. I think they'd be surprised. Yes, the Castro is
: gay, but so is the mission, and with a different *feel* to it. I spend
: plenty of time on the 16th St Hill, and if it isn't one blink from
: Christopher St, I don't know what is.

We wouldn't be planning the field trip on a Saturday evening, I'm
guessing. I know the Mission is changing and there is a "yuppification"
factor going on, especially on Valencia Street. But I asked my friend on
the phone today if the Mission is a new hot-spot for the gay crowd and he
said absolutely not, it is still primarily Hispanic. My friend is gay and
gets around to many districts in the City. But there's a huge gay
population in San Francisco and I doubt anyone is going to have much
success avoiding seeing an openly gay person in the City, no matter where
you go.

Noreen

Post sent Tuesday, August 26, 5:58AM PST


I know this is obvious but feel a need to point out that one would have
problems avoiding seeing an "openly gay" person anywhere, in any city.

The issue isn't folks who are gay (who look just like anyone else). The
issue is the people (gay or straight) who choose an appearance that is
outside what is considered normal. In SF, that will most likely be some
of the gay men who choose some rather extreme fashion statements. (I
haven't seen many lesbians who make such extreme statements outside of
the Pride Parades.)

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

David desJardins wrote in :

Barbara writes:
I guess it depends a great deal on what you mean by "once in a
while". My experience has been that parents who volunteer in the
classroom do so for a set number of hours on the same day each week.

I don't have any such experience, so maybe I'm naive, but I don't see
any justification for this "all or nothing" approach. With 20+ students
in a class, if all of the parents showed up for several hours every
week, they could hardly fit in the room. I would be surprised and
disappointed if the school rejected my participation because I wouldn't
be available every week. I don't think that's a good policy, and it
certainly would discourage participation.

The school my kids go to sometimes asks for the "occasional helpers"
for specific projects. For instance they had an "art week" in June,
when all the children concentrated on various types of creating and
appreciating art. The school wanted extra volenteers then.

.....But it was not a normal classroom setup. The school has a class for
each year-group, but is also divided into three houses. For the art week,
the children worked in their houses, so the 11yos might be helping the
5yos and the three youngest classes working together. The occasional
volenteer would be helpful then, but if his kid was having problems
with a kid in a different house would not get to see any of their
interactions.

In addition, you don't have to be in the school to see what is going on.
The school playground is visible from the local pre-school, and I know
one mum who works there. She keeps an eye on her son from the pre-school.

You have placed an intense focus on "problems". I don't think that it
has to be so adversarial (i.e., the parent only has any role in
education when there's something "wrong" at the school). I see it as a
cooperative process from day one.

I see it as cooperative as well. It's just that *my* part of the process
isn't primarily or necessarily accomplished *at school*.

When you divide your children's education into "my part" and "their
part", I think you've lost the cooperative principle that's important to
me. For my kids, I reject the idea of separate "parts". It's all "my
part".

Well, I don't see the school part as my part. I choose the school, make
sure their aims for my child match with my aims for my child, make sure
they typically get the results they expect, make sure my kid turns up ready
to learn, and then let the school do what they are employed to do. As
others have said, part of bringing up children is getting them to the point
where they handle their interactions with other people. School is the
start of that.

My other part is to broaden their education. I encourage my kids at home,
by making sure they have plenty of books to read, including reference
books, by taking them to museums, by talking about things that interest me,
and other things that interest them.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Beeswing wrote:
Noreen Cooper wrote:


So what if there's a parent with ample means and no significant excuse to
cough up the extra $150 dollars yet has two kids in band. The kids will
go on one less away trip because of this parent. Do you allow that
parent has no obligation to the band department?


The $150 is an obligation to your child, who is in band. It's not an obligation
to the school.

beeswing,
can we move on now?


Yes, please. Nothing new is being added to this thread.

I will add that DD is in a strings program (5th grade) at her
school -- I believe we pay $40 or so extra for it, a pittance
compared to the $17/week we pay for out-of-school piano
lessons. And of course the strings fee is waived for
those who cannot afford it, a significant portion of
DD's school.

Scott DD 10 and DS 7

In ,
Iowacookiemom wrote:

*At the time, I was too new in town to have had any other numbers to give
*them --
*
*Does anyone have suggestions regarding this? We are brand, spanking new in our
*new community -- been here 5 whole weeks. My husband is reluctant to ask work
*friends to be our emergency contact since most of the folks he's gotten to know
*work *for* him and it seems like an unfair request from a supervisor to a
*subordinate. We haven't yet found a church, and we barely know neighbors. Has
*anyone out there solved this creatively?

I thought "emergency" numbers for schools and stuff were supposed to be
phone numbers for the people who would be responsible for the kid in an
actual emergency. As such, I've put down the names/numbers of our chosen
guardians and the names/numbers of the grandparents. Is that not actually
what they mean when they ask for "emergency" numbers? Because I'm confused
about why the location of the person listed would matter. If there were an
actual emergency situation there might not be a local person with
authority to handle it. That's the way it is, sometimes. Right? Or am I
way off base?

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

In ,
chiam margalit wrote:

*Noreen Cooper wrote in message ...
*
* Are we confusing the Castro with the Mission here? Marjorie, I lived 18
* years in the City and the Mission district has always been the Hispanic
* enclave in San Francisco. Gay people do live in San Francisco in general
* and the Mission is a great place for city dwellers to buy cheap
* vegetables. But the Mission has never been primarily gay. Never.
*
*Yeah? Tell that to the people marching up and down the streets on
*Saturday evenings. I think they'd be surprised. Yes, the Castro is
*gay, but so is the mission, and with a different *feel* to it. I spend
*plenty of time on the 16th St Hill, and if it isn't one blink from
*Christopher St, I don't know what is.

Heh. Interesting. When I lived in San Francisco, I lived in Cole Valley
and then Parnassus Heights, and I worked in the Marinia district and in
Parnassus Heights, so you know, I'm certainly not an expert on the Castro
or the Mission. But that being said, I made a HUGE number of burrito runs,
at all hours of the day/evening, to Taqueria San Jose which sits at, IIRC,
Mission and 24th, and I never once saw anyone wearing chaps without pants
on underneath, or anything remotely as overtly sexual.

-h.
--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

In article ,
(Hillary Israeli) wrote:

In ,
Iowacookiemom wrote:

*At the time, I was too new in town to have had any other numbers to give
*them --
*
*Does anyone have suggestions regarding this? We are brand, spanking new in
our
*new community -- been here 5 whole weeks. My husband is reluctant to ask
work
*friends to be our emergency contact since most of the folks he's gotten to
know
*work *for* him and it seems like an unfair request from a supervisor to a
*subordinate. We haven't yet found a church, and we barely know neighbors.
Has
*anyone out there solved this creatively?

I thought "emergency" numbers for schools and stuff were supposed to be
phone numbers for the people who would be responsible for the kid in an
actual emergency. As such, I've put down the names/numbers of our chosen
guardians and the names/numbers of the grandparents. Is that not actually
what they mean when they ask for "emergency" numbers? Because I'm confused
about why the location of the person listed would matter. If there were an
actual emergency situation there might not be a local person with
authority to handle it. That's the way it is, sometimes. Right? Or am I
way off base?


The only time I've had an emergency number used was when one of my kids
got sick during the school day, and they wanted someone to pick her up.
By the time this happened, fortunately, I had made some connections in
town, as neither the kids' Dad nor I were anywhere near a phone. The
school called the top "emergency" name, and that particular friend
picked my daughter up and brought her home with her. They left messages
at my home, and I picked her up after I got home.

When I lived in Snow Country, it was also clear that those might be the
people they'd call if they had to close school, and were unable to
locate a parent. I imagine the same might be true around here in case
of earthquakes or some other problem that was closing the school down.

Signing the emergency card does NOT give anyone legal authority over the
child; it just says that this person can pick the child up from school
in case of an emergency. You have probably already signed an emergency
medical card -- if there's a medical emergency regarding your child, the
school probably already has the authority to deal with that. (And,
having had children taken to emergency rooms twice now WITHOUT any such
forms being available, I can also assure you that the medical community
provides emergency treatment without looking for the damned forms first,
thanks be.)

I suspect that having an out of town name on that list of contacts is
not useful for the sorts of "gotta send the kid home" emergencies for
which they are intended.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

dragonlady wrote in message ...
In article ,
Noreen Cooper wrote:

chiam margalit wrote:

: Yeah? Tell that to the people marching up and down the streets on
: Saturday evenings. I think they'd be surprised. Yes, the Castro is
: gay, but so is the mission, and with a different *feel* to it. I spend
: plenty of time on the 16th St Hill, and if it isn't one blink from
: Christopher St, I don't know what is.

We wouldn't be planning the field trip on a Saturday evening, I'm
guessing. I know the Mission is changing and there is a "yuppification"
factor going on, especially on Valencia Street. But I asked my friend on
the phone today if the Mission is a new hot-spot for the gay crowd and he
said absolutely not, it is still primarily Hispanic. My friend is gay and
gets around to many districts in the City. But there's a huge gay
population in San Francisco and I doubt anyone is going to have much
success avoiding seeing an openly gay person in the City, no matter where
you go.

Noreen

Post sent Tuesday, August 26, 5:58AM PST


I know this is obvious but feel a need to point out that one would have
problems avoiding seeing an "openly gay" person anywhere, in any city.

The issue isn't folks who are gay (who look just like anyone else). The
issue is the people (gay or straight) who choose an appearance that is
outside what is considered normal. In SF, that will most likely be some
of the gay men who choose some rather extreme fashion statements. (I
haven't seen many lesbians who make such extreme statements outside of
the Pride Parades.)

Ya think? :-) I did mention our first glimpes of penile piercings was
in that neighborhood, didn't I? I did mention it seems to be home to
the 'rough trade' crowd, right? Not my idea of a great place for
second graders to be parading up and down the streets. Noreen
evidentally feels differently. No big surprise there.

Marjorie

meh

chiam margalit wrote:

: Ya think? :-) I did mention our first glimpes of penile piercings was
: in that neighborhood, didn't I? I did mention it seems to be home to
: the 'rough trade' crowd, right? Not my idea of a great place for
: second graders to be parading up and down the streets. Noreen
: evidentally feels differently. No big surprise there.

And the teacher, too. Handed off the flyer to her today with information
on the Mission Mural Tour and she seems quite excited about a possible
field trip this year. I'll make sure and report back to the group if any
penile piercings are sighted at High Noon.

Noreen