Back to School

The house is strangely quiet this morning.
There's no music. No Cartoon Network. No "Just Dance" on the Wii.
No fighting.
Just quiet.

Today they went back to school.

Olivia started junior high middle school today. She's in 6th grade - I refuse to call that junior high. Back in the day (you know, back in the 80s) 6th grade was STILL in elementary school. Where it SHOULD BE.

But I digress...

My baby isn't a baby anymore.
She's a smart and sassy 6th grader.

Also, I cried as she got on the bus to go to MIDDLE SCHOOL. Thankfully the bus stop was a few houses down so I didn't embarrass her. (I may or may not have cried for a good 10 minutes AFTER the bus drove away. But I'm not admitting anything.)

And Emma? She's starting third grade. She's riding the bus for the FIRST TIME without her big sister. They won't be in the same school again UNTIL HIGH SCHOOL (you know, ,when Liv is a senior and Emma is a freshman). Sigh...

My big girl...

Seriously look at the legs on this kid. She's all legs. Hello basketball scholarship. ;)
Emma is so excited for third grade - she got the teacher she (and we) wanted! And, as an added bonus I managed to NOT cry when she got on the bus.

All in all I hope this is going to be a good year.

Happy back to school day!

When teachers go too far with "punishment"

So today, Olivia walked off the school bus and immediately burst into tears. I thought something BAD had happened on the bus.

"What's wrong?"

I got a highlight today because I forgot to put my name on my homework last night.

Now, for those of you who don't know what a "highlight" is....it's a nice little tool the teacher uses to keep kids on the straight and narrow. If you're bad or doing something bad or rude or inappropriate you get a HIGHLIGHT. It's a negative thing.

And now, apparently, forgetting your name on homework is just as bad as talking out of turn or using bad manners or being rude.

You forget your name and you get a highlight.

ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME.

In light of all the BAD THINGS that kids can do at school - bullying, name calling, fighting - teachers are going to punish a child for FORGETTING TO WRITE HER NAME ON A SHEET OF HOMEWORK?

What. The. Hell.

Olivia is a great student - she has earned straight A's all year - and she is kind and generous and helpful and NEVER gets in any kind of trouble. So to have her come home in tears because of something so trivial as writing her name down? That is unacceptable to me. These teachers should be focused on TEACHING the students how to be successful in school, and should stop worrying about punishing them for forgetting to write down a name.

AN UPDATE:
The teacher called yesterday (I emailed her last Friday). She said she felt "terrible" about giving Olivia the highlight and it broke her heart to have to to it (she noted that Olivia is one of her best students). But she didn't feel that she could give Olivia "special treatment" just because she's a good kid. She apologized for how upset Olivia was and said that she had talked with her one-on-one when the highlight was given that day. While I appreciate the gesture, I still have an issue with punishing a child for making a mistake. In my mind it would be more appropriate to discuss these things with the kids rather than making them feel as if they did something "wrong." We all make mistakes but not all mistakes require punishment.