What is the capital of the USA?(pg 3. The Job Application)

[adkRoy]

Alright, we are studying American history with my class of 7th graders. We just got done teaching them about the first 3 Presidents and what the different capitals of the USA was before Washington, DC. On a quiz today, one of the questions asked, "What has been the capital of the United States of America since 1803 to present?" This is what I got:

3 students responded Paris, France
2 responded Philidelphia, NY  :blink:
2 put question marks
1 put 1797
The other 6 actually put Washington, DC. 

ARRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! And the students wonder why my hair is turning gray. They just don't care about anything except their girlfriends/boyfriends and their computer games. I won't even get into their horrible use of grammar or their spelling.

[blaque]

YUP......worlds goin to hell in a handbasket ADK......each generation gets a little closer to the end of life as we know it!! Every year the media get a little more license to corrupt youth, every year parents take a little less responsibility , etc etc....Im not an extremely religious guy, but judgement day is comin sooooooon! 

[Fishingking]

Whats the problem here your teaching them this and they dont care about it, so they are not learning it. What are they doing texting their bf'/gfs while you are teaching??

[RedWolfUSAF]

Whats the problem here your teaching them this and they don't care about it, so they are not learning it. What are they doing texting their bf'/gfs while you are teaching??

So I add my 16 yr old daughter to the Family talk plan and get her a nice phone...the first two months go well.  Then I get a bill which is $70+ above normal.  $70+ dollars worth of TEXT MESSEGES!!!  A quick perusal of the bill reveals all of the texting was done during school hours.  I ask her, "How is it possible for you to have that much free time during school?"  "Oh, I don't," she replies... "We text each other during class!" 

That was the last day she was allowed to take her phone to school for quite awhile.  If she does it again, she gets the no-frills phone without texting and other niceties.

I do not envy teachers and the things they have to deal with....it would blow my mind if I saw the results of that quiz after I taught a lesson....I say send a copy of each kids test home to their parents and ask them to write an essay on how their kid could have answered what they did.  Put the pressure on the homefront.

[Dr. IceGeek]

AdkRoy,
    I feel your pain....Wife tells me stuff like this all the time!

[adkRoy]

Oh I have talked to the parents before...the best 3 replies I have gotten are:

"In school he's your problem, out of school he's mine"
"I can't do the 7th grade math, I'm just a nurse"
"You don't know what your teaching"

[Fishingking]

Oh I have talked to the parents before...the best 3 replies I have gotten are:

"In school he's your problem, out of school he's mine"
"I can't do the 7th grade math, I'm just a nurse"
"You don't know what your teaching"

THats all school is to these parents anymore "Daycare"

[vipercat64]

I love when I ask a question like "What force is it that makes the crustal plates move, causing earthquakes?"  and get "yes" as an answer.

It wasn't a yes/no question!!!!!

[adkRoy]

Most of the kids have hit the 4th quarter slide. That's when the weather gets nice and they want to be outside frolicing with the squirrels and bunnies.

[1tigger]

Bottom line is it all starts at home !
Parents need to slow down their every day life and find out what really makes their children tick !
They can start by having dinner at the table with ... no phone calls answerd by anyone , no t.v. , and nothing but conversation between them .


HOW WAS YOUR DAY , WHAT DID YOU GO OVER OR LEARN ABOUT .
Dont accept an answer like noy much or nothing interesting .

Then there is a whole new subject crack open a good book.... THE GOOD BOOK !

[scansy]

Wow, this is too close to home.  My 13  year old is lazy and unmotivated.  We have tried rewarding achievement.  We have tried punishing under achievement.

We drive him nuts with math homework.  He does the homework and then we check it and go over it with him and make him fix the mistakes, etc.  The goal is to get him to learn something from the homework.  But he always says "The teacher just checks to see if it's done, she doesn't check to see if it's right."  We get the same kind of response when it comes to writing.... "They aren't checking spelling."  We keep making him fix stuff though.

I'm lucky - I can do his 8th grade math - I'm an engineer who still works with that stuff.  (What the hell was I thinking when I chose a career???)

[bigdave1018]

i can still remember my dad telling me many years ago how he had to work overtime just to give me a lousy quarter for popcorn and a soda!!!!!!! ive worked since ive been 12 mowing lawns ,shoveling snow and a paper route. dear old dad died when i was in high school so i got a p/t job in a nursing home to support the family. my friends played sports after school , i worked . kids now days think their parents owe them everything. use tough love on them and hopefully they turn out to be productive young adults. God blessed me with 3 above average kids but it wasnt easy ever. keep on them through school and take an interest in their schooling. good luck people. i just retired or work retired me but i put my 30 plus years in the salt mines and worked for everything i got.

[1tigger]

Scansy ... You are on the rite track , keep it up and soon your chil;dren will understand why you do what you do . Soon he will get a teacher that will grade on the points you spoke of .

Part of the problem with teaching / parenting is too many people critisize and not critique . Myself included . Sometimes people need to take a step back and think a little before they speak and that goes for every day life as well .

[esox slayer]

My fiancee's oldest boy needed a couple good lessons taught.  Tried grounding him and he just spent the time in his room..no protest over the punishment, etc....and hence, no lesson learned,  Next time I grounded him, I made him take his X-Box, TV set, DVD player and all electronics from his room, and then the protests began.  Kids have got too much of this crap these days.

Summer vacations have turned into just that, a great big summer long extension of the break they're on all year anyway.  Summer vacations used to mean work for me when I was growing up, and maybe there was a week or so of real screwing off in there somewhere, now ask (most) kids to work 15 minutes a day and you might as well convict yourself of parental abuse....

ADKRoy...the situation with kids in school is terrible....you see it every day...here we've got somebody that spells "feonsay" meaning fiancee, yet instead of studying in school, they're on the computer....W.T.H. are we doing to the youth today???  Esox

[adkRoy]

Everyone blames the teachers...nobody looks at the home life. That is where a child's education begins long before he ever reaches kindergarten.