"The" Disclosure Documents

Does the disclosure document make the teacher or the teacher make the disclosure document...that is the question!

    School has begun and we barely managed to survive the first week....for the 2nd grader it consisted of who her teacher was, how pretty and nice she was, who was in her class, who sat by her in lunch, what was for lunch and what was the first book she got at the library. For the two oldest the main area of focus was on what they were wearing on what day. This was at least a 20 minute ordeal each night before bed and it left me wondering if all those Ralf Lauren, Baby Guess and Tommy Hilfiger clothes I adorned them with  as a baby had ruined them for life! 

...But all three kids did have one thing in common...The dreaded disclosure document!

   Now I understand the importance of these, but the variation from teacher to teacher can drive any student into the looney bin! I'm surprised I even graduated looking back on it!

   As my kids handed me a bunch of papers and said "sign these so I can put them in my back pack",  I said, "hold on a second don't you think I should read them first?" Well since I had about 18 to read and a baby that does not understand that Mommy needs the next 48 minutes of silence to read and sign a bunch of papers, I decided to read these on my own time which is, oh about 2 am.

I was off to a great start....but the first annoyance was that each teacher with the exception of one, (that must have the highest IQ) attached the dotted line where I was to sign and return to the rest of the document. Well in my bleached blonde brain I thought, "how am I, or the child to remember what he/she needs to do in the class if we are returning the one thing that we need?" So of course in a sheer panic I get out a scrap piece of paper to write key items of importance down. I start to read and soon realize that everything is of importance, except the dress code of course due to the perfect knowledge they have of the school dress code policy and the dress code of Nike, Adidas, Zummies and Mr. Jordan! So now I am writing just about everything on these documents thinking, "could you have just attached a sheet to rip off and return and let me keep these papers?" At this point I should have listened to the kids and signed and returned without reading any of the information provided.

    Now this is where it really gets confusing.....First you have the teacher that runs his classroom pretty straight forward, a no frills kind of teacher. His rules are very simple: No extra credit, no make up work, no retaking of tests, no cell phones, don't miss my class, don't talk and don't have fun! Ok so I added the no fun part! Then you have the teacher that couldn't really decided what rules to have, whether to be strict, or lenient, fun or boring, fail the class, pass the whole class, who knows? This teachers document goes a little like this: Assignments are 10 points, tests are 10 points, being on time is 10 points, having perfect attendance is 10 points, being prepared 10 points, you can get an extra 10 points by doing community service, if you fail a test you can retake it, if you do poorly on an assignment you can redo it, you can kiss my butt and get...10 POINTS! I would love to have a boss like this....10 dollars if you come to work, 10 dollars if you wear clothes, 10 dollars if you don't screw up today, 10 dollars if I don't have to fire you!

I read these and think, "lord have mercy that Hunter retakes his test in History, but doesn't forget he can't redo his test in English and I hope he does the extra credit in Design!" Sheesh!!! Well lucky for my kids their Mamma wrote it alllllll down so I can drive them crazy every week with my "disclosure rundown"!

    Now lets not forget the biggest problem of all with these documents....Why in the WORLD are we letting kids now days redo everything! Heck if I knew that I could, "retake a test as many times as possible until you get a higher score", I wouldn't even study for the first time around cause I have like 48 more chances! It makes no sense to me at all! Why are we not holding these kids, and honestly putting some faith in them, that they will pass with flying colors the first time around! This is NOT how the real world works! I would love to be at work pulling a tooth and have to tell the patient, "oh crap we pulled the wrong tooth can we have another chance to pull the right tooth?" Well I guess we do give politicians a million chances to get it right! :) In the real world you have to be the best you can be, the first time around! I feel like telling these teachers, "don't you dare give him another chance! If he didn't take good notes, hung out with friends, stayed up too late and didn't study then he deserves to.... not pass, not get a scholarship, live with us until hes 38 and ask would you like to king size that!" No wonder my boys can't clean a bathtub right the first time...they think I'm giving them another 3 tries and extra credit for using the right cleanser!

...So as my blah, blah, blah comes to an end I would like to thank Provo High for adding a new "reward" to their school this year. It's called and "extended lunch Friday". If your attendance is up to par and your grades are decent you get an extra 20 minutes at lunch. Are you kidding me!!! Um has Provo School district seen a recent poll of how many students  in Utah after graduation do not have the adequate education to continue on to college. Ya a 20 minutes at Panda Express will do them some good! Why are they being rewarded for something that should just be expected? I'll tell you right now if your attendance is up and you are doing your job in the real world you don't get an extra 20 minute lunch you get whats called a pay check and you get to keep your job! :)

Well here's to a wonderful year of pretty teachers, friends on the playground, good lunches, "sick" clothes, winning ball games, extra credit, good grades and if your lucky and extra 20 minute lunch on Friday! Wishing all my kids a great year and a Mom that can keep up with it all!