Math Problem
I try not to involve myself in my children's lives. I know, I know. I'm supposed to attend school council meetings and meet the teacher nights and comment back on their computer generated report cards.
But I don't do any of that.
Anymore.
When I was a homemaker and they were in elementary school - which only went up to grade five in our neighbourhood - I went to school council meetings. But only because we were constantly fighting a school closure battle with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and the meetings were fun. I wrote whole articles on the subject for the Ottawa Citizen - netting probably close to $500.00 for my efforts.
Ah, school closures - those were the days. Back when Mike Harris was Premier of Ontario and busily racking up a huge deficit while his supporters (the idiots who had voted for him) would gormlessly stick to the mantra, "Well. At least he did what he said he was going to do."
Oh. Really? I don't recall him campaigning on the promise that he would rack up a huge deficit while simultaneously raiding the public treasury to dole out gobs of cash to his buddies. But it's true. I do forget things. Yesterday I even forgot my home phone number.
Anyway, back to school. Two of my kids, the girl kids, are doing badly in math. Neither of them should be. In fact, one of them should be doing extremely well. So, in spite of my best intentions, I ended up having to phone a math teacher. A high school math teacher. Male AND French. (Not to imply that the "white niggers of North America" - oh, i forgot, "male and French AND a separatiste" - are not my favourite people to have to deal with in solving a problem of what should be of mutual concern but what soon proved to be of a pretty one-sided concern, as in - only I was concerned - he was completely indifferent to the point of arrogance and rudeness.)
You may not know this, but in today's condensed high school curriculum, students are expected to know math already. Because the teacher really doesn't have time to cover the curriculum for the students who already know math AND teach it to the students who don't.
That, apparently, is what tutoring is for. Tutoring, I was informed, being that thing people pay for in order that their children learn math because the teacher doesn't have time to teach it to them himself. But perhaps I can better explain it by just typing out our phone conversation here:
"Madame, you daughter's mark is low because she does not know how to do math."
"Yes. I'm not concerned about her mark, though. I'm concerned that she doesn't know any math."
"Madame, I have to cover the curriculum. I have no time."
"You... mean... you have no time to *teach* the math."
"Madame, I post the test. All the answers are there. I do not know why your daughter did not get a good mark."
And so on and so forth and more of the same etc etc including an observation by the teacher that OTHER students, students who were GOOD in math, were doing WELL in math. Not being very good in math, myself, I neglected to point out that THOSE students probably accounted for his soaringly high class average of 70%.
In any case, I find myself still reluctant to get too involved in all of this, my point being that learning to deal with assholes is an important part of life and if my daughter is going to be the best lawyer in the country...
Also, I'm pretty sure it's the legal secretary who handles all the billing.
Once again with feeling - "Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be secretaries..."
