assigning a project right before Spring break

[RedBottoms]

I happen to agree with you on this. What is the point to a break if not to relax and do no work?

That said, though, I think this practice does occur often. And, if the kid is in gifted or advanced classes (as I think Redbottom's kid is), he will need to assume that this will most often be the case. Hell! I don't think my kid had a break at all between grades 8-12. She worked through all breaks including summer.

We can all debate as to whether or not it is right or it is wrong that a kid would have to go 4 years without a break. But in our district, that is the way it is for students who elect to take the advanced route. The student who chooses the advanced route knows what will be expected of him. If he doesn't like the idea of never getting a break, he needs to choose a different route...one that gives him the break he wants/needs.

For my kid, taking the no-break route worked best. She loved having her face in a book all the time. It relaxed her. It was what she was good at. And it made her feel good about herself. If taking advanced classes makes a kid feel accomplished, that she has a purpose, and it doesn't stress her out, I say take that route. If taking advanced classes deprives a kid of other valuable aspects of life or causes him undo stress, he should lay down his pursuit of the advanced classes.

Its not an advanced class.Its the regular 6th grade Language Arts class. But its an advanced school. They push the kids super hard there. The school has super high test scores and wins awards all the time. So its way harder than the average regular middle school my other son goes to. A lot of kids fail out and drop out of this school because they either get fed up with the high standards or they just can't actually make the standards and get Fs.

My son is not dropping out. He wants to be at this school. The Social Studies and Science and Math teacher don't assign that much outside school work and what they do assign is reasonable in my opinion.It never takes that long. But the Language Arts teacher is freaking nuts.

It's a prep school or a school for advanced studies?

its a very competitive and hard to get into arts magnet school. Its a public school that the students have to audition to get into and they only have a few spots per grade about 70. It goes from 6th to 12th. Once you are in high school they have all AP classes so that you have no choice for example to take AP Bio or AP Chemistry -that or Dual enrollment. They have no such thing as remedial classes there. You are just asked to leave if you can't cut it.

So I have no doubt by the time he takes the ACT or SAT he is going to score very high.I have no doubt he will get a lot of college offers because its said colleges know this school and its current very good reputation.

But I don't think making 6th graders work over spring break is the answer either

[Deleted User 670]

The Little Prince was originally in French, wasn't it? All the parents should have banded together and complained about the teacher back in November. When my kid was in 6th grade, she was in our city's public IB middle school program and that shit happened all the time. The teachers were supposed to coordinate so that the kids didn't have multiple projects to work on at the same time but it happened anyway. And during every break there was always at least 2 projects she had. We had zero family time. Weekends and holidays revolved around projects and homework. She transferred to a private IB middle school the next year that did not do that.

[RedBottoms]

We are on spring break vacation and DH has spent several hours on conference calls. Most successful, senior-level execs spend parts of their vacations dealing with work issues. It’s just part of life.

and he is highly compensated I imagine. Not everyone is going to be a Senior level executive. DH has a pretty good white collar job and they leave him alone during his vacations. They kinda hassle him about letting him take them-but once he is on vacation-they leave him alone

[RedBottoms]

Too bad all the parents won't band together and have their kids refuse to do this project. Then possibly the principal would see how ridiculous the teacher is being.

Kids should have zero homework during school breaks.

I would want to email the teacher and principal and ask them what time they will be at the school during spring break, so my child can be in their class. Learning is so important, right? Never give the students time off, the world will end!

Of course the school staff won't be there during the break, they need time off to recharge. But....not the students!

Cue the people who say teachers work full time during all breaks.

Kids are not adults. They need their well deserved breaks.

They get summer. I've got to work over my kids break so my viewpoint is like yeah it sucks.. yeah the teacher is sadistic or whatever.. Do it anyway it won't kill you. I mean I'm a horrible mom anyway because i ask them to do extra chores while they're home so there's that. Even if we're going away they can bring the book with them. I'd prefer teachers NOT do this but I wouldn't protest over it either.

I won't be protesting. But it still pisses me off.

My son doesn't have much break during summer either. He is doing summer intensives for ballet probably every year from now on. They mostly start at 12. He will be dancing Monday through Saturday for three weeks from 11:30 to 6:00 pm. So July he gets no real "break". He will only be getting June. And since this is an arts magnet school and his major is dance-he is expected to do some dancing over summer. He is doing more than most-but still. They will be assigning summer reading over the break too so still will have some schoolwork

Like I said not all vacations are laying on the beach all day. If you are going camping and hiking you are walking all day and setting up camp and stuff. If you are visiting relatives-you need to be paying attention to them. If you are at an amusement park you very well can't read a book on a rollercoaster. You may have some down time to read but having to turn down say watching the fireworks on your very expensive Disney vacation to go home and read and work on your speech-is kinda bullshit

[Pjmm]

Too bad all the parents won't band together and have their kids refuse to do this project. Then possibly the principal would see how ridiculous the teacher is being.

Kids should have zero homework during school breaks.

I would want to email the teacher and principal and ask them what time they will be at the school during spring break, so my child can be in their class. Learning is so important, right? Never give the students time off, the world will end!

Of course the school staff won't be there during the break, they need time off to recharge. But....not the students!

Cue the people who say teachers work full time during all breaks.

Kids are not adults. They need their well deserved breaks.

They get summer. I've got to work over my kids break so my viewpoint is like yeah it sucks.. yeah the teacher is sadistic or whatever.. Do it anyway it won't kill you. I mean I'm a horrible mom anyway because i ask them to do extra chores while they're home so there's that. Even if we're going away they can bring the book with them. I'd prefer teachers NOT do this but I wouldn't protest over it either.

I won't be protesting. But it still pisses me off.

My son doesn't have much break during summer either. He is doing summer intensives for ballet probably every year from now on. They mostly start at 12. He will be dancing Monday through Saturday for three weeks from 11:30 to 6:00 pm. So July he gets no real "break". He will only be getting June. And since this is an arts magnet school and his major is dance-he is expected to do some dancing over summer. He is doing more than most-but still. They will be assigning summer reading over the break too so still will have some schoolwork

Like I said not all vacations are laying on the beach all day. If you are going camping and hiking you are walking all day and setting up camp and stuff. If you are visiting relatives-you need to be paying attention to them. If you are at an amusement park you very well can't read a book on a rollercoaster. You may have some down time to read but having to turn down say watching the fireworks on your very expensive Disney vacation to go home and read and work on your speech-is kinda bullshit

We've managed it. They read during down time. I can't read in a car but yds can. I guess I'm used to it because in years past he's always brought unfinished classwork with him. He's horrible doing classwork so guess what he does it on break. Next time manage your time better. As far as your son's dance he signed up for this. I'm not unsympathetic to him but he went in knowing his summer will be more busy than an average kid. I guess I'm not one to complain to teachers unless there's a serious problem. I'd find ds an easy short book to read..lol my dad teaches. He usually recommends the movie if it can be found to supplement the book.

[RedBottoms]

They get summer. I've got to work over my kids break so my viewpoint is like yeah it sucks.. yeah the teacher is sadistic or whatever.. Do it anyway it won't kill you. I mean I'm a horrible mom anyway because i ask them to do extra chores while they're home so there's that. Even if we're going away they can bring the book with them. I'd prefer teachers NOT do this but I wouldn't protest over it either.

I won't be protesting. But it still pisses me off.

My son doesn't have much break during summer either. He is doing summer intensives for ballet probably every year from now on. They mostly start at 12. He will be dancing Monday through Saturday for three weeks from 11:30 to 6:00 pm. So July he gets no real "break". He will only be getting June. And since this is an arts magnet school and his major is dance-he is expected to do some dancing over summer. He is doing more than most-but still. They will be assigning summer reading over the break too so still will have some schoolwork

Like I said not all vacations are laying on the beach all day. If you are going camping and hiking you are walking all day and setting up camp and stuff. If you are visiting relatives-you need to be paying attention to them. If you are at an amusement park you very well can't read a book on a rollercoaster. You may have some down time to read but having to turn down say watching the fireworks on your very expensive Disney vacation to go home and read and work on your speech-is kinda bullshit

We've managed it. They read during down time. I can't read in a car but yds can. I guess I'm used to it because in years past he's always brought unfinished classwork with him. He's horrible doing classwork so guess what he does it on break. Next time manage your time better. As far as your son's dance he signed up for this. I'm not unsympathetic to him but he went in knowing his summer will be more busy than an average kid. I guess I'm not one to complain to teachers unless there's a serious problem. I'd find ds an easy short book to read..lol my dad teaches. He usually recommends the movie if it can be found to supplement the book.

That is the thing. We in general have EXCELLENT time management. I am one of the best at that I know. DS is always working way ahead of the other kids. But every time he tries to get ahead-this one particular teacher throws some big ass assignment his way last minute. There is no way to manage your time well and work ahead when he does not give it to you till last minute.

That is why I said I think it should have been given out last Friday so they could have gone ahead and read the book all this week and he would probably be done or almost done with it by now.

We did get an easy book though he already has read so that is going to make it easier on him at least. I won't tell my kids to watch a movie instead of reading the book. That is cheating and may get you a bad grade as books and movies are often different

[PoplarGrove]

We are on spring break vacation and DH has spent several hours on conference calls. Most successful, senior-level execs spend parts of their vacations dealing with work issues. It’s just part of life.

A 12 year old student isn't a senior level executive. They've done so many studies on WHY youth of today are seeing major jumps in depression and anxiety and statements like this shed light on the problem. Youth are experiencing more adult like mental health issues because we're telling children that they should be behaving like adults. 12 year olds aren't senior level executives and shouldn't be expected to lose out on the little amount of down time they are given nowadays because some day it may be "part of life".

[PoplarGrove]

Too bad all the parents won't band together and have their kids refuse to do this project. Then possibly the principal would see how ridiculous the teacher is being.

Kids should have zero homework during school breaks.

I would want to email the teacher and principal and ask them what time they will be at the school during spring break, so my child can be in their class. Learning is so important, right? Never give the students time off, the world will end!

Of course the school staff won't be there during the break, they need time off to recharge. But....not the students!

Cue the people who say teachers work full time during all breaks.

Kids are not adults. They need their well deserved breaks.

I agree completely. My daughter had an assignment assigned to her last Thursday. Spring break began on Friday for us. The assignment is due the Tuesday after they return from Spring break. MY daughter had a question and emailed the teacher. She got an automated reply that the teacher was on vacation and would not be responding to emails until Monday. The teacher then got an email from me requesting a meeting where we can discuss the rationale behind assigning work during the holiday to students and then going on holiday himself. My daughter works her ass off during the school year, between, wrokshops, rehearsals, competitions and school she doesn't get a down day. These vacations are her only down time or catch up time and she deserves a break as much as the teacher does.

[LiveWhatULove]

I’d find an 6-7 hour audio book and listen to an hour-ish a day...

You're better than me. I used to 'ahem', skim the book, read the back cover, and go to the library for cliffnotes... I'm actually trying to listen to Moby Dick just for the hell of it on audio and I can't get through it. Ishmael, the narrator, is the most wordy sailor in the history of boating. I'm sorry the whale didn't eat him or I assume not. I've not gotten that far. Never have your kid read this book.

LOL, I wasn't a huge Moby Dick fan back when I read it in high school.

I recommend you just stop, why subject yourself to a book you dislike? There are soooo many great books out there. Pick a new one, life is far too short, lol.

[RedBottoms]

I’d find an 6-7 hour audio book and listen to an hour-ish a day...

You're better than me. I used to 'ahem', skim the book, read the back cover, and go to the library for cliffnotes... I'm actually trying to listen to Moby Dick just for the hell of it on audio and I can't get through it. Ishmael, the narrator, is the most wordy sailor in the history of boating. I'm sorry the whale didn't eat him or I assume not. I've not gotten that far. Never have your kid read this book.

LOL, I wasn't a huge Moby Dick fan back when I read it in high school.

I recommend you just stop, why subject yourself to a book you dislike? There are soooo many great books out there. Pick a new one, life is far too short, lol.

True that. So many good books out there in the world.I am the type that I enjoy "most" books I pick out myself. I love to read. My kids love to read. But I found any book I was "Forced"to read for school or an assignment-I did not enjoy it. There were some exceptions-but in general if I am trying to take notes on it and think about literary aspects -I lose the actual enjoyment and absorbing the story and mood.

I am not a fan of most classic novels. I did read on my own- Lolita and To Kill a Mockingbird and I very much enjoyed those. If forced to read them though-I may not have liked them as much.