Middle School Open House

Tonight is Open House at the Middle School for Jesse. I have such mixed feelings about Open House. I like to go and get a feel for the teachers. See where my child needs help, where he is excelling, what projects are being planned, etc. I do NOT however enjoy going. Because invariably, there are parents with their screaming 4 year olds who feel Open House is the perfect opportunity to discuss every issue known to man. I'm all for closing the communication gap between parents and teachers. However, I do not feel the need to discuss problems my son had in the 3rd grade with his 8th grade teacher. Nor do I discuss recipes with the Home Ec teacher. I don't talk about what I did in middle school, the rising cost of gas, global warming or the ongoing custody battle between Britney and KFed. Granted I do not have small children; but I'm pretty confident that I would have enough sense to keep the child at home instead of bringing the screaming, shin-kicking, paper-throwing, up-chucking, sniffly-nosed monster with me. Parents KILL me. Why would you bring that child with you???

I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the purpose of Open House was to meet the teachers, see the classrooms and briefly (can I stress that any more) discuss your child. It's a time for the teachers to inform you that A.) you have a brilliant child with no foreseeable problems or B.) these are the areas your child will need to work on. That's it!

Now Jesse has 8 classes. But, through out the course of the year he will have taken 11. His 'specials' are divided amongst each of the 4 nine weeks. Right now he has Tech Ed (shop, for those my age or older) but I'm not going to wait in line to speak with the teacher. Nor am I going to wait in line to talk with his gym teacher. I have 6 different teachers to see. A five minute discussion with each teacher does not mean that I will get out of there in 30 minutes. OH NO. This is a 2+ hour process. The lines are 3 miles long. And in each classroom you can pretty much guarantee a 15 minute wait BEFORE actually getting to speak with the teacher. And because I don't want to cause the poor sap behind me any more time in that line than I have to, I make my discussion short and sweet.

So what's the point? Really, what IS THE POINT? You can't go into depth on any thing. Wait, let me rephrase that. You shouldn't go into depth on anything. Because there are a million other parents and snotty kids waiting in line. It's not like he's in elementary school where he's all excited to show me his desk and meet his fantastic and wonderful new teacher. He's 13. He changes classes so there are no specific seats just for him. He's way past the point of thinking his teachers are brilliant or even human. I walk out of there frustrated, germ-infected and tired. Each year I say that I'm not going back. If I have a problem I will contact his teacher personally. But each year I go. In years past Kenny was always working. He had days off during the week with his previous job. But NOT ONCE did Open House fall on one of those days. So either he was working until 7 pm (after the start of Open House) or he started at 7pm so he didn't have time to go. I go by myself every year. He'll probably be work over tonight so I can see me going it alone again. Now this year Austin is in the High School. So, I don't have 12 teachers to visit in one night. I get to do it all over again on Thursday. Aren't you jealous??