It is hard. I acknowledge it goes against a lifetime of conditioning. It's also doable. We don't have to perform 'niceness' for the benefit of others. Just the statements I've made in this thread, absent any curse words or attacks, would be considered hostile and unacceptable to a lot of people.

I feel like you might need this encouragement...https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjuxp_v2NL1AhXQq3IEHShIA9EQyCl6BAgGEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DL0MK7qz13bU&usg=AOvVaw2GU7qIKyHsYPwWqChJfNiu

No, it's not. My bosses have appreciated my frankness precisely because so many are willing to tell them what they want to hear and not what they need to know. Unpleasant realities can be delivered frankly and without offense. I will say that my experience is in politics/government where shining people on is common and frankness is unexpected and, often, refreshing. I've had people ask me, directly, about my reasons for leaving a job (the boss) where I explained in abstract terms that there was nothing they could do to make me stay working for that man. The man was later fired. This is a thing. When I met with Gov. Beebe and he asked me about our project (re: misrepresentations and collusion between industry and his high-level apppointees), I related what I knew and he grinned from ear to ear (it was a GOOD day!). Seriously, the higher you go, the less honesty there is. I feel like men don't share these concerns for propriety and manners. They routinely act like jack holes with impunity at work. Doing it in less subtle ways as a woman is no different in terms of gaining respect and credibility.

Meh...there's a line between being actively hostile and not 'smiling' and 'nodding' as a reflex. I've done pretty well navigating that line. It's not easy but it can be done. When I'm happy, people know I'm happy. When I'm not, no words need be said. LOL. I lived too may years as a doormat and refuse/d to do that at work too.

Yeah, it's cray. It's also an accurate reflection of the push-pull happening where I live. DS donated his copy of Maus to the middle school he attends without issue. DS, literally, reports on how often his donations are checked out each week and there's at least one other student gobbling them up. DD's HS explicitly includes "anti-racism" in it's motto/creed. Any surprise that its students were largely masked after the Governor's proclamation/District decision to go mask optional? Leadership matters. Kids will respond.

I can, as a function of a toxic abuse dynamic, but largely choose not to. I value politesse a lot less than frankness and authenticity.

Thanks! I think we're gonna do her gathering in our backyard and invite the neighbors so I have my eye on an outdoor projector, lol. DH, for the record, is horrified.

She could be, lol! She loves music and would enjoy the lyrics. I love the idea of featuring her in the shot. She's what made us a family, ya know? She's also gonna be missed...SOOOOOO much!

It's the way the game is currently structured/played. I just don't think that setup is long for this world. It doesn't make sense as a REQUIREMENT given the decentralized systems of education we have. **Maybe** for those applying out of state or as homeschoolers but not in-state. For the most part, colleges know what they are getting from various parts of X, Y, Z state. They have decades of data. I expect it to remain an option for those who need some external metric but I don't think it's necessary for the vast majority of kids. I would like to see students focus their free time on learning the actual material they're offered in class.

DD is in the last five months of her junior year and we're gearing up for the big apps push and all that. I feel like this is the ideal time to gather some ideas and suggestions for neat, special, unusual things you did to celebrate your graduates...BEFORE the chaos of fall/winter. I'll go first. I am seriously thinking about recreating the iconic Queen album cover with DD standing in for Freddie Mercury. Insane? Maybe. Also super iconic in her senior ad/announcement. Launching DD is a big thing/change for our tight-knit family. What did you do to celebrate your grad?

This stuff is so nuts. Yesterday, one Tennessee district banned Maus from the 8th grade curriculum. Oh, and TODAY is holocaust remembrance day. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2022/01/27/tennessee-school-board-removes-holocaust-mausart-spiegelman/9237260002/

My children don’t attend schools that offer unlimited retakes, nor does anyone else I know with children in school. Even if that were a common practice, and it isn’t, it’s absolutely no different than the teaching to mastery expected by many here. The goal is for the student to demonstrate they have learned the material. Further, I never said do away with it. I said the reality is that it’s collapsing all on its own.

Classes what effortless? People make mistakes all the time, typos, etc. We correct them and life goes on. Why should a teen’s minor errors on a single day/test THAT FAMILIES PAY A LOT FOR have more impact than four years of hard work? It shouldn’t. We may never agree on that but I find the insistence on overvaluing a national test when we don’t have a national curriculum indefensible.

Yeah, still gross. Just not as gross as the other meaning.

Nodding. My DH was like…is this really happening right now?🤣

GPA tells you a lot about effort and persistence. We don’t have a national curriculum so there is never going to be a fair and effective national test. Fortunately for those who want/need that sort of metric, the ACT and SAT will continue to be an available option.

No. It’s really not that bad. Just blasian people.

Multiple districts filed suit Monday along with several local parents. DD got a text from a peer at a different district school saying most students were unmasked today, the first day of the new Gov’s order. DD said at her school all but 2-5 students per class were masked. That’s what leadership can do, I guess. We live 10 minutes from the other HS.

It’s not either/or. The first run through provides easy AND hard questions. It adapts based on a pattern of responses to both. The NWEA test stops when you have enough wrong answers but the time range is known to vary by as much as an hour based on the difficulty of the questions. My hope is the new SAT test will accommodate those tougher questions by making the time limits more flexible. Every kid should have more time. Speed doesn’t equal intelligence or capacity. It’s truly an arbitrary and capricious metric.

Agreed. I just don’t see *their* tests as relevant long term. They’re on their way out and SCOTUS’ upcoming rulings will render them even more irrelevant. Colleges that want to maintain credibility and diversity will expend the funds necessary to evaluate all applicants more thoroughly (see the recently withdrawn Oxford fellowship). For those kids who have big time/money to spend on test prep, nothing changes. For those who don’t, everything will. CB is desperately trying to stay relevant.

DH CLEPed many classes to earn his BA before his MS. Your last para is where I’m at tho. I don’t want my kids at *any* institution that defines their worth by a test score.

Wow.

It really is ok to accept that words and phrases mean different things in different eras, yes. Acronyms? Meh. People have been subbing their own F bombs forever—freaking, frigging, fudge, fricking, etc.

When I lived in LA for college, my bestie attended Santa Monica City College for a full semester to bring up her GPA before reenrolling at USC. It was VERY affordable. She took the bus. Here, the district pays 1/2 for any enrolled student (even solely online classes) so the costs are very reasonable, maybe $100-150/class. Hold up, are you seriously complaining about <$1000 in transportation/tuition/books for a full semester (12 transferable credits)? You don’t know Jack about the other students in those classes.

Yikes, yeah, it makes sense to pay for a book or online session or do the free Khan online prep to learn how to game the new test in that case.