This morning, Geoff stomped up the hallway yelling loudly and incoherently at about 6:36 am. I again had a hard time falling asleep, so there I was, deeply sleeping and suddenly the jolly green giant is outside my bedroom stomping hard enough to put a foot through the floor.
This house was built in 1774. It has withstood a lot. I hope it withstands Geoff.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"The printer won't print! I'm going to throw it out the window!"
Uh, no you're not. I'm out of bed, in my underpants and tank top, fat and sleepy, and sure as eggs is eggs, the printer won't print.
"Relax, we'll email it to the teacher, and it'll be okay."
I then read the paper. I was a little shocked. The assignment was that the school had been transported back in time to the 13th century. It is about to be invaded. What would you do to defend the school? Now, this is from the Social Studies teacher, whom I adore and believe is God's gift to middle school. He is brilliant, wonderful, spectacular. He gave the kids a wide berth, they could be as "violent as it needed to be, to defend the school."
And Geoff was indeed as violent as needed to be, only none of his actions would have defended the school. Nothing in his paper made sense for what the goal of the assignment was. So I made him edit the hell out of it, remove names, specific things that would be done, and then I emailed the teacher.
I kind of want to smack him (both of them, Geoff and the teacher). Geoff for not realizing that he got in huge trouble last week for saying that he'd burn the school down because he was so mad, and then writing a paper that mentioned specific people that he would use in his defense of the school. And then I wanted to smack the teacher for leaving this so open ended that my kid would take it and run that way. I pointed this out in the email and he said that he green lighted certain language but yes, Geoff probably saw a lot more green in the light than the rest of the class.
So help me... I swear. This kid is gonna drive me to hard liquor.
All told, I asked the teacher to go over this assignment very carefully with Geoff and let him know there are limits. Geoff was angry with me that I edited his document so hard... that I restricted his First Amendment Rights "YET AGAIN!"
I'm too tired to deal with this.
And the printer still doesn't work.
HAH! What parent hasn't restricted the "First Amendment Rights" of their kid. Maybe you should explain that parents are exempt.
ReplyDeleteThankfully my son only tells me, "I don't like that!" when I tell him he can't do something. I'm not sure I could keep a straight face if he started spouting off about his first amendment rights.
ReplyDeleteZ--i totally have told him that. he just refuses to believe it. and sky -- there are times that doug and i are doubled over in silent laughter just out of his eyesight when he goes on the way he does... oy.
ReplyDeleteIts a good thing the printer broke....
ReplyDeleteoh yeah... he doesn't agree but his teacher and i talked about it and he said that he would have talked to geoff but not "turned him in" for what he said... geoff doesn't know how closely God watches his footsteps sometimes....
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