Update
Torvy is doing well at high school and seems to have made a very positive impression on his teachers. He works hard, and seems to bring home far more homework than Björn ever has. The fact that his teachers are so well-disposed towards him is a credit to their ability to see beyond the surface - his hair is now below his shoulders and is a peculiar mixture of straight(ish) and curly locks. He is enjoying his music and is making pretty good progress on both his accoustic and bass guitars. He and some friends have formed a band, and they get together to practise every Saturday.
He and his class have just returned from a residential school trip, which he appears to have enjoyed, in spite of his complaints about the food - "manky" was how he described it, and he appears not to have laid eyes on a vegetable for the duration of his stay. For someone who eats as healthily as Torvy does, this is not acceptable. I'm sure it played havoc with his digestive system.
He is smitten with a girl from the school, and spent much time with her during the trip, but the fact that she has a boyfriend has been something of an impediment. I was quite surprised when I went to collect him on Friday, to hear the teachers telling him that his homework assignment was to advise the two student mentors who went along if he has increased success with this girl. Interesting!
Björn is doing less well at school. This being the start of GCSEs, the teachers are focusing on the borderline kids to try to get them through and improve the school's standing on the league tables. As a consequence, the brighter kids like Björn have just disengaged. I got a call yesterday (Sunday afternoon, mind) from his English teacher, wanting to set up a meeting with him and me to discuss his underachievement. While I accept that he needs to make an effort, the teachers need to make an effort to engage him, too. After all, he is 15 and can't be expected to understand the long-term results of a lack of effort now. I have long called for the recognition of exceptionally kids as having "special needs" as much as those with learning disabilities. Finally, voices like mine have been heard and the government has introduced a system whereby these kids are being identified and being taught skills for extended and self-directed learning. Sadly, Björn was off sick when they wrote the tests (Sod's law!) and had to try to do them during a normal lesson on his return. Of course, he struggled to concentrate, turned in below-par work and missed the cut by a few marks. Ah well!
Of course, there is a girlfriend on the scene. Quite a sweet lass, really, and somewhat funky, with pink and black hair.
We have definitely entered the heavy rock phase of the boys' lives - Torvy wants to have his eyebrow pierced, while Björn is more keen to have his lower lip done and a hole punched in his earlobe. And we're not talking piercing here, folks, when I say "hole punched" - we are referring to a process something like the Zulus do. We are holding out. We are prepared to allow them to pierce ears - lobes and/or cartilege, but that's about as funky as it gets. Torvy already has the cartilege of one ear pierced.
Both boys are passing up the opportunity to go to a formal ball in order to go to a rock concert instead.
On the flip side though, on Sunday morning, John and I suddenly noticed that Björn wasn't in church. Somewhat peeved that he had gone off without letting us know and increasingly suspicious as to his wherabouts, we instigated a search. We found him... teaching Sunday School. We felt a little sheepish, to say the least!
John has managed to unload some of the Ops responsibility at work. His company has recently bought a few new businesses and he really needs time to focus on upgrading their kit, getting them connected to the network, and seeing to it that they know the systems and abide by the protocols. Because Ops is so deadline driven, that kept taking precedence, so it was good to be able to hand that over to his most severe critic. His view: "Let's see how she manages!"
I am enjoying my studies, although I find academics quite blinkered in a lot of ways. No offense to all my teacher relatives and friends, but I am also increasingly concerned that children are prepared for careers by people who have no experience of business, or any career other than teaching. Most of my classmates are teachers and when they talk about careers, they seem limited in focus to the professions: doctor, teacher, engineer, lawyer. I would imagine that the percentage uptake into the professions is rather small. Far more people are likely to be employed by commercial concerns where they will need very different skills, which are not being taught, let alone assessed at school. Hey ho!
He and his class have just returned from a residential school trip, which he appears to have enjoyed, in spite of his complaints about the food - "manky" was how he described it, and he appears not to have laid eyes on a vegetable for the duration of his stay. For someone who eats as healthily as Torvy does, this is not acceptable. I'm sure it played havoc with his digestive system.
He is smitten with a girl from the school, and spent much time with her during the trip, but the fact that she has a boyfriend has been something of an impediment. I was quite surprised when I went to collect him on Friday, to hear the teachers telling him that his homework assignment was to advise the two student mentors who went along if he has increased success with this girl. Interesting!
Björn is doing less well at school. This being the start of GCSEs, the teachers are focusing on the borderline kids to try to get them through and improve the school's standing on the league tables. As a consequence, the brighter kids like Björn have just disengaged. I got a call yesterday (Sunday afternoon, mind) from his English teacher, wanting to set up a meeting with him and me to discuss his underachievement. While I accept that he needs to make an effort, the teachers need to make an effort to engage him, too. After all, he is 15 and can't be expected to understand the long-term results of a lack of effort now. I have long called for the recognition of exceptionally kids as having "special needs" as much as those with learning disabilities. Finally, voices like mine have been heard and the government has introduced a system whereby these kids are being identified and being taught skills for extended and self-directed learning. Sadly, Björn was off sick when they wrote the tests (Sod's law!) and had to try to do them during a normal lesson on his return. Of course, he struggled to concentrate, turned in below-par work and missed the cut by a few marks. Ah well!
Of course, there is a girlfriend on the scene. Quite a sweet lass, really, and somewhat funky, with pink and black hair.
We have definitely entered the heavy rock phase of the boys' lives - Torvy wants to have his eyebrow pierced, while Björn is more keen to have his lower lip done and a hole punched in his earlobe. And we're not talking piercing here, folks, when I say "hole punched" - we are referring to a process something like the Zulus do. We are holding out. We are prepared to allow them to pierce ears - lobes and/or cartilege, but that's about as funky as it gets. Torvy already has the cartilege of one ear pierced.
Both boys are passing up the opportunity to go to a formal ball in order to go to a rock concert instead.
On the flip side though, on Sunday morning, John and I suddenly noticed that Björn wasn't in church. Somewhat peeved that he had gone off without letting us know and increasingly suspicious as to his wherabouts, we instigated a search. We found him... teaching Sunday School. We felt a little sheepish, to say the least!
John has managed to unload some of the Ops responsibility at work. His company has recently bought a few new businesses and he really needs time to focus on upgrading their kit, getting them connected to the network, and seeing to it that they know the systems and abide by the protocols. Because Ops is so deadline driven, that kept taking precedence, so it was good to be able to hand that over to his most severe critic. His view: "Let's see how she manages!"
I am enjoying my studies, although I find academics quite blinkered in a lot of ways. No offense to all my teacher relatives and friends, but I am also increasingly concerned that children are prepared for careers by people who have no experience of business, or any career other than teaching. Most of my classmates are teachers and when they talk about careers, they seem limited in focus to the professions: doctor, teacher, engineer, lawyer. I would imagine that the percentage uptake into the professions is rather small. Far more people are likely to be employed by commercial concerns where they will need very different skills, which are not being taught, let alone assessed at school. Hey ho!
posted by karynr at 3:48 pm
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