Saturday, April 07, 2007

Happy Over Commercialized Religious Holidaze

I received an email this morning from an online shopping site that said, "We miss you." I thought, sheesh if they miss me, it has been way too long since my last post! This is me, making the time to write about nothing really.

The stores have had Easter candy out since Valentine's Day. The Valentine's Day candy was the day after Christmas. It is all too commercialized. At least prepackaged egg dye is cheap. Even teenagers still want to dye eggs. Have you dyed your eggs today or have you had a nice chunk of Gefilte fish with some matza? All on sale this time of year, of course, so enjoy.

We are all fine. Girls are excited that next week is Spring Break. Who wouldn't be? Remembering that "ski week" was only two months ago, it seems to me they get a whole lot more time off than I did as a kid. However, they get much more homework than I did. The amount of homework astonishes me. The class is not long enough, so they send home what doesn't get done? Or is the class long enough and not being managed properly? Other classes watch films on days they have substitutes. Why don't the students just do a study hall for that period? Even better, why doesn't the teacher have a class plan so the substitute can follow it? How hard is that?

These kids are much more stressed than I was at their age. Eighth grade GATE classes don't seem so tough. Homework load seems pretty light actually. Tenth grade honors classes are much tougher. Then there is all the stress of what college to choose and what to do to get in one. We are being besieged college paraphernalia. Some are from colleges we have never heard of. Being a sophomore, we still have time to choose, but not much. It really screws up being a kid to have to deal with all this instead of just enjoying their high school years. Sucks really.

Anyhow, happy spring break to everybody and safe travels for all who get to go somewhere for vacation. Hopefully, none were on a cruise ship in Greece. We are staying put this year. Happy Passover and/or Easter too.

3 comments:

alan said...

I've been taping and watching "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?". I know some of those kids are being taught things I didn't get until high school!

I worry sometimes about exactly when kids are supposed to get to be kids, because it's not like they're going to have time once they get through high school or college!

I tried to say something like that to one of the brighter stars of this universe a while back...hope she and the rest of you are enjoying a brief respite!

alan

BonnyT said...

Oh Nance...I've missed reading you...:)

I'm back after a 4 month long hiatus. Our spring break was a month ago...we took off to Florida for 2 weeks and a bit...

Anyway, I'm back now and reading :)

zbjernak said...

hello there...and you are right...it has been ages since your last post... and i guessed alsmot the same for most of us...

and school nowadays are getting worse, and perhaps you are right, there are too little time to teach so many things... so wht ever remained, bring it home!

happy spring break to you...