Grading Freshmen

[QUOTE=libetoži;24858033]I totally disagree with Jonathan Adams2. Today’s school curriculum is insane—it's way too much for them. Back when I was in elementary school, grades 1-4, I never actually "studied" at home; I just did my homework. Real studying didn't even start until 5th grade, and even then, not really. Serious studying only kicked in during high school and then college... My mom never sat down with me to teach me anything; I did everything myself. Meanwhile, my sister sits with my niece from the first grade onwards. It's not that my niece is any less smart than my sister and me, it's just that the curriculum is brutal. And it's not just her; it's all kids, some more than others. My niece is in 5th grade now and things have leveled out slightly, but she's still an honors student who spends all day studying. It's not normal to have to study that much in 5th grade, yet she's been doing it since 1st grade. All my sister's friends sit down and work with their kids. When I saw some facts in a 5th-grade history textbook, I couldn't believe it—stuff I didn't even touch until I was in law school taking a national history exam...

...basically, my takeaway is that if a kid hasn't learned to read before kindergarten, they're going to struggle to keep up in 1st grade. That was the case in my niece's class: kids who could already read before school started needed less help from parents, while those who couldn't had to spend all their time after school sitting at the table with their parents... bottom line, it's not fair. I couldn't read before school either and I learned it all in class... it's the teacher's job to teach us... today's curriculum is too fast, too heavy, packed with way more material and data, and if a kid can't read before starting school—parents, watch out—you're gonna be stuck sitting there working with them 😁 ☕[/QUOTE]

this kind of mindset is exactly why our kids turn out the way they do....

if I weren't a teacher, I'd be embarrassed to even say something like that....👎

does anyone actually think you shouldn't work with your kid???

you gotta work with them starting at age 4 if you want them reading and writing early... and as far as that goes... most of us back when I was in school already knew how to read and write by the start of 1st grade....

and then you guys complain about the grades????

no point arguing with you people because we're clearly on opposite sides....

I just want the best for everyone, but you HAVE to work with your kids.[/QUOTE]

Look, this isn't about picking sides in some political tug-of-war; we need to be on the side of the kids 🙂 ... As far as I can recall—and honestly, my mom backs me up on this one, even if I might be misremembering slightly—back in my first-grade days, we focused on uppercase and lowercase print plus basic reading ... there was zero emphasis on cursive handwriting ... and grades were all descriptive feedback rather than numbers

And yet, from what I’ve gathered, everyone in the education department seems to be preaching that children don't need to master letters or numbers early on => that's supposedly all handled in first grade ... but let's be real here, we all know deep down that a kid is going to struggle immensely if they haven't grasped those fundamentals already

Kimberly Nguyen said:Look, this isn't about picking sides in some political tug-of-war; we need to be on the side of the kids 🙂 ... As far as I can recall—and honestly, my mom backs me up on this one, even if I might be misremembering slightly—back in my first-grade days, we focused on uppercase and lowercase print plus basic reading ... there was zero emphasis on cursive handwriting ... and grades were all descriptive feedback rather than numbers

And yet, from what I’ve gathered, everyone in the education department seems to be preaching that children don't need to master letters or numbers early on => that's supposedly all handled in first grade ... but let's be real here, we all know deep down that a kid is going to struggle immensely if they haven't grasped those fundamentals already

I work in an educational setting with older students, but from what I gather through my colleagues, they only introduce cursive once the class is truly ready—meaning everyone has fully mastered printing both upper and lowercase letters.
And honestly, I hear the exact same thing from my friends who are elementary school teachers.
While I don't recall every specific detail of my own first-grade curriculum, I was absolutely stunned to realize that some kids spend their entire first year just rotating through numbers up to ten and the alphabet...

I actually filled in for a second-grade teacher once, and I was genuinely surprised to see they hadn't even covered the months of the year yet... apparently, that was slated for much later in the term.

To my mind, that feels far too slow-paced... 🤷

Kimberly Nguyen said:Look, this isn't about picking sides in some political tug-of-war; we need to be on the side of the kids 🙂 ... As far as I can recall—and honestly, my mom backs me up on this one, even if I might be misremembering slightly—back in my first-grade days, we focused on uppercase and lowercase print plus basic reading ... there was zero emphasis on cursive handwriting ... and grades were all descriptive feedback rather than numbers

And yet, from what I’ve gathered, everyone in the education department seems to be preaching that children don't need to master letters or numbers early on => that's supposedly all handled in first grade ... but let's be real here, we all know deep down that a kid is going to struggle immensely if they haven't grasped those fundamentals already

Well, technically, they don't *need* to know... I mean, I can't recall a time when kids started kindergarten already knowing how to write full sentences—I assume the school system and the way teachers handle the alphabet have just adapted to that reality.
If an entire class shows up with some baseline knowledge, obviously you aren't going to spend ten whole days drilling the letter "A" if everyone already knows it.

A close friend of mine just took over a first-grade classroom where absolutely none of the students knew how to write when they arrived... so they are just slowly easing into lowercase print right now.
The whole first semester was dedicated to large block letters,

since cursive and standard handwriting are actually part of the second-grade curriculum, not the first.

I’m actually on the same page as Dobrica here; it feels like the curriculum today is much lighter than what we had to tackle back in the day. The real game-changer for kids now is having access to a second language starting in first grade—something most of us didn't get, at least I didn't. It's well-known that kids soak everything up like sponges before they hit seven or eight, so introducing another language then isn't an added burden; it’s honestly just doing them and their parents a massive favor, giving them a real shot at being bilingual by the time they graduate high school.
As for working with kids at home, I honestly don't even know where to start or how to respond to those posts where people indirectly ask, "Why do I need to help my kid with homework when there's a teacher in after-school care?" or "What am I supposed to review if they're already in school?" I was the top student in my class through the end of high school, but I moved around quite a bit—three different elementary schools and two different high schools across two different states 😁—and believe me, I definitely needed help at home sometimes. I remember first grade vividly; my mom basically sat by my side every single day, forcing me to do my homework because I used to think I didn't need to bother since I'd already learned it in class. I walked into first grade knowing how to write all my letters, but I couldn't actually read... I could only string a few letters together into tiny little syllables. Then there was third grade, when we were learning about the water cycle. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, no matter what. My dad tried explaining it until he was blue in the face, but nothing worked... until he finally took me into the bathroom, turned on the hot water in the tub, and waited for the steam to fog up the mirror. Once the mirror clouded over, things finally clicked. He explained that the water heater is like the top layer that creates steam, which eventually turns into rain... if he hadn't done that, I probably would have ended up in fourth grade still totally lost. From fifth to eighth grade, I kept bugging him whenever I hit a wall, though by then we were getting into physics and chemistry, so I needed a little extra help here and there.
I truly cannot fathom a parent who does absolutely nothing with their child. How can you not see how they're doing with math or writing? Maybe they're actually doing better than the teacher realizes... maybe they're gifted in certain areas or subjects... why wouldn't you want to nurture that potential?
Looking back, I realize how tough it is for teachers; the elementary years are even harder than the later grades. That's when you have to lay the foundation and instill habits—things like finishing homework, neat handwriting, organized notebooks, using clear headings... not to mention all the stuff teachers have to deal with that should have been handled at home, like basic politeness and manners.
Maybe some parents feel it's unfair that a 4 out of 5 is a B, or that a 19 out of 20 is also a B... but they really ought to look at the actual material being taught and study the tests to see what kind of questions are being asked. Most of the time, it's the absolute basics... and I really don't think that kind of grading is unfair.
Unfortunately, teachers today are way more restricted than they used to be. You can't even look at a kid the wrong way without some parent showing up at the school the next morning to demand a meeting. It used to be that these conversations could stay between the teacher and the parent, but that's just not possible anymore. If there's even the slightest issue, you have to involve a third party; the teacher ends up having to explain themselves to two or three different people, asking "why," "how," and "couldn't this have been handled differently?" After a few episodes like that, what happens? The teacher just gives the kid a C to wash their hands of the whole thing, the parent walks away feeling victorious... and meanwhile, the kid hits fourth grade without even knowing their multiplication tables. Why don't they know them? Who cares, right? They've got a calculator anyway... they'll just use that, or their classmate will.
Almost every day, I see some kind of outburst from kids. I once saw a little guy burst into tears because he got a C on a science quiz, and I was just stunned. I didn't get it... it was just science. By the end of the semester, he'll probably have a B or an A in that subject easily. He could even pull off an A without any trouble. But no, he can't study at home because he has three sisters who are all straight-A students, and that would cause too much drama. So, what are you supposed to do in that situation? Is it the teacher's fault for being too strict, or are the parents imposing the wrong expectations?

Robin Martin8 said:I’m actually glad this thread was started. My little one is a freshman, and honestly, I’ve been obsessing over how brutal the grading system is lately. Here in the States, they already started handing out grades in those little report cards during the first semester. Now that we're moving into the second half, everything is being logged straight into the official school portal. It’s ridiculous. For instance, he had this math test worth 20 points, and even though he scored a 19, the teacher gave him a B. Apparently, you need a perfect 100% just to get an A. It feels completely arbitrary.
Our grades aren't too bad overall, I suppose, but my kid is just... high energy. He's incredibly restless. We struggle with his focus constantly. I mean, once he finally settles down and actually commits to a task, he flies through it in seconds, but getting him to that starting point? That's the real battle.

First off, every teacher or professor has the autonomy to decide which grading scale they want to apply to their tests. Honestly, missing just one question and getting a B isn't actually that unusual in most American classrooms.

2. Furthermore, if we are talking about an elementary school student, teachers often utilize standardized tests or pre-made assessments that come bundled with specific instructional materials. These sets frequently include a predetermined grading rubric, and the teacher simply follows that established scale... perhaps that is what is happening here?

I honestly don't think we should be forcing kids to memorize the alphabet before they even step foot in a classroom. If a kid is bright, they'll catch up to the readers in no time. Look, obviously parents need to help out once first grade hits, but man, overloading a kid with endless homework—like making them write out letters for miles just because the teacher doesn't have enough time in class to actually teach them before moving on to the next one—is just too much. Does anyone even care about letting kids actually be kids and play? Seriously, does anyone give a damn about that? And what, are Germans supposed to be a stupider nation just because their education system isn't a frantic race to the bottom?

Jonathan Adams2 said:Give me one single example of something your niece is learning in first grade that you never had to learn.div>

I remember back in my day, we did it letter by letter in first grade. We’d write a single letter a billion times in our notebooks... everyone remembers those endless drills of writing "Isaac" and "Ann." But I distinctly remember my niece was writing full sentences from day one—just copying them from the book—before she even knew her letters because nobody taught her the basics before school started. She was just being a kid, playing, totally uninterested. They skipped the letter drills and went straight to sentences, plus some cursive later on. We never did that.

And honestly, the point isn't us arguing over who had it better. It's that today's parents are sitting down and doing homework with their kids (which, if you ask me, isn't right, but they have to given the curriculum). When we were growing up 20 or 25 years ago, nobody helped us; we were on our own. My mom never even asked what my homework was. Now, parents are fully involved and totally in sync with everything happening at school... I joke with my sister that based on how much her kid is learning, she could probably apply for Wheel of Fortune in a few years. 🤣

Also, btw, I've noticed that for kids today, English is the biggest struggle (way more than math). That tells me the entire approach to teaching reading and writing is fundamentally broken. Back in my time, nobody struggled with English; you didn't even really "study" it, it just happened. If there was ever a struggle, it was math. 🤷

amberranger9 said:I’m actually on the same page as Dobrica here; it feels like the curriculum today is much lighter than what we had to tackle back in the day. The real game-changer for kids now is having access to a second language starting in first grade—something most of us didn't get, at least I didn't. It's well-known that kids soak everything up like sponges before they hit seven or eight, so introducing another language then isn't an added burden; it’s honestly just doing them and their parents a massive favor, giving them a real shot at being bilingual by the time they graduate high school.
As for working with kids at home, I honestly don't even know where to start or how to respond to those posts where people indirectly ask, "Why do I need to help my kid with homework when there's a teacher in after-school care?" or "What am I supposed to review if they're already in school?" I was the top student in my class through the end of high school, but I moved around quite a bit—three different elementary schools and two different high schools across two different states 😁—and believe me, I definitely needed help at home sometimes. I remember first grade vividly; my mom basically sat by my side every single day, forcing me to do my homework because I used to think I didn't need to bother since I'd already learned it in class. I walked into first grade knowing how to write all my letters, but I couldn't actually read... I could only string a few letters together into tiny little syllables. Then there was third grade, when we were learning about the water cycle. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, no matter what. My dad tried explaining it until he was blue in the face, but nothing worked... until he finally took me into the bathroom, turned on the hot water in the tub, and waited for the steam to fog up the mirror. Once the mirror clouded over, things finally clicked. He explained that the water heater is like the top layer that creates steam, which eventually turns into rain... if he hadn't done that, I probably would have ended up in fourth grade still totally lost. From fifth to eighth grade, I kept bugging him whenever I hit a wall, though by then we were getting into physics and chemistry, so I needed a little extra help here and there.
I truly cannot fathom a parent who does absolutely nothing with their child. How can you not see how they're doing with math or writing? Maybe they're actually doing better than the teacher realizes... maybe they're gifted in certain areas or subjects... why wouldn't you want to nurture that potential?
Looking back, I realize how tough it is for teachers; the elementary years are even harder than the later grades. That's when you have to lay the foundation and instill habits—things like finishing homework, neat handwriting, organized notebooks, using clear headings... not to mention all the stuff teachers have to deal with that should have been handled at home, like basic politeness and manners.
Maybe some parents feel it's unfair that a 4 out of 5 is a B, or that a 19 out of 20 is also a B... but they really ought to look at the actual material being taught and study the tests to see what kind of questions are being asked. Most of the time, it's the absolute basics... and I really don't think that kind of grading is unfair.
Unfortunately, teachers today are way more restricted than they used to be. You can't even look at a kid the wrong way without some parent showing up at the school the next morning to demand a meeting. It used to be that these conversations could stay between the teacher and the parent, but that's just not possible anymore. If there's even the slightest issue, you have to involve a third party; the teacher ends up having to explain themselves to two or three different people, asking "why," "how," and "couldn't this have been handled differently?" After a few episodes like that, what happens? The teacher just gives the kid a C to wash their hands of the whole thing, the parent walks away feeling victorious... and meanwhile, the kid hits fourth grade without even knowing their multiplication tables. Why don't they know them? Who cares, right? They've got a calculator anyway... they'll just use that, or their classmate will.
Almost every day, I see some kind of outburst from kids. I once saw a little guy burst into tears because he got a C on a science quiz, and I was just stunned. I didn't get it... it was just science. By the end of the semester, he'll probably have a B or an A in that subject easily. He could even pull off an A without any trouble. But no, he can't study at home because he has three sisters who are all straight-A students, and that would cause too much drama. So, what are you supposed to do in that situation? Is it the teacher's fault for being too strict, or are the parents imposing the wrong expectations?

To be perfectly honest, my memory of elementary school is a bit hazy, but I vividly recall that the required reading list was an absolute nightmare... the stuff kids are expected to read nowadays—or, more likely, just download a summary of from the internet—seems like complete nonsense to me.

Back during the war, I was roughly in sixth grade—we had been relocated to England for a few months and were attending schools over there... they actually moved me straight into eighth grade without even checking what I knew first! I suppose they had some idea of how rigorous our American schooling used to be...🤷
And even then, I was absolutely floored by the sheer nonsense those little English kids were being taught...😲
I truly, sincerely hope that our education system and the level of knowledge our children possess don't descend to that point.🤦

urbanbison70 said:I remember back in my day, we did it letter by letter in first grade. We’d write a single letter a billion times in our notebooks... everyone remembers those endless drills of writing "Isaac" and "Ann." But I distinctly remember my niece was writing full sentences from day one—just copying them from the book—before she even knew her letters because nobody taught her the basics before school started. She was just being a kid, playing, totally uninterested. They skipped the letter drills and went straight to sentences, plus some cursive later on. We never did that.

And honestly, the point isn't us arguing over who had it better. It's that today's parents are sitting down and doing homework with their kids (which, if you ask me, isn't right, but they have to given the curriculum). When we were growing up 20 or 25 years ago, nobody helped us; we were on our own. My mom never even asked what my homework was. Now, parents are fully involved and totally in sync with everything happening at school... I joke with my sister that based on how much her kid is learning, she could probably apply for Wheel of Fortune in a few years. 🤣

Also, btw, I've noticed that for kids today, English is the biggest struggle (way more than math). That tells me the entire approach to teaching reading and writing is fundamentally broken. Back in my time, nobody struggled with English; you didn't even really "study" it, it just happened. If there was ever a struggle, it was math. 🤷

Well, honestly, they’re still doing exactly that today...🤷 at least, that's what I see happening with my colleagues, my friends, and even the kids of my buddies who just started school..
Of course, I suppose if a teacher walks into a classroom of thirty kids and twenty-five of them already know their alphabet, then yeah—they really have to pick up the pace to keep things moving—but you can't exactly pin that on the teacher..

Looks like we’re that generation then.

Kate Cox2 said:I work in an educational setting with older students, but from what I gather through my colleagues, they only introduce cursive once the class is truly ready—meaning everyone has fully mastered printing both upper and lowercase letters.
And honestly, I hear the exact same thing from my friends who are elementary school teachers.
While I don't recall every specific detail of my own first-grade curriculum, I was absolutely stunned to realize that some kids spend their entire first year just rotating through numbers up to ten and the alphabet...

I actually filled in for a second-grade teacher once, and I was genuinely surprised to see they hadn't even covered the months of the year yet... apparently, that was slated for much later in the term.

To my mind, that feels far too slow-paced... 🤷

Hmm... let me get this straight. If the state curriculum explicitly dictates that students need to have mastered cursive by the end of first grade, then there isn't any "if the class is ready" excuse. Period. They have to know it by the time the school year wraps up. And we aren't just talking about scribbles, either; we're talking actual legible handwriting 🙄... though honestly, you can only imagine how messy a first grader's attempt at "fine penmanship" looks when they're trying to use it for the next couple of years
.

urbanbison70 said:I remember back in my day, we did it letter by letter in first grade. We’d write a single letter a billion times in our notebooks... everyone remembers those endless drills of writing "Isaac" and "Ann." But I distinctly remember my niece was writing full sentences from day one—just copying them from the book—before she even knew her letters because nobody taught her the basics before school started. She was just being a kid, playing, totally uninterested. They skipped the letter drills and went straight to sentences, plus some cursive later on. We never did that.

And honestly, the point isn't us arguing over who had it better. It's that today's parents are sitting down and doing homework with their kids (which, if you ask me, isn't right, but they have to given the curriculum). When we were growing up 20 or 25 years ago, nobody helped us; we were on our own. My mom never even asked what my homework was. Now, parents are fully involved and totally in sync with everything happening at school... I joke with my sister that based on how much her kid is learning, she could probably apply for Wheel of Fortune in a few years. 🤣

Also, btw, I've noticed that for kids today, English is the biggest struggle (way more than math). That tells me the entire approach to teaching reading and writing is fundamentally broken. Back in my time, nobody struggled with English; you didn't even really "study" it, it just happened. If there was ever a struggle, it was math. 🤷

And honestly, before we even got to practicing names like Jack and Anne, there was just a massive pile of notebooks filled with random scribbles... just straight lines, zig-zags, circles, half-circles, you name it. Just pure chaos on paper.

Kimberly Nguyen said:Hmm... let me get this straight. If the state curriculum explicitly dictates that students need to have mastered cursive by the end of first grade, then there isn't any "if the class is ready" excuse. Period. They have to know it by the time the school year wraps up. And we aren't just talking about scribbles, either; we're talking actual legible handwriting 🙄... though honestly, you can only imagine how messy a first grader's attempt at "fine penmanship" looks when they're trying to use it for the next couple of years
.

Well, in that case, it sounds like some of my colleagues aren't quite hitting the mark...
If the class hasn't fully mastered printed letters yet, they shouldn't be jumping ahead to cursive...

Kate Cox2 said:To be perfectly honest, my memory of elementary school is a bit hazy, but I vividly recall that the required reading list was an absolute nightmare... the stuff kids are expected to read nowadays—or, more likely, just download a summary of from the internet—seems like complete nonsense to me.

Back during the war, I was roughly in sixth grade—we had been relocated to England for a few months and were attending schools over there... they actually moved me straight into eighth grade without even checking what I knew first! I suppose they had some idea of how rigorous our American schooling used to be...🤷
And even then, I was absolutely floored by the sheer nonsense those little English kids were being taught...😲
I truly, sincerely hope that our education system and the level of knowledge our children possess don't descend to that point.🤦

What "nightmare" reading lists?

My first big book was *The Apprenticeship* in 4th grade, and I loved it—read it maybe ten times. Then came *The Train in the Snow*, *The Heroes of Palmyra Avenue*, *Fear on Linden Street*, *The Blue Gull Gang*... all perfect classics.

I don't know what kids are assigned these days, but the people writing books for American schools—God knows what kind of education those people actually had—what they write is appalling. These poems and short stories are so mindless that an adult has to read them five times just to grasp the point, then another five times just to answer the stupid questions. It’s like the author's goal is to write the dumbest story possible... it's tragic.🙄

A few days ago, my niece calls me to ask where Bahrain is located. Try finding it on a map and see what kind of nonsense they're burdening kids with nowadays.😲

urbanbison70 said:What "nightmare" reading lists?

My first big book was *The Apprenticeship* in 4th grade, and I loved it—read it maybe ten times. Then came *The Train in the Snow*, *The Heroes of Palmyra Avenue*, *Fear on Linden Street*, *The Blue Gull Gang*... all perfect classics.

I don't know what kids are assigned these days, but the people writing books for American schools—God knows what kind of education those people actually had—what they write is appalling. These poems and short stories are so mindless that an adult has to read them five times just to grasp the point, then another five times just to answer the stupid questions. It’s like the author's goal is to write the dumbest story possible... it's tragic.🙄

A few days ago, my niece calls me to ask where Bahrain is located. Try finding it on a map and see what kind of nonsense they're burdening kids with nowadays.😲

Oh, I was actually referring to the reading lists for middle school and high school... they weren't exactly "horror" stories, at least not to me, because I’ve always been an avid reader. But if I compare those old classics to what students are assigned to read these days, the older stuff seems much more substantial and engaging. Plus, we seemed to have a quota of maybe one book a month, whereas I personally went through way more than that...
or perhaps we just had an incredibly intense teacher... 🤔

edit—A FIRST required book in fourth grade? How is that possible?? We had assignments starting from the very first year of elementary school... obviously they were simpler, but still!

urbanbison70 said:What "nightmare" reading lists?

My first big book was *The Apprenticeship* in 4th grade, and I loved it—read it maybe ten times. Then came *The Train in the Snow*, *The Heroes of Palmyra Avenue*, *Fear on Linden Street*, *The Blue Gull Gang*... all perfect classics.

I don't know what kids are assigned these days, but the people writing books for American schools—God knows what kind of education those people actually had—what they write is appalling. These poems and short stories are so mindless that an adult has to read them five times just to grasp the point, then another five times just to answer the stupid questions. It’s like the author's goal is to write the dumbest story possible... it's tragic.🙄

A few days ago, my niece calls me to ask where Bahrain is located. Try finding it on a map and see what kind of nonsense they're burdening kids with nowadays.😲

I have to wonder, what exactly are they teaching in schools nowadays? And in which grade level does this even happen?

My own niece is only six and a half, yet for two years now, she’s been spinning around a map of Europe, pinpointing everywhere she’s traveled with her parents, where she’s going next, or where her aunt and uncle have visited...
well, whenever the curiosity strikes her! 🤷

I don't remember for certain, but I have this nagging feeling we didn't cover that until 4th grade, back when we were still reading those old schoolbooks like
.
They’re teaching them about Bahrain in 5th grade now. Luckily, my daughter is a total walking encyclopedia, so she just pointed out exactly where to find that tiny little speck on the map. 🤣

Kate Cox2 said:Well, in that case, it sounds like some of my colleagues aren't quite hitting the mark...
If the class hasn't fully mastered printed letters yet, they shouldn't be jumping ahead to cursive...

I mean, honestly, that probably doesn't even happen because we've got parents all over this 😉

Kate Cox2 said:Oh, I was actually referring to the reading lists for middle school and high school... they weren't exactly "horror" stories, at least not to me, because I’ve always been an avid reader. But if I compare those old classics to what students are assigned to read these days, the older stuff seems much more substantial and engaging. Plus, we seemed to have a quota of maybe one book a month, whereas I personally went through way more than that...
or perhaps we just had an incredibly intense teacher... 🤔

edit—A FIRST required book in fourth grade? How is that possible?? We had assignments starting from the very first year of elementary school... obviously they were simpler, but still!

And even in our school district, we’d only be assigned one book a month, and then we’d end up racing all over town trying to find a copy because the local school library barely had anything on the shelves... but hey, we dealt with it...

But this whole assignment they're giving for book reports now... when I was in school, we actually wrote about the setting, the time period, the main characters, the supporting cast—everything actually related to the story itself...

But these kids? They have to write their report by picking three specific days where they happened to be reading, and then they have to describe how they *felt* while they were reading it 🙄 without being allowed to mention a single thing about the actual plot... I mean, seriously, what the hell? And they have to fill up a page and a half of A4 paper! So what does the kid do? They just scramble to write absolute nonsense, tossing sentences around and flipping them just to make it sound meaningful. I honestly don't get the logic behind this garbage. 🤷