I'm about to Blog a Fuse!

Submitted by KellyA on Tue, 10/07/2003 - 7:43pm

I have an extremely bright, very creative, excentric third grader. His life's passion is writing stories. When he was barely four he wrote his first "screenplay" complete with soundtrack!

We have been so lucky to have had the most incredible and supportive teachers in the public schools we have been in. But this summer we moved and even though I researched my brains out, I guess you can't get lucky all the time.

In class they were learning how to write a formal letter. The assignment was to write a letter as if he was writing home from summer camp. He wrote from "Camp Congo" where they had to parachute out of an airplane into the Congo, survive on raw fish, spear Buffalo for warmth and food, and were off to go scuba diving but were hesitant since they feared what might be in the water!

His handwriting was the most perfect I have ever seen him do. Usually he has incredibly sloppy handwriting because his brain is going faster than his hand. His punctuation was flawless, usually same problem with that as handwriting.

And his grade? A B- with a note from the teacher that said "This is not realistic." I was livid! My son was crushed. The kid has never been to summer camp so how would he know what they realistically do? (OK Buffalo probably don't live in the Congo, but he's only 8!) A realistic story to him is anyting that doesn't have an alien in it!

How do you shoot down a child like that? The lesson was practicing forms of letters. He got the letter part right. Who cares if its content wasn't boring, sorry, I mean realistic?

I want to ask if I can read an A paper. Wonder what a thired grader writes about a realistic summer camp?

It was a frustrating afternoon! My son was devastated. I told him I was thrilled with his B-, it was the best B- I had ever seen!

Young Children

english

Submitted by kittycat45 on Tue, 10/07/2003 - 8:04pm.

Kelly,,I hear ya girl..my DD15[ now ]when she was in third grade was recommened to a University near us that gave Sunday classes on story writing. So I sent her $250.00 mind you. She wrote amazing stories and poems. The teachers published them {and all other kids too]. My DD has this gift for writing,,not me at all ,, so I am very impressed with her ability.

anyway teachers in classes since have not always seen her ability for such prose. This is the reason I think Math is actually the best subject[even though I hate it} because there is either a right or a wrong answer NOT the "opinion" of the teacher

I feel [not all] many english teachers like a style of writing and do not accept other styles and therefore the grades reflect this feeling

one year her reports get As the next B or Cs.
I don't really have any advice other than to tell you if it seems obvious and consistant that hes not getting the grade you think his work deserves I would try to have a talk with the teacher and see what she "expects"

also a B- is not terrible

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Typical.

Submitted by Lynn on Wed, 10/08/2003 - 2:24pm.

I've been a writer all my life and I was fairly lucky to have supportive teachers. And when I didn't, I didn't really care, because I knew it was my strength; I figured they must just be stupid or not get me or something (wish I had been this confident in other areas of my life).

I remember in college I had a Western Lit class taught by a grad student. He LOVED my papers, always wrote all over them how well-written they were, a real joy to read, blah blah A-plus blah--until he found out a) I was a journalism major and b) I was actually a published journalist already. Then I was overly journalistic, too interested in entertaining the reader, blah blah B blah. Same girl, same writing, different background info, different grade.

Moral of story: Tell your son with some people you just can't win. Keep on writing, especially since he is so creative. (He sounds like my Josie, who wrote her first play at age 5.)

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

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Creative

Submitted by KellyA on Wed, 10/08/2003 - 4:21pm.

My husband brought me down to earth last night when I wanted to march into the school and shove the story up the teacher's nose.

He said who "would DS rather hear he is an awesome creative writer from, his mom or the teacher?" Aw shoot, I know, I know.

Kelly

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