#357 - AB

I was a good student.  I will even go as far as to say that I was a great student.  I will even be as nerdy as to say that I liked school.  I liked studying.  I very seldom, if ever, went into a test unprepared.  I kept studying and studying and studying until I was sure I was going to make an A on the test.  I had no idea that anyone else did it any other way.  Until I met Jeff :)  Then I realized that not everyone studied as hard as I did.  Not everyone cared about making straight A's.  Hold onto your hats everyone because what I am going to say next may shock you...

There are some people in this world who do not care about school!

That is not to say that these people are not smart.  In fact, sometimes I think it is just the opposite.  Being book smart does not make you world smart and vice versa.  Being able to memorize something for a test is not the same as learning it.  Let me get to my point...

Even though I knew that there were people out there that did not study as hard as I did, the whole concept of not caring about school and wanting to go into a test without studying did not really sink in until my children started school.  I don't know if it is a boy thing or if it is just a "my boy" thing, but from the get go, my boys do not like to put in the time studying.  I will relent a little and say that my oldest has grown into the whole studying thing.  He is totally on his own and makes very good grades.  He knows when to study hard, and when he can just coast.  My second one is still learning this lesson and truth be told, I am counting the days until he graduates from college.

He and I go round and round and round each and every day...and we have since Kindergarten.  He hates school and even though he is very smart, he like to pretend like he is not until it is an emergency.  And by emergency, I mean when he hears the words, "You may not go to baseball practice if this homework is not finished in the next five minutes!!!!!!!!"  (Usually spoken in a rather elevated tone of voice.)

Blog post #366 makes my list because she too has a son with a similar disposition towards education.  She and I have spent endless hours talking, listening, emailing, and reading about why this is and what we can do to make it easier.  We have shared homework strategies, bribes, punishments, and even traded tips on sneaky ways to get to the goal...learning.  Both of us gave up the goal of straight A's long ago.  We both now settle for a few basics to make us happy. 

1.  Bringing the proper books home the night before a test.
2.  Having the answers on the study guide actually answered before the night before a test (correctly).
3.  Putting actual words down for all questions on the test (Yes, Z, even the bonus).  After all if you leave it blank, it is definitely wrong!  Right?

And last but not least...we live for weekends, holidays, and summer vacation.

Thanks to #366 for not making me feel like I am the only one in the world with this problem.  The other kids in my neighborhood, who never seem to have homework, sometimes make me wonder.  But whenever I think I am alone, I can call #366 and chances are, we are on the same page (of the book that we had to go and borrow from a classmate).

Mothers of boys everywhere...Unite!

I love this quote that I found.  It is from a Sport Illustrated column and it makes me smile.  It reads,

“Moms are as relentless as the tides. They don’t just drive us to practice, they drive us to greatness.”
 
Surely, eventually they will realize that we are not going away and that we will never not care about school and their part in it.  Won't they? 
 
#366, here's to the day that our boys look us in the eye and say,
"Thanks for making me study and work so hard in school."
 
(They will say this eventually...right????)