Yesterday evening I took Number One Son Who will be 16 at the end of the month) to the school that he will be going to in September. It is a great school, with the added bonus that it is right across the road from where I work.
So, it seems that the first 2 weeks of the new school year will be devoted to ice-breaking and team building, including staying at a manor house in the country for 3 days doing stuff like rock climbing, abseiling, zip lines and rafting. He is even more fired up about the new school than he was before! Why wasn't school that good when I was a kid? Well, I guess part of being a parent is wanting your kids to have a better time than you had yourself - he is certainly doing that!
One part of the talk that made me laugh was the statement that at night the kids would be put into their respective rooms and would stay there all night. Yep, this is a bunch of 16 year olds they are taking away and I guess some might have other ideas... Must be a big responsibility for the people in charge! I guess they don't want any girls getting pregnant on their watch!
As you might have noticed, I am feeling rather more up beat today. Hope you are also having a great day!
More soon!
10 comments:
That sounds like a GREAT way to start the school year! We have something similar here. The kids usually go to an Environmental camp mid-school year when they are in middle school (12 years old or so.) They stay for three days and do similar activities and it is the highlight of the year.
Glad you're feeling better!
Isn't 16 years old a little too old to be going to summer camp? Oh wait, you said school. You sure you sending your kid to school and not summer camp?
Terri - Thanks.
wigsf - Well they call it school, but it sounds like far too much fun. But I told my son to treat this whole new-school thing as a rehersal for Uni, so it should work well for him.
Sounds like fun and not much like school the way I remember it.
There is a school nearby (right behind our garden fence in fact)and I don't think any school work actually gets done there. All they seem to be doing is playing outside and screaming. Definetly not like the school I used to go to!
Anyway, sorry for the moan! Hope your son enjoys himself. You're only young once after all.
Marie - are you sure it's the kids that are screaming? I think it is often the teachers!
The problem of giving better stuff to youngsters is that they MIGHT grow up being lazy and soft.
The windswept oak produces better wood.
(This is the Dragon Teacher speaking)
Dragon Teacher - Very true - just look at the Hollywood brat pack! But my kids aren't like that - I guess they have seen enough bad times to count as windswept?
Man. Now I want to go back to school. All we had was that reading/writing stuff. I mighta paid more attention if I got to do some rock climbing or zip lining.
You are right about parents wanting their kids to have a better time than we did (even though we had it pretty good). I guess that is progress. I wonder what it will be like when he has his own kids.
Terri, Environmental Camp...what??? We have nothing like that here!!! RC, Zip Lines sound AWESOME!!!! How is this part of school?
Do kids in England go to school around the same amount of time as we do here? Then what about Uni, as I know its called....how many years is that for you guys!!!
agg79 - I think he will be great if he has any. Right now he doesn't want any, but neither did I at that age!
Kiki - We have compulsory school from age 5 to 16 then 6th form school or college to 18, then University (a normal BA or BSc degree takes 3 years, but some take 4), Masters is usually another year or 2, then a Doctorate (PhD) is 3 years or so. Probably fairly similar to the US arrangement?
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