Here's my finished bag to prove it. I used it last night and today for my carry-all bag, and it fits my purse and a small knitting project (socks) perfectly. It received many compliments at work today.
Next projects are socks (the Halloween socks revisited) and a multi-colored sweater for Older Son. Pictures tomorrow.
Comments:
Thanks all for your kind words on the bag. The pattern was one my niece (aka Celtic Queen) lent me -- it's just titled "Entrelac Bag". I'm not sure where she got it, but I believe it's very similar to the "Market Squares Bag" pattern in the book Bags, A Knitter's Dozen.
And Yvonne -- about contacting the parents? Friday when the boys were walking home (I made Older Son escort Younger Son, hoping it would keep anyone from giving him trouble) they were accosted by the parents of one of a group of three boys (another three, and they were younger, but it was the same day) who had pushed YS down and broken his glasses. The parents stopped YS and wouldn't let him go until he told them his name, where he lived, and other information, then proceeded to threaten him. Gee, and I wonder where the kids get it??? Dave was finally moved to action and reported it to the school, and I gave OS my cell and told him if they saw these people again that he was to call the police immediately. (I'm still up in the air about whether we should have called the police then or not, but done is done.)
3 comments:
Oh dear lord. I am a firm believer in this country is going to hell in a handbasket. of course, working in the court system does nothing to assuage that belief, either. I'm so sorry, Laurie. :( I'd say next time, involve your local law enforcement....and hope for the best...! :(
My daughter is a high school teacher. She says parents today are definitely the problem. Instead of working together with the school when there are discipline problems, they will defend the kid's actions and forbid punishment no matter what. The other day, she had a student threaten to kill himself over a bad grade and she was bound by law to take him directly to the guidance office. She thought the kid was playing her to try to get her to change the grade but she isn't in a position to make that call. A long chain of events ensued involving psychiatric evaluation and counseling, and the kid's parents came in and read her the riot act for turning him in to the professionals. I know this has nothing to do with bullying but it just goes to show how insane parents are getting these days. I guess they would rather have had the kid kill himself. Unbelievable.
Oh, your son has glasses, well now that would explain it right? Kids with glasses definitely don't make it into the cool (and untrammeled on) group. I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice.
Seriously, I taught in middle school a few years ago for a very brief period of time (I had to stop to take care of my mother-in-law who'd had cancer surgery). What I saw was enough to convince me that:a. homeschooling my own kids was the sanest thing I ever did b.the kids in "nice" private schools are anything, but nice c. administrators are more worried about ticking off parents than they are about maintaining a healthy safe environment for all students d. I'll stick with tutoring small groups of homeschoolers rather than go back into any public or private school classroom again.
My experience was also enough to convince my daughter not to pursue an education degree.
I taught in public school in the seventies and things weren't great, but this private school in 2003 was far worse, despite the fact that the public school had a lot of poor kids and the private school came mostly from the SUV driving, soccer moms set.
I don't know what the solution for you is. At the school I taught at two kids left by Thanksgiving because of being tormented, one stuck it out until the next year. They had already had major attrition in one class from the year before (down from 40+ students in two sections of the grade to 27 students in two sections of the grade. The year after I left that class was down to one section of 20+. Yet the administration continues to believe that these are nice kids from nice families.
The administration is definitely the problem. As long as they knuckle under to pressure from parents who think their children can do no wrong, nothing is going to improve. Of course there are few if any immediate consequences to bad actions. You can't keep kids after school the same day as an infraction, suspension is difficult (except for poor kids for some reason), and all the tried and true methods of discipline (standing a kid in the corner, or otherwise embarassing them) are considered emotionally abusive.
Administrators seem to be far to busy working on public relations and coming up with fun stuff to actually be involved with hands on discipline. Rules get made and then are routinely unenforced.
We had a student who threw a piece of pencil eraser at another kid, hitting him in the eye. That student was chosen later in the year for a quite serious honor, despite the fact that this was the fourth serious infraction he had been involved with. His father was a prominent attorney in town. You can draw your own conclusions.
My solution would be to get the kid out of there, but I know not everyone has that option. I guess the only other option is to continue to scream bloody murder until someone actually listens.
Just make sure your son knows that it isn't his fault, that he is a valuable person no matter how the jerks are treating him.
Post a Comment