I am a horrible person. As I type this, I'm sitting in a $52 a night Days Inn in Kent, Ohio at 3:58 in the afternoon on a Monday. I'm at a baseball tournament for the oldest.
The hotel is crappy, hideous decor and a tiny-ass little outdoor pool. I'm pretty sure the bites all over my son and I aren't from working outside on the roof of the shed on Friday evening, but are from bed bugs in the room. (I can't find the little buggers, but I have been looking). Last night while we were sitting out on the sidewalk next to my room, we're pretty sure we witnessed a drug deal going down. And a bear was spotted in the parking lot on the survelliance camera. So I'm feeling really safe right now. (Did you hear that? BEARS!)
Anyhoo, none of that has to do with why I'm a horrible person. The reason I'm a horrible person is because I've trapped three of the kids on the oldest's team in my hotel room to make them work on their summer reading. They've got a 350+ book to read and they are on pages 23, 34, and 62. They have to answer 70+ questions about the book and then write a 5 paragraph essay on one of the characters in the book before they go back to school - oh, and there's a test their first week back.
I hate this. I hate making my kid read. He should want to and he doesn't. So...here I am, forcing it upon him. I've also promised the other moms that I'll work with their boys as well, so now my destruction has taken two more souls. I bought the boys highlighters so that they can highlight passages that support the character qualities of Fiver and Hazel (they're reading Watership Down if I hadn't mentioned) to help later when they write their essay. I also bought them Post-It (tm) tabs to color code the three different character values they see in Fiver or Hazel.
I know the kids will be happy they read this week. I know they'll be happy tomorrow after we discuss a couple of the questions they have to answer. But I can't help feeling like this is just mean to do to them.
Oh well...we're meeting in my room tomorrow at 3:30 as well for more reading fun.
PS. The crappy hotel does have free wireless and a fantastic manager that has opened the pool for the team after closing hours and has been insanely accomodating to everyone of us up here, so I'm not checking out and into the Hampton Inn across the parking lot even though it's A LOT cleaner.
4 comments:
I am happy to know that I am not the only one who is forcing reading this summer! lol When I tell my own mother of my frustration of my girls not wanting to read and me having to do some similar hostage maneuvers to make it happen, her response is "Well, I am glad my Mother wasn't a teacher." Then I feel guilty.
The big one and I are reading New Moon together though. (This will be a reread for me.) So that is cool.
im glad that some teachers dislike mandatory summer reading too.
other thoughts:
"did you hear that, bears! now you put the whole station in jeopardy!"
bed bugs bite in straight lines! check for that!
Ah yes, there is nothing to make a kid hate reading like having it forced upon you in the summer. Fond memories - good story.
Actually, Joey, I did know that and checked that out right away when I noticed the bites Sunday morning after our first stay.
The bites are not in straight lines. They're along places where clothes hit...waistline, sockline, etc - more indicative of a mosquito assault. I checked the bed again yesterday to be sure though.
ICK!!!
Bdubba and Andy - I remember after surving AP English senior year I didn't read another book for pleasure until I was 26 years old. I had been forced to read so much crap I was done...only read when absolutely necessary. It did pass though, and I read a lot now.
Post a Comment