What are you reading in 2025?

[Belen]

I can't speak to the rest of your experience - I teach at an IB World school and there is no problem with rigour. However, not taking marks off for disciplinary reasons is good pedagogy. Work should be assessed based upon the preset criteria for the task. Failing to hand in work or handing it in late is a disciplinary matter and should be corrected through disciplinary actions, not lazily taking marks off assignments.

If the skill is so important that it needs to be assessed, it needs to be assessed. At our school, students don't get a 0 on the assignment, they get an "Incomplete" for the course until the work is properly completed and assessed. That's only negotiable in extreme circumstances (e.g. a serious, ongoing medical situation).

There is no disciplinary action taken. If they never turn in the assignment, then they get a 50. In most cases, even the 5 day late acceptance is waived and they are given time at the end of the quarter to complete assignments.

The parents are not even notified if the kid is missing assignments. I care, so I use the parent backpack account to monitor grades and then ask my kids if I notice things out of line. I use it to monitor major assignments and ask about projects to stay involved; however, backpack is optional. I imagine that if there were serious ongoing issues, then I would be notified by the school.

Personally, I feel turning in work on time is a respect issue which is why my kids get grounded if they do not do the work. The last time my son was caught not doing homework that was taken as a grade, he was given extra math work at home for the rest of the quarter to make up the grade.

I do this because I care as a parent and want my kids to succeed in school. It is also why we have always stressed joy in reading and read to our kids every night when they were young.

If the schools here were taking disciplinary actions, then I would agree with you about not reducing the max grade; however, I see no evidence of any disciplinary actions for not doing the work and I have talked with my son's friends who largely do not care if they do the assignments. The kids not doing the work do not seem to suffer any consequences other than a worse grade.

 

[Belen]

I just started The Runelords series by David Farland aka Dave Wolverton. I had read it back in the late 90s but found an omnibus ebook and decided to re-read it.

I was shocked to see that he died in 2022 after a fall and head injury.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Personally, I feel turning in work on time is a respect issue which is why my kids get grounded if they do not do the work.

As someone with severe ADHD I can tell you that are, as a matter of fact rather than opinion, dead wrong if you believe this is universally true. I wanted to do my homework/coursework, and got completely stressed out about not doing so (whereas kids handing in complete drivel but on time were totally chill), but ADHD is very good at preventing you from doing so. I generally got good grades (with a lot of cajoling and reminding and extended deadlines) but punishment never helped me (except ironically, for one year where in detention they just made us do the coursework, but most of the time they had other ideas which provided no benefit).

I'm sure there are some kids where not caring is the case, but it's definitely not universal and I wonder if it's even typical. In fact I suspect most kids not handing stuff in on time comes down to either ADHD or similar, or parents who prevent the kids from doing homework or make it very hard for them to do, often by demanding chores* or actual work from them, actively discouraging them from doing schoolwork by demeaning it or blocking them from doing it in other ways, or just by causing intense stress and upset for the kids. I guess that is a respect issue in a sense, but not on the part of the kids, rather the parents. I suspect "kid couldn't bothered because they genuinely don't care about the consequences, despite having a good home environment" is a pretty rare situation, at least in the UK and US.

It sounds like you're doing a good job as a parent, but you shouldn't think other parents are necessarily behaving similarly.


* = For example, at early secondary school I had a friend whose parents, if he sat down to do homework, saw this as him having "free time", so almost immediately told him to "stop sitting around" and help with chores, and if he got done with the chores, which often took hours, they'd demand he "stop being antisocial" and come and watch TV with them, instead of letting him finish his homework. When I stayed over, they let me do my homework just fine, but they kept doing this to him. The parents themselves also didn't seem like they'd do that, like they seemed outwardly responsible/reasonable.

 

[Cadence]

As someone with severe ADHD I can tell you that are, as a matter of fact rather than opinion, dead wrong if you believe this is universally true. I wanted to do my homework/coursework, and got completely stressed out about not doing so (whereas kids handing in complete drivel but on time were totally chill), but ADHD is very good at preventing you from doing so. I generally got good grades (with a lot of cajoling and reminding and extended deadlines) but punishment never helped me (except ironically, for one year where in detention they just made us do the coursework, but most of the time they had other ideas which provided no benefit).

I'm sure there are some kids where not caring is the case, but it's definitely not universal and I wonder if it's even typical. In fact I suspect most kids not handing stuff in on time comes down to either ADHD or similar, or parents who prevent the kids from doing homework or make it very hard for them to do, often by demanding chores or actual work from them, actively discouraging them from doing schoolwork by demeaning it or blocking them from doing it in other ways, or just by causing intense stress and upset for the kids. I guess that is a respect issue in a sense, but not on the part of the kids, rather the parents. I suspect "kid couldn't bothered because they genuinely don't care about the consequences, despite having a good home environment" is a pretty rare situation, at least in the UK and US.

It sounds like you're doing a good job as a parent, but you shouldn't think other parents are behaving similarly.

In the US we have "504 Plans and IEPs" as part of federal regulations for students who have been diagnosed with ADHD or other things that really prevent the work from being done, so that in theory the teachers would know and have to accommodate. --- Now if only they could make sure all parents knew about them, that the parents and schools had the time and support to pursue them and have them work the way they are legally supposed to, that we had the healthcare funding over here for everyone to have the bank of professionals to back them up and get appropriate diagnosis and treatment, and that all of the kids (whether with such a condition or not) had a great environment at home to support them.... :-/

In terms of post-secondary education, I am very happy that my University's resource center is relentless about reminding us faculty about which students have accommodations that we are required to honor. And it at least continually battles to get more mental health support in place and extra funding for students from families with lower incomes.

 

[overgeeked]

In the US we have "504 Plans and IEPs" as part of federal regulations for students who have been diagnosed with ADHD or other things that really prevent the work from being done, so that in theory the teachers would know and have to accommodate. --- Now if only they could make sure all parents knew about them, that the parents and schools had the time and support to pursue them and have them work the way they are legally supposed to, that we had the healthcare funding over here for everyone to have the bank of professionals to back them up and get appropriate diagnosis and treatment, and that all of the kids (whether with such a condition or not) had a great environment at home to support them.... :-/

Or that there was some meaningful way to enforce them. My kid has ADHD just like me and we went through all the trouble of meetings with staff and all the paperwork. Hour after hour of boring-ass meetings. Great stuff for an adult and a kid with ADHD, by the way. It’s like the system is designed to make you give up and quit trying. And we still had to deal with teachers who simply refused to provide accommodations. 504/IEP in place. State and Federal law, yadda yadda. Didn’t matter. Admin did nothing. Before we even had time to really respond the kid was on to another class with another teacher or out of that year or out of that school. Happened 3-4 times and nothing was ever done about it. Thankfully most of the teachers helped out and provided the accommodations.

 

[overgeeked]

I’m reading Your Brain’s Not Broken by Tamara Rosier, PhD. She’s a psychologist with ADHD and the book is about ADHD, stories about her ADHD clients and their collective strategies, anecdotes, etc. It’s a great read so far. Lots of insights and useful advice. Definitely recommend for both people with ADHD and for those wanting to understand what it’s like to have ADHD.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That said, my takeaway from this is that I need to read more Anderson, stat. I've always preferred fantasy to science fiction, but while Anderson seems to have more of the latter than the former, I suspect I'd like almost anything written by him, at least if this book was indicative of his standard fare. I think I'll try and get ahold of a copy of Operation Chaos next.

While Three Hearts Three Lions is an important document in the creation of D&D (and an enjoyable read), I agree with @Nellisir that The Broken Sword is his best fantasy work.

Operation Chaos is a fun one. Definitely some gonzo fantasy.

 

[Clint_L]

There is no disciplinary action taken. If they never turn in the assignment, then they get a 50. In most cases, even the 5 day late acceptance is waived and they are given time at the end of the quarter to complete assignments.

The parents are not even notified if the kid is missing assignments. I care, so I use the parent backpack account to monitor grades and then ask my kids if I notice things out of line. I use it to monitor major assignments and ask about projects to stay involved; however, backpack is optional. I imagine that if there were serious ongoing issues, then I would be notified by the school.

Personally, I feel turning in work on time is a respect issue which is why my kids get grounded if they do not do the work. The last time my son was caught not doing homework that was taken as a grade, he was given extra math work at home for the rest of the quarter to make up the grade.

I do this because I care as a parent and want my kids to succeed in school. It is also why we have always stressed joy in reading and read to our kids every night when they were young.

If the schools here were taking disciplinary actions, then I would agree with you about not reducing the max grade; however, I see no evidence of any disciplinary actions for not doing the work and I have talked with my son's friends who largely do not care if they do the assignments. The kids not doing the work do not seem to suffer any consequences other than a worse grade.

Stories like yours are what keep private schools like mine in business. Because that just sounds like negligence, and you are right to be upset.

Back on topic, I just read Charles Stross's latest Laundry Files book, A Conventional Boy. The protagonist is an institutionalized Dungeon Master with actual eldritch power who breaks out to attend a gamer con that turns out to be sponsored by a cult and...you can imagine. It is basically an homage to TTRPGS, and a lot of fun, especially if you are into that series (obviously).

My only complaint is that it's really a novella, so to justify the price it is padded out with previously published work, which I'd already read.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Stories like yours are what keep private schools like mine in business. Because that just sounds like negligence, and you are right to be upset.

If I were @Belen, I would go before the school board and make a stink about this. Depending on the district, this could be a site-level issue, not district policy.

What he's describing is absolutely not standard operating procedure in public schools around this country.

 

[Belen]

If I were @Belen, I would go before the school board and make a stink about this. Depending on the district, this could be a site-level issue, not district policy.

What he's describing is absolutely not standard operating procedure in public schools around this country.

You should hear about my first grader. Before her first report card, we had a meeting with the teacher. She raved about our daughter and how she was already doing second and third grade work.

When we got her first report card, she got all P's (or progressing to meet expectations.) When we talked to her teacher, we found that is was district policy to not give high marks on the first assessment because students had to show progress throughout the school year.

So, my daughter met all her end of year first grade expectations by the end of Q1. The teacher started giving her second and third grade level reading and math assignments as of Q3 when she started getting M's or meets expectation grades on her assessment.

My Mom was a school admin for 25 years so I know schools and education is a bit of a joke compared to the 80s and 90s. The school district and the schools my kids attend are some of the highest rated in the state.

I have talked to school admin. They are following district policies.