Sounding Off!

I love teachers. I love my nephews more. It is a rare occasion I will "bad mouth" a teacher, especially in a public forum. But I'm livid over something my 9-year-old nephew told us after dinner tonight.

Let me be clear that I am not excusing anything my nephew may or may not have done in regards to his homework. If you've been following any of my blogs, or read any number of my posts over the years, you'll know how I feel about homework and grades. That's for another time. I just wanted to get this out of the way so it doesn't distract the reader from what really pissed me off today.

My nephew told us his teacher said to him at school today, "If you don't have time to get your homework done, you should quit Cub Scouts." Um excuse me? What was that? Apparently my nephew hasn't been consistent with completing his homework. I don't doubt it. He does it every night he is with us, which is usually 3-4 days a week. But here is a list of reasons why this is not ok:

1. Scouts is one night a week. Problems with homework do not translate to a need to quit scouts.
2. Scouts provides something in my nephew's life that he needs. He is learning, among other things, the scout law which says: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. I'm pretty sure these are the things that will help him see the value in completing his homework, but also that his performance in school isn't the only important thing in his life.
3. It's not popular to say this, especially as an educator, but not all students are going to excel in school. With their best effort and all the right moves, for some students it will always be a challenge. It doesn't matter if it's their upbringing or their intelligence, or even just their motivation. Some kids will work an hour every night and still not complete their homework. At 9-years-old, I think it's ok to call it quits after an hour as long as the time and effort were put in.
4. It's important to read, write, do math, and learn about history and the scientific world. But it's also important to learn survival skills, and practical hands-on things. This is especially important for kids who struggle in school. My nephew has a learning disability. He has been struggling some in school, but ask this kid to build something or understand the workings of something and man he's right there with you. His dad was similar. Take away the things he enjoys and is skilled at and he'll never understand what it's like to accomplish something and he'll never feel worthy around his peers. 
5. Extracurricular activities in moderate amounts, are really good for building well-rounded kids. Scouts is an excellent opportunity to learn how to communicate with peers and adults in a supportive, relaxed environment. There is a focus on achievement, but based on the scout's interests and strengths. 
6. When you are a part of a scout pack/troop or a team, it's not just about the kid in question. My husband and I have never understood why parents punish kids who are not doing well in school or are having some behavior challenges, by taking them out of scouts or pulling them off sports teams. These kids need to be accountable to their teams and their troops. Bench them for a game or make them sit out of an event, but pulling them completely hurts the team/troop and the student. The consequences don't match the actions.

I could go on, but I'm exhausted already. The bottom line is no teacher has any right to say such a thing to a child. If she/he feels strongly that the activity is interfering with learning, then they should have a conversation with the parent. In this case, the teacher would quickly find out there is no correlation between the homework issue and scouts. What she said was mean and punitive. It's as though she wanted to insult him for not keeping up with his homework, and I think it's just wrong.