letter from the school. daughters grades. am i wrong?

[Anubis]

Interesting. We had foreign language class every year starting with kindergarten. I assumed that the was the norm everywhere.

They constantly switched languages on us.
K-2: french
3-5: spanish
6: french
7-9: latin + choice of spanish or french
10-12: choice of spanish, french, latin, or german

FWIW, I can't speak any of those languages.

I went to HS in Maine and NY

language was not even offered until 8th grade in both places
only had to take it for 3 years

NY only offered Spanish and French. Maine had those & german

 

[unokitty]

sigh.

We just got a letter from my daughters Spanish teacher. She is getting a C-/D (it goes up and down). complaining about her grade. The teacher is putting all the issue on the fact my daughter does gymnastics.

Her other grades are great:
Math: A+ (she loves math. she even does extra for "fun")
science: A-
reading: A
Social studies: B+


she scored in the top 90% in the state and nation on the Testing.

Yes she does a lot of gymnastics (just went to state! took 11th on beam and 13 AA!) and spends a lot of hours on it.

Is it bad that i just don't give a fuck that she is getting a bad grade? It's spanish class after all. Yes i am going to chew her out for it but i just don't care that she is getting an D.

Am i wrong on this? i really feel conflicted lol.

May I suggest that what is important is that your daughter learn to excel. If she is happy with sports and excels there, that is great as long as she realizes that sports is just one aspect of life.

While it would be preferable to excel in everything, that is not possible.

If it were me, I would probably send a note back thanking the teacher for her concern and asking if she could recommend a tutor. Learning to do okay in school is also a value.

Being conflicted is understandable. When I was in school, I knew one of the ladies on our gymnastics team. Former Jr. Elite, experienced in International Competition, on the cover of the McDonalds American Cup program, all that stuff...

While I had a soccer scholarship, I never knew anyone that sacrificed as much as Cindy did in order to be competitive. If I had been her dad, I would have been conflicted as well...

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[darkswordsman17]

The real issue isn't you not caring about the grade its you not caring about why she's getting the grade. Talk to her about why she's doing poorly, maybe she's actually having trouble with it and its not just her not caring/disinterested in it. Because she's just expected to do well, if she's really struggling with something she might feel she can't seek out help with it.

Just chewing her out is stupid. Its what shitty parents do.

While I never cared much about them and agree they're not everything, grades do matter. It can make a big difference in getting scholarships and a few other things (because of GPA I was able to start out in the Honors program my first semester, which let me get some leeway on class choice; I was able to get into a couple of classes that usually only sophomores and higher were allowed into; as well as some other perks).

 

[PowerEngineer]

It seems to me that one of the things high school students need to learn is how to allocate their finite time and energy. My rule for participation in extracurricular activities is that the school work had to come first, and that means good grades across the board. Perhaps your daughter needs to juggle her priorities a bit to direct more effort toward bringing her performance up in a class that seems to be unexpectedly challenging for her.

 

[waggy]

She is 10 in the 5th grade.

She hates spanish and really does not care for the class. she loves math, science and computers (not as much though).

Also talked with her (went to pick her up from practice). The letter claims my daughter said that the reason her grade is low is becuase she spends to much time in gymnastics.

i asked my daughter about that and she said that now way has she ever said that or anything close. she knows if she did she would be pulled from gymnastics ASAP. She says the teacher is confused about the situation (pretty nice way of saying the teacher is telling a lie).

I did kinda chew her out for the fact a D is going to make it harder to get into college (and yes she really wants to go). so she did promise to try to get it higher but nearly end of year.


She just hates the class and thinks its boring.

 

[highland145]

Learning Spanish is a great idea; it's important to be able to properly communicate with the people who cook our food, clean our hotel rooms and bathrooms, do our gardening, and whatnot.

Except the Mexican Spanish isn't the same as the South American Spanish or so I'm told.

"Yo, Dude, you from Honduras? No...can't hire you."

 

[highland145]

She is 10 in the 5th grade.

She hates spanish and really does not care for the class. she loves math, science and computers (not as much though).

Also talked with her (went to pick her up from practice). The letter claims my daughter said that the reason her grade is low is becuase she spends to much time in gymnastics.

i asked my daughter about that and she said that now way has she ever said that or anything close. she knows if she did she would be pulled from gymnastics ASAP. She says the teacher is confused about the situation (pretty nice way of saying the teacher is telling a lie).

I did kinda chew her out for the fact a D is going to make it harder to get into college (and yes she really wants to go). so she did promise to try to get it higher but nearly end of year.


She just hates the class and thinks its boring.

There you go. Good teachers are hard to get. I worked harder for the good ones even in subjects I didn't like.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I never got the point of punishing over grades. Maybe she's just not that good at it and trying her best. As long as she passes that's all that counts, assuming it's a required credit. Hopefully the teacher at least passes her for trying.

 

[waggy]

There you go. Good teachers are hard to get. I worked harder for the good ones even in subjects I didn't like.

thinking on it i did the same. I worked extra hard for teachers i liked.

I'm more pissed that this lady is claiming my daughter said gymnastics is why she is failing. My daughter said she didn't say that. More i think about it if it was gymnastics she wouldn't be getting A's in math or Science.

 

[Wreckem]

thinking on it i did the same. I worked extra hard for teachers i liked.

I'm more pissed that this lady is claiming my daughter said gymnastics is why she is failing. My daughter said she didn't say that. More i think about it if it was gymnastics she wouldn't be getting A's in math or Science.

Your daughter is playing you. And has basically told you she doesn't give a fuck about Spanish.

You need to tell her just because something is boring isn't a reason not to care or try.

And nothing she does prior to 9th grade means anything in regards to college.

Hell, highschool grades only matters when it comes to scholarship money.

 

[waggy]

Your daughter is playing you. And has basically told you she doesn't give a fuck about Spanish.

You need to tell her just because something is boring isn't a reason not to care.

And nothing she does prior to 9th grade means anything in regards to

I believe her when seh said she didn't say it. her reaction when she read the letter and when i asked her was pretty honest.

 

[Chaotic42]

Foreign language credits to graduate HS? I don't think so. GPA doesn't matter except for ivy league. She might not even want to go to a University.

We had that requirement in high school. Hell, I had to take Spanish and French in the third grade. I believe that for high school we had to take two semesters of any one language we chose.

 

[Koing]

It's Spanish...I'd try and get her to care about it, but if she doesn't there are worser subjects that she can not care about.

Hell French was my only C subject in school. I did care but I just wasn't good at it. WHY did they insist on putting me in the top class?! If I was in the medium class I'd have gotten a B for sure!

I did manage to get loss in France and use my hacked up French to find the exchange house I was staying at though.

Koing

 

[mnewsham]

I believe her when seh said she didn't say it. her reaction when she read the letter and when i asked her was pretty honest.

Well if she is like me she has already learned to lie to you so you dont even realize it, hell that's how I passed middle school. Even managed a B in anthropology in college from straight bullshitting the teacher.

 

[Murloc]

I don't see why the teacher would lie about it and say she said it when she didn't.
Maybe she did say it just to avoid confronting the teacher on the real issue (not caring about it), perfectly knowing that you know that it can't be the gymnastics since she's good at hard sciences so she wouldn't get pulled from gymnastics, but also knowing that the teacher probably hadn't asked the maths teacher how she was doing, and maybe hoping she would let that part slide.

Cunning.

Regardless of who is lying, she'd better get a better grade to avoid damaging her chances, this is the issue. In college most probably there will be courses she'll hate with her guts and she can't just ignore them like she's doing now, she will end up dropping out. Some people got the smarts but not the constance, so unless they're lucky to have a perfectly fitting degree choice they risk being underachievers.
Now it's probably a bit late for that but there's always next year (unless it's the last year? I don't know how many HS years there are).

 

[Pacfanweb]

10 years old, 5th grade?

Grades are irrelevant now. Colleges only look at high school GPA's, you have a few years before grades mean anything for that.

Sounds like she's an ace at everything else. Maybe the teacher sucks. If gymnastics was the problem, she wouldn't have good grades in everything else.

 

[Fayd]

sigh.

We just got a letter from my daughters Spanish teacher. She is getting a C-/D (it goes up and down). complaining about her grade. The teacher is putting all the issue on the fact my daughter does gymnastics.

Her other grades are great:
Math: A+ (she loves math. she even does extra for "fun")
science: A-
reading: A
Social studies: B+


she scored in the top 90% in the state and nation on the Testing.

Yes she does a lot of gymnastics (just went to state! took 11th on beam and 13 AA!) and spends a lot of hours on it.

Is it bad that i just don't give a fuck that she is getting a bad grade? It's spanish class after all. Yes i am going to chew her out for it but i just don't care that she is getting an D.

Am i wrong on this? i really feel conflicted lol.

i remember being told that having a second language would really make the difference in terms of job availablility.

truth be told, that's a load of shit. nothing about my life would be any different had I been fluent in spanish.

teacher's pissed that if your daughter continues to do gymnastics, she's gonna be in good shape for life.

 

[redgtxdi]

Getting a C or better in 4 years of high school spanish may waive the language requirements of many universities. Taking a year of college spanish is much harder than 4 years of high school spanish.

Just have to make sure I insert that this utter bullshit. Coming from someone who took 3 years in HS and 2 in college, my HS Spanish talents allowed me a cruise through college Spanish. (Truth)

To waggy, just discuss it with her. I have a daughter doing the same thing in French. It's her 2nd year now and she has a better grip on why to get a better grade than D and with little more effort has been able to ride a B thru her junior HS year.

 

[tynopik]

the grade is irrelevant, the attitude is not

while it's true that grades in the 6th grade don't matter to college, it's about setting standards and TEACHING her to apply herself to something she doesn't like.

in life there are going to be lots of things we'll have to do that we don't like, but that's no excuse to not do them well

the 'i only do what i want to do' attitude needs to be nipped in the bud

 

[Fayd]

Just have to make sure I insert that this utter bullshit. Coming from someone who took 3 years in HS and 2 in college, my HS Spanish talents allowed me a cruise through college Spanish. (Truth)

To waggy, just discuss it with her. I have a daughter doing the same thing in French. It's her 2nd year now and she has a better grip on why to get a better grade than D and with little more effort has been able to ride a B thru her junior HS year.

ya i agree. the notion that college language classes are any harder than HS is bullshit.

 

[Slew Foot]

If he ever plans on staying in the US she better learn spanish.

ftfy

 

[pmv]

i remember being told that having a second language would really make the difference in terms of job availablility.

truth be told, that's a load of shit. nothing about my life would be any different had I been fluent in spanish.

teacher's pissed that if your daughter continues to do gymnastics, she's gonna be in good shape for life.

A second language probably would greatly improve job availability - IF that second language is English.

 

[Cuda1447]

Lo Siento, Senior Waggy.

Honestly, sounds like a shitty teacher trying to place the blame on something that is good for kids, rather than trying to help your daughter do better. I wouldn't sweat it, but try to get the grade up to a reasonable level (Bish)

 

[Wreckem]

the grade is irrelevant, the attitude is not

while it's true that grades in the 6th grade don't matter to college, it's about setting standards and TEACHING her to apply herself to something she doesn't like.

in life there are going to be lots of things we'll have to do that we don't like, but that's no excuse to not do them well

the 'i only do what i want to do' attitude needs to be nipped in the bud

This. It is a poor habit/attitude to develop.

50% of college course work is bullshit you have no control over. Add to that the fact most professors care more about research than teaching, a lot of college professors are worse than high school teachers. Then you also have the fact most classes in college are boring.

If I was waggy I'd nip it in the bud now, if he doesn't it will continue in high school and college. Its not about punishing. Its about prioritizing and responsibility.

 

[zokudu]

5th grade? I would say it doesn't matter in the sense that her future isn't ruined. When she gets to HS though she should probably try in her language. Just for college reasons.