school days

Last night we went to the annual Friends open house for Middle School parents which gives us an opportunity to follow a sample school day of classes compressed into 2 hours but without incurring any homework. I've been doing this this for 7 years now and Arnie has been doing it for at least 5! (Eureka) and so we have made friends and enemies out of this group, that is,parents we like tremendously and those we don't like because they behave as if they belong to some kind of high school clique. But back to the main focus which is the quality of education that we think Kate is getting and a real emphasis at Friends on learning for its own reward, without a constant barrage of tests as the benchmark. Kinda nice. And the teachers seem to be very committed and diverse. I specially liked Kate's Science Teacher who admitted that his real goal is to turn his students into scientists.

In addition to her homework, Kate is also taking Chinese and test prep on the weekends. Add a couple of hours for soccer and the requisite chores at home like setting the table and this child is overworked. So she says.