Thursday, October 28, 2010

waste of time

One of my daughters attends a dual-immersion program for school, English & Mandarin. Last week I attended a parent informational meeting, which meetings are held periodically to make sure that there is no confusion with the program, that teachers and parents are on the same page, etc., and which I find to be a helpful touch to assisting the kids in this new world of language.

The meeting began with the typical announcement that any questions about individual concerns should be held until the group presentation was finished. This is something I appreciate, as I am not keen on sitting in meetings where things are being discussed which don't pertain to me (snob? sure, I'll take that).

The first 45 or so minutes of the scheduled 60-minute meeting went very well and were executed efficiently. And then the questions began. "Excuse me, um, my son..." I stopped listening, except to search out an appropriate time to stand up from my front row seat and exit. That is when I heard the following:

"I have a question. Each night my child has to work on writing characters. I mean, do we have to do this? It takes such a long time, and it doesn't even make any sense. It's not like they're actually letters. It just seems like a huge waste of time to me."

Right.

4 comments:

soybeanlover said...

duuuuuuuuuuude! She just totally insulted our future overlords.

QueenScarlett said...

hahahahahahah...

First... I am so impressed you're having your kids learn mandarin... We are the ruling race as you know.

Second... one day that parent's brain will just collapse due to lack of substance in their head. ;-)

ps. Do they study pinyin too?

Bang de bu de liao!

Carina said...

Turns out my coworker's son is in the same program and went to the same meeting. I asked him how the meeting went. He rolled his eyes and couldn't express just how *awesome* it was.

dalene said...

sheesh.