Well, the headache was not to be defeated. It came back with a vengeance in the form of a back-to-back 'aura' yesterday afternoon. I thought I'd be OK after the first one receded, and we set off for the open house at the Catholic boys high school next to our house, but as soon as we went to go out the door, I sensed a new aura starting over. It was mildly alarming, although it's happened before, jut not too often, but it did follow its normal pattern and passed within less than an hour between the two episodes. Afterwards, though, I was left with a sickening headache.
The school tour was OK, considering my condition, I tried to get the most out of the day. I enjoyed waiting behind people who seemed unaware of the line forming behind them as they grilled the guidance counselors at their information desk, particular the woman who pronounced the name of another local high school, Mater Dei, "mayter dee". Then there was the elderly gentleman who heckled the poor boy who sat alone at the Future Business Leaders of America table about capitalism. Bad enough nobody seemed to have any interest in leading business, but the poor kid had to put up with that onslaught of misdirected patriotism. (What?! You're not a capitalist? That's what America is all about!!! to which the kid replied, "Ok. I'm a capitalist)
Anyway, I just doubt this is the school for Brian but he and Kevin were swept up in the moment and paid the $75 and registered on the spot for the entrance exam, so I guess we'll just cast that die and see what lands face up. This school wouldn't honor any of the accommodations in Brian's 504 plan, somehow they are exempted from doing so, or perhaps it's just that if they find out he has any special needs, they won't accept him. This is sort of a cookie cutter old-school type of school, and I guess it does develop a work ethic and seems to produce a lot of achievers, but again you have the differential between honors and non-honors classes, and I don't know where we're heading with that.
But there are two other Catholic schools to check out in the area, one has block scheduling, where the periods are twice as long but they only take half the classes each semester, and then the other half the next, which reduces the amount of different homework, as well as the weight of the backpack. The other school is smaller, perhaps not as academically blessed as some, including the public school, but publicly funded benefits seem only to benefit those in the honors track or the special needs groups. It is easy to get lost in the mainstream.
Both Catholic schools have laptop programs, where they require each student to purchase a laptop and use it for all of their classes. This would be a great thing for Brian. And the middle school will take him on a tour of the public high school. So by mid-January, we should be pretty sure where he will attend 9th grade. I wonder if the Catholic school might give him a smaller environment in which he won't get as 'lost' as he seems to be doing in the middle school. Just not sure how we pay for this ... but ...whatever.
Speaking of honors, Megan has an impossibly difficult chemistry teacher this year. E is also in the class, she has him at a different time. Megan got a 65 on the last quiz, E got a 71. However, the fire alarm sounded while E's class was taking the test, and they were not able to complete the end, which included a few open ended questions, which is where Megan says she lost most of her points.
The scores were calculated as a percentage of total responses, but since the test given to the earlier class was lacking the more challenging questions, Megan maintains that this was unfair. I think probably the teacher is trying to shake the kids up early on so that they will see that they need to study more than they have ever studied before. It is only one quiz of three, and quizzes only count as 30% of the total grade. But my jury is out on this teacher; they all say he is a very good teacher, and that his students will learn more from him than anyone else. But I don't understand why he has to be impossibly hard. I have particular interest in this issue, in light of my chemistry debacle in 10th grade, which was sort of the catalyst that led me to drop out of Girls High School and pursue alternative education.
And so today I am just hanging around. I did some work on the middle school directory last night, but I have more to do. My neck is still stiff from the migraine, so I'm not going to attempt to work out today. In other news, Wren got out last night and tried to come in with a chipmunk! Molly seems to have stopped licking her paw again, at least for now, and Kevin is back to work but is about to embark on several trips in the upcoming weeks. Also coming up are many days off from school, and the start of the swim season. Otherwise, all is pretty quiet at the moment. Nothing of interest to report.
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