“I need a coffee” were the first words to be spoken once my mother arrived back from the meeting! I’m not (yet) a psychologist but I knew that instant that things didn’t go well! We sat down and after much poking and prodding I managed to get her talking about how the meeting went.
She looked visibly upset as she was telling me that every single teacher that herself and my father saw told them the exact same thing; “Adam is capable of much much more but he isn’t putting in the effort”. Hearing every teacher say the same things over and over must have been a real disheartening experience for her. All throughout my life she has put my education first! She struggled and I mean struggled to send me to a good primary school after it was found that I just didn’t cope well in environments with a lot of children and needed the extra attention that only a private school could offer. So for 7 years, my mother sacrificed almost everything to keep me there and this is how I repay her - a poor report and a depressing parent teacher meeting.
It was at this moment that I put everything into perspective. Far too much blood, sweat and tears have been put into my education for me to just throw it all away because of work or the computer. I’ve now realised that what car I’ll be driving in 20 years time, how big my house is and how beautiful my wife is will all be decided within the next year and if that, coupled with the realisation of the pain I have caused my family isn’t enough motivation then there’s no hope for me!
With my mother finishing her coffee, the conversation ended. There was no mention of any truancy, however my parents did request to see my year tutor in a month’s time to discuss my performance between now and then. Maybe he’ll spring it upon them then but thankfully for now I’m off the hook. My mother just wouldn’t have been able to cope with learning that and for her own sanity, I hope he never tells her!
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In about 14 hours my parents will be sitting in front of various teachers from my school during the annual ritual where for one evening, teachers struggle to remember students names and parents grudgingly refrain from assaulting particular teachers who have it in for their son.
For the past few years, my parents never paid much attention to the “PTM’s” because generally I was doing okay. Now that my future is going to be decided within the next 10 months, my parents have been paying close attention to my education and once my rather lacklustre Christmas report came in, they implemented “The Final Solution” which thankfully doesn’t see me being threatened with a gas chamber but instead my computer usage is being limited and particular emphasis is being placed on studying.
Usually I wouldn’t be worried about PTM meetings, but because my parents will be keen to see all my teachers, they’ll be willing to queue for ages and then discuss my performance compared to my (supposed) ability in great detail. What I’m extremely worried about are the numerous days of unexplained absenteeism, something our year head has been Buckleying down on. If my parents do find out about my voluntary days off school, they will come down on me like a tonne of bricks!
So here I am, totally powerless and just praying that when my mother comes home tomorrow she won’t run upstairs and throw my PC out the window!
About a month a go, I started upgrading Adams Rants in an attempt to make it bigger and better. However, I soon ran into some serious internal problems (you couldn’t see them) which resulted in the site not recognising me as the administrator. So one month down the line, I have mustered up the enthusiasm to work on the site and we are starting from scratch again! I have saved ALL the old posts however I think I’ll only bring back posts that people have specifically asked me to keep as because it’s a tedious process restoring the old posts!
In the month or so that I have spent contemplating whether or not to resurrect the site, a lot has happened to me! A few weeks a go, a discussion about relish (yes, relish) turned out to be a turning point for the worst in a long-term friendship which in retrospect could barely be defined as a friendship particularly due to the fact there isn’t one iota of my mind, body or soul that cares about it! It might seem to you that I don’t value friendship very highly but you couldn’t be more wrong!
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