Friday, January 16, 2009

Stupid F*%$*&! Science Fairs

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I HATE SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIRS!
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Really, I hate them! I'm not even sure if HATE is a strong enough word!
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Every school the girls have ever attended have held mandatory science fairs every year. It's such a total pain in the ass!
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Trying to come up with a new project idea, every year. Scouring the stores for supplies. Pissing around for weeks trying to conduct the experiments and studies, which, 95% of the time never work out like they're supposed to. (Any teacher who thinks the kids are actually doing this crap and putting it all together themselves is grossly deluded. It's always the parents that end up doing 3/4 of the work). And after 9 years of crapping together crappy projects for a crap-fest science fair, I can honestly say they have absolutely no educational value. My kids learn less than nothing from this process, except to avoid science whenever possible.
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It'd be one thing if either of my children were even remotely interested in science, were excited about the project and signing up for an *optional* science fair because it was something they enjoyed and wanted to do. But to make it mandatory, and to add some pretty unrealistic parameters and grading guidelines.........I'm seriously thinking of writing a letter saying it's against our religion to participate in any sort of organized science competions. And the crap supply hunt is quadrupally difficult here, because there's only one store that offers products labeled in English, when we shop off base, we're really and truly just guessing at what we're buying.
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AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
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I'm so frustrated! And of course, my frustration and negativity rubs off on the kids and makes them even less willingly to do any of the work, but I seriously hate this so much that I cannot contain it!
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2 comments:

Robin Vistnes said...

So... how do you really feel about science fairs.

Bryn said...

Love 'em!!! Wish they had one every month! Meg still hasn't thought of a project yet, everyday she's whining about not being able to come up with an idea.