How Was Class Today?

How was class today?  This is what I'm asking my daughter every day after her choir class at the local high school. Not only am I curious of what she is learning, I also want to know how she's interacting with the other students. After a week and a half, I don't think I need to worry about her acceptance.  She's received texts from fellow students, been complimented on attire and hairstyles (perhaps they were expecting a denim jumper?), and fielded genuine questions about homeschooling.

The learning portion is a bit more complicated, considering this week my daily question was answered with, "We didn't have class." A substitute teacher had been assigned that day, and the class did nothing.  My daughter spent her hour playing a game on her phone and chatting with other students.  She had two comments about it.

• "I wish I had brought some of my other schoolwork with me so I could have worked on that instead." 
• "I thought about asking to leave, since they obviously weren't doing anything. I didn't think they'd let me, though."

These comments have two messages. 1) What a waste of time. 2) I can see what is rational, but understand I'm not dealing with rational.

I agreed that it might be a good idea to have a downloaded history lecture (a weekly assignment from her AP U.S. History class) on her phone as a back-up plan. I also advised her that her choice to not bother asking to leave was wise.  She would have been denied.

These two comments brought me back to my earlier analogies of prison and Oz.  As strange as it may seem, it helps me keep things in perspective. She needed to do her time that day, which entailed 60 minutes in the Land of Oz. It makes the unreasonable seem reasonable again.

Of course, this leads to the question of is it all worth it.  Actually, for us, it is.  More details in a future post.