Science Fair

The three of us went to the youth science fair held at the main library tonight.  It had been hyped up everywhere, but especially by the education foundation that Louis volunteers with and we had hoped that there would be some fun experiments to show Olivia.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any hands-on stuff to try, as the entire fair was just display after display of the tri-fold boards describing experiments.  I thought they were super cute for older elementary aged kids.  One of the projects I remembered was studying which type of liquid would be the most effective mascara remover if make-up remover were unavailable.  The choices were water, oil, or lotion, with lotion being the winner.  Mostly it was your standard, "what melts faster?" projects.

So, it would have been a great youth science fair, if it had been elementary school kids displaying their work.  I couldn't believe it when I looked closer and saw these were from the high school kids!  What!?  I looked at every project in the room.  Every single one had basic grammar and punctuation mistakes.  I'm not talking about a slipped comma.  Major grammar mess-ups.  Missed words.  Misspelled words.  Sentences that ended or started out of nowhere.  Every.  Single.  Project.  The display boards looked like they were just slapped together and sometimes I couldn't even tell what they were trying to test.  Each one looked like it had been done by a third grader who had minimal help from an adult.

It was shameful.  Really, it was painful and embarrassing and I felt bad for the students.

I seriously doubt that every project in the science fair was done by students whose first language isn't English.  Lots of the students were actually there and I overheard plenty talking about their AP classes and homework.  But why can't they write properly?

What the hell is actually being taught at the high school? 

I remember reading over the essays of high school students applying for a local Hispanic scholarship a couple years ago and feeling appalled by the lack of writing skills.  Most of those students actually were learning English, so I tried to keep that in mind.  But, ohmygod.  Is this what public schools are like now?

We've been going to tons of school events over the past few years and each time I try to fool myself into thinking that maybe I'm overreacting to the low quality of student work we see.  One of Olivia's preschool teachers told us this week that we should be teaching our kids to count to 5 now, but that we should be happy if they can only get up to 3.  WHAT!?  Then I look at all the stuff my homeschooling friends are posting on Facebook and I seriously want to cry for public school kids.  It's not...I can't...just, ugh.

We are absolutely homeschooling Olivia.  Over my dead body will she go to San Leandro public schools.