No Way!

I'm fed up.
Ok. Let me tell you the good part first.
I started this index card thing today. I told the girls that every Monday, when I walk into class, they each have to have an index card with something written on it. I could be a joke, a question for the teacher, a quote, or even something personal.
It worked out very nicely! The girls wrote some interesting things there. Some girls asked me to go slower in history, some gave me some cute quotes, ("A joke is like a frog, when you dissect it, it dies" -I must've gotten that 10 times!)and one girl even gave me her address.
I was a little, ok, a lot surprised, when one kid passed up an index card saying that she had a problem with her temper and that she went to to special classes after school to help her out. It was so unexpected, especially from this girl.
It was also a little shocking that she mentioned something so personal so early in the year, she barely even knows me as a teacher, much less as a person!
But the idea behind this index card thing is that each student had once a week where she has some personal time with me. In the form of this card, she can tell me anything, and I answer back.
The girls seem to really have enjoyed it, they were comparing comments that I wrote back on their cards, and some, like the temper girl, just put hers away quietly. I gave them the choice. They had personal "time" with me, and they were able to use it whichever way they wanted.
So that's the good part of my day.
We had writing again. The kids were beyond frustrated, and so was I. I walked around the classroom checking some of the compositions the girls wrote as they moved on to the next part of their writings.
I was shocked. I had no idea that 7th graders could write this way. And I'm not saying this in an impressed sort of way, mind you. The writing was not impressive at all. About 3 girls were really talented writers, and I saw that right away, the rest? Well, in one word? Pathetic.
Ok, maybe I'm being harsh. I know that I can be critical sometimes. Maybe this is one of them. I happen to know that I write well, never scored anything less than an A on a writing, so maybe I just haven't been exposed to too many average writers.
But these writings did shock me, especially from a school that prides itself on it's writing program. Like I said yesterday, the born writers love the 45 minutes they get to express themselves on paper, the majority of the class sits there on the verge of tears.
One girl raised her hand and even asked for a syllabus. She told me that her teacher last year had always given out a syllabus stating what was expected of them in each writing assignment, when it was due, and with some ideas of what to write.
I was unpleasantly surprised. No wonder these students had absolutely no idea how to write! They had been spoon-fed all through school! I was not about to do the same. I told the girls I'd check into it, and started history.
When I came downstairs to the teacher's room and asked the 6th grade teacher about it, she handed me a 4 page writing syllabus. This syllabus was for ONE writing assignment!! She said that the principal required it!! I was a little taken aback that first of all, the principal required something I thought to be very stupid, and two, that I wasn't even told about this.
I was determined to get to the bottom of it, and to abolish it as well.
My husband says I my dreams of changing the world are never going to take shape with the kind of salary I'm getting paid.
I know, how encouraging!
Oh, and by the way, I was given a w4 to fill out. Can you imagine that I have to pay taxes on the kind of salary I'm getting!?!?!
Crazy world out there!