Detention!

You read the title of this post correctly... Lin came home from school yesterday with a detention slip!! Now before you get all freaked out, it's really not that bad. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here's the story:

Lin's school is somewhat in the shape of a "T". Her 2nd hour is on one side of the top of the T, her third hour is on the other side. And her locker is at the base of the T. 3rd hour is band and unfortunately for Lin, she forgot to take her flute to her 2nd hour class yesterday, so she had to go all the way back to her locker. There are only 4 minutes for the kids to switch classes, and no running in the halls. So guess what? She was late to 3rd hour. And unfortunately for Lin, yesterday was the day the school did what they call a Hall Sweep at the start of 3rd hour. Every kid who was still in the hall when the bell rang got detention. Bummer!

Dave was upset with the school for giving out detentions for something so minor, and rightfully so, especially when Lin has been a model student so far. But being the hard-nosed, rules-are-rules Mama I am, my thought is, yes it stinks, but I bet she doesn't ever forget to bring her flute to 2nd hour again...

So on Monday she will have to eat her lunch at the "detention table." Which is really no big deal for Lin because she eats lunch alone anyway.

Now, some of you may be wondering why Lin eats lunch alone, since I have mentioned that there is another Chinese girl in all of Lin's classes, and that I thought the two girls were friends. Well, that brings me to the second part of my post...

While explaining to Lin what detention means, she asked me if the teacher would hit her and/or refuse to let her eat. I thought she was referring to school punishments in China, and I immediately reassured her over and over that in America a teacher will never hit her or not allow her to eat. Then she tells me that this other little Chinese girl had had detention a couple weeks ago, and that she had told Lin this is what happened to her. I said no, no, no, and again told her that this doesn't happen in America... and then you better believe I got on the phone with the school!

I had quite a pleasant conversation with Lin's ESL teacher, and it turns out this other Chinese student is a bit of a trouble-maker. She fabricates stories, is disruptive in class, doesn't do her work or else intentionally does it incorrectly, and flat-out refuses to speak English to her teachers. In fact, Lin's teacher was glad I called because she wanted me to ask Lin whether or not this other student is bothering Lin.

So Lin and I had a nice long chat, via online translator, and it sounds to me like I've got a pretty bright daughter! Lin said, in English, "Yeah, she's a little bit crazy" when I asked her about this other girl. She knows that this girl is not a good student and it sounds like Lin has distanced herself from her. Pretty smart, that one! Yeah, it's rotten that the only other kid Lin can speak to in her own language turns out to be a little stinker, but Lin really does seem fine. She's exceptionally mature, in that regard.

I typed into the translator, "Dad and I are very proud of you. Do you know that?" and she said "Sometimes" and then laughed and said "I know, I know." All in all, it was a good conversation.

But yes, she will serve detention...

Do me a favor, those of you reading this who actually know us and see us in person, please don't mention anything to Lin about her detention. It's probably not the kind of thing she wants other people to know about. Yes, I feel hypocritical for blogging about it, but I can trust you... right?