These two words always tighten up my stomach. In the world of teenagers it means a camping weekend with friends, without the supervision of adults or parents. From the stories my students tell, it is a wild weekend: lots of drinking and inappropriate activity. Do I need to say drugs and sex and whatever else? They think it's a right of passage and something to look forward to, but I always dread the weekend in fear of what could happen. Then there is also the reality that May is not really the greatest time to go camping in Saskatchewan. It has been known to rain and even to produce flurries on this particular weekend. The teens from this community have been blacklisted from a number of camping sites in Alberta. They don't want to go in Saskatchewan because most camp sites in our province outlaw alcohol on the May long weekend and the legal drinking age is 19, whereas in Alberta it is 18. They apparently have to travel further and further each year to find a camp site which will welcome them.
Another issue I have is that after May Long, some of my students start to shut down. They start the countdown to grad which means they stop doing any homework and only put in half an effort on assignments and studying. I hate watching it happen, but inevitably someone or even several of them start to bale. In fact last summer, my new principal sent an email in August wondering if we could bump up a student's mark because he needed a 60% to get into his post secondary program. He had baled in May and I thought I was being generous giving him a 58% when he had failed the last two unit tests and the final exam. I didn't change his mark.
So my young family doesn't have these issues yet, but I wonder what I can do to make it a good weekend, without facing the inevitable consequences down the road. One of my former roommates, who has four teenagers, sent them on a Youth Retreat for the weekend. Great idea! With my head injuries this year, camping is out of the question, but the boys did get a trip to the city, they saw a great movie and ate out, and we had the first backyard fire of the season. What a nice, relaxing weekend!
Another issue I have is that after May Long, some of my students start to shut down. They start the countdown to grad which means they stop doing any homework and only put in half an effort on assignments and studying. I hate watching it happen, but inevitably someone or even several of them start to bale. In fact last summer, my new principal sent an email in August wondering if we could bump up a student's mark because he needed a 60% to get into his post secondary program. He had baled in May and I thought I was being generous giving him a 58% when he had failed the last two unit tests and the final exam. I didn't change his mark.
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