Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 30, 2009

Sooo..he wasn’t lyin..Mom!

Sure, shove the kid on his teacher…

Oh, give Calvin a few years, He’ll be the star screwball pitcher on the baseball team.

Marg, why not? Teachers are asked to do everything else: run the lunch program, teach sex ed, driver ed, value clarification, personal finance management, citizenship, anti bullying program, how and why to avoid drugs, racial tolerance, employment skills etc, etc. Oh and by the way, in those spare moment we want you to teach every kid to read, write and do mathematics so that each child scores above average on the tests that we will give them. On the weekends you can do fundraising because your school is ill equipped and the building needs repairs.

Why should parents be inconvenienced by having to raise or look after their own creations?

Wait until Mom and Dad catch the virus. Oy!

He must really be sick! He didn’t even bring Hobbes along.

Yukoner, our daughter was a special ed. teacher for ten years. She loved the kids, but hated all the paperwork…

Interesting that the doctor knows Calvin so well, since we rarely see Mom taking him there…

Enjoy it while you can mom, he’ll be back to “normal” in no time.

Yukoner, you are right… Why should parents shun/push their responsibility?? We had a neighbour, whose kids were told to go and play in our house by their mom when she was ran out of ideas to keep them engaged or when she could no longer control them!!

I think that Calvin’s mom just meant she enjoys the 6 hours of peace she gets a day while Calvin is at school. Lord knows Mom puts up with plenty of crud at home.

@ambellybutton, there was a series of strips where Calvin got a shot from the doc, was yelling at the top of his lungs and informed him that Dad was a lawyer and told him he hoped his malpractice insurance was up to date. No wonder Doc likes subdued Calvin.

Calvin and Mom.. both are our of sorts.

Did anyone else notice that even though Calvin behaved himself the doctor didn’t give him a lollipop (sugar free of course). I’d have kicked Doc right in the shins if I were Calvin.

Calvin’s not even up to wanting a lollipop today.

Yukoner hits it on the head…I couldn’t say it any better, and that’s my life!

I think Mom is saying she would rather it be a teacher (and school) that helps subdue Calvin than a stomach bug…. Not that she doesn’t want to do her part. She got him into the doctor’s office quick enough didn’t she?!

My mom was a public school teacher, rembembered being called “Mom” by kids even as far as fourth grade. She saw the power she had over them, and didn’t want to give that kind of power to a stranger over her own kids. So we were homeschooled.

You know this is the first time I remember that a Calvin cartoon made me “sad”.

Do you think Watterson thought this was funny or making a societal statement?

Given the look on the doctor’s face in Panel 4, I’d say about half of each.

As a former teacher and great respecter of my kids’ teachers, I will give Mom here a little slack. I think opuscroakus had it right that Mom simply prefers those precious hours when Calvin is at school over those unfortunate hours he is sick at home. What parent wouldn’t, really?

BTW, I trust my kids’ teachers in large part because my wife and I go out of our way to get to know them. I really don’t think this is a parent passing off responsibility.

Musta caught that bug also. I was sick for 3 days, then suddenly this morning gone. No runny nose, no sore throat.

Can you imagine if Calvin was homeschooled? Mom would go straight up the wall every day. I admire moms who homeschool since they don’t get that 6 hours a day of peace and quiet.

you know calvin must have been sick to go to the doctor with out a fight

bigCandHfan, but sometimes kids behave better at someones house…..

@bigCandHfan, Your neighbor didn’t want to ‘deal’ with her ‘pack of kids’, so she ‘shuffled’ them off to you.

Yukoner:

Thank you for voicing several hours earlier my EXACT thoughts as I read this strip a couple of minutes ago. I am a teacher and can confirm that your list of parenting responsibilities in addition to regular academic responsibilities carried by teachers is chillingly accurate, although considerably shorter than it could be. As for the mitigating comments, you all may be right. Nevertheless, most people aren’t subtle enough thinkers NOT to see today’s strip as appropriate, as well as true for them.

Gee, here I was hoping he didn’t catch the bug from Birdbrains!

Thank God she is a stay at home Mom. If she worked at Walled Mart she would loose her job.

The doctor hung his stethoscope the old fashioned way, by the ear pieces and not the modern ER way looped around his neck.

Isn’t this from before?

As a former high school math/cosci teacher, I pretty much agree with Yukoner….it’s just not right what teachers are expected to do, and/or not do…damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Which is why I can state, former teacher. I miss working with the kids, but nothing can compare to the paperwork and parents who don’t give a damn…

Ah, teachers are babysitters anyway.

If teachers were babysitter they would be better off. Consider that the baby sitter gets $10 per hour per kid. Lets assume the average teacher has only 20 kids in the class for 5 hour a day - that’s 20X10X5 which is $1000.00 per day. Assuming that there are only 150 days in the school year (teachers get all those holidays you know) that would still be an annual salary of $150,000.00 for every teacher in America. Parents ought to be dang glad that teachers are NOT babysitters.

Jerk Doctor

Everytime I see Calvin at the doctor, I think of the time I stuffed mattress stuffing up my nose and my mom wouldn’t let the doctor give me a sucker (she thought I’d do it again for more candy). That’s what has always been so great about Calvin: he reminds me of my own childhood. :)

Hey Yukoner, you forgot: grade papers till the wee hours of the night and Sunday mornings. Heck, we teachers don’t need a personal life!

his teacher is saying what a relief,i don’t have to deal with calvin today.

Oh, but everytime those teachers go on strike it’s just because they want more money – none of the other problems they have to put up with whereby they might earn every penny of that money. I have taught college students who acted much like Calvin – unbelievable.

Am I the only one who thinks that in the last panel the doc looks like Jon from Garfield? shudder

Notice that the doctor doesn’t really care that Calvin is sick.