School Rant

Before I begin my rant, I want to unequivocally state that I have the highest respect and admiration for my sons' teachers at their elementary school.  I absolutely adore Colin's 4th grade teacher and appreciate how absolutely wonderful she is about communicating with me.  Nate's teacher is also a gem, and has his best interests at heart.

My rant is about the administration.  I have now received 4 letters (2 for each child) chastising me about their absences.  I think Nate has 13 this year, and Colin has 10.  The letters ramble on about how important attendance is and how they want to work with me to make sure that my children are there regularly in order to achieve their potential.  They state studies about poor academic progress by children who miss too much school.  The last ones were slightly threatening by stating the truancy laws of our state.  The principal assured me repeatedly throughout the letters how she has only my sons' welfare in mind, and that she is very worried about them.  They also reminded me that I should provide doctor's notes for any absences.

Have I sent along doctor's notes for each absence?  No, I haven't.  Why not?  Because after 4 years of homeschooling I have never gotten into the habit of asking for a "note."  And because it rankles me that they don't trust me (as the parent) to properly care for my child. 


I call BULLSH*T!  If she was truly concerned about my sons' welfare, she might have contacted their teachers.  If she had, she would have learned that they are both excellent students - at the top of their classes. That they both have scored "Exceeding" on benchmark exams in preparation for the asinine standardized tests. That my 4th grader has made honor roll since beginning her school, and is on track to achieve the highest honor roll this quarter (there are 3 levels.  He made the 2nd level in 1st & 2nd quarter.)  That my 3rd grader has scored almost exclusively "A's" since beginning her school last fall. (No honor roll for K - 3)

I admit I took them out of school for 5 days for a vacation to DisneyLand.  I don't regret it for a second.  Both boys were doing well in school.  I met with both of their teachers a month before our planned trip and worked out their schoolwork.  They completed the schoolwork requested of them during their absence.

The other absences are a result of them being sick. Nate has picked up numerous vomit bugs this year, and I'm sure the parents of the other children were grateful I kept him home.  Both boys have had sinus infections, and they are only kept home if they have a fever or truly feel rotten.

Today, Colin could have used a mental health day.  It's not the Internet's business why, nor is it his stupid school administration's business.  The bottom line is that I sent him to school partly because I didn't want another letter in my mailbox -- even though the mom in me felt that I should have let him stay home to work through the issue.  His sweet teacher called me mid-morning to let me know that he was really struggling, but we decided to let him finish the day because he was already there -- and the toughest part of the day was over.  I also believe that he needed to persevere, but a mental health day wouldn't have hurt him.

A few weeks ago, I went to the office at 1:50 (about 20 minutes before the end of the day) to pick up Nate for a doctor's appointment.  He had been under the weather and I sent him to school since he didn't have a fever and wasn't vomiting.  Turned out he had a double ear infection.  BUT, the school secretary gave me the stinkeye when I told her I needed to check Nate out. She typed furiously on her computer and then insisted I had to show my ID in order to check him out.  She reminded me about the doctor's note (which I forgot) and basically made me feel like I was hurting him by pulling him out 20 minutes early.

My children's education is of the utmost importance to me.  It is one of the reasons I chose to homeschool, and is why I remain involved in their education and communicate often with their teachers. I have their best interests in mind when I make any decision.

Regardless of the flowery language used in the letters I received, I don't believe they care one whit about MY children.  They care about the tax dollars that those children represent. If they truly cared, they would have checked with their teachers to find out if the absences were causing a negative effect on their education.  They could have checked to see if I was a parent who seemed to be keeping my boys home for my entertainment or amusement.  They could have made it personal, rather than bureaucratic.  It is those types of letters that make me want to return to homeschooling sooner rather than later, just to thumb my nose at the stupid office.

Back to School Rant

I try to be positive and look for the good side of things whenever possible.  I try to remember to always assume good intent in others. But, sometimes? I just need to vent and rant and this is one of those times. Expect me to return to my usual, upbeat self in this blog soon :)

We went to the school yesterday for "Meet the Teachers."  We went as a family, found their bus assignment, argued with Colin about joining orchestra, then headed to their classrooms.

The classrooms are nice-sized, bright and cheery.  The teachers seem nice. I know they'll be fine and I'm sure they'll learn new things and make friends.

But . . .

Colin's teacher made a comment to the effect of "By the time they get to 4th grade, I don't have to remind them how to find their bus, or lunch, or anything.  It's great!" So, I replied "Colin has always been homeschooled, so he may need a little prompting with those type of things."  And her response? "Well, don't worry!  I have an aide and I'll be here, and we'll get him up to grade level in no time, I'm sure!"

Ummmmmmm.  That's not what I meant.  I meant he might need help finding the bathroom or the bus -- not help getting him to "grade level."  His overall average in his online curriculum last year was high 90's and he scored above-average on the standardized tests.  I seriously doubt he'll have any academic issues this year -- but of course if I went down that road I worried that I would be immediately labeled as delusional -- since we all know that homeschooled kids are behind the curve. (even though the opposite is often proved via standardized tests and other means)

Okay.  Assume Good Intent.  Stay quiet. Plaster a smile on my face. Know that my boy will soon demonstrate that he is most definitely at grade level. Move on to the next classroom.

Where I let the teacher know that Nate has a stutter, but he worked with the speech pathologist on campus last year and his IEP is already on file.  We found out that her contract was renewed, and I sighed with relief as she was a wonderful speech therapist and helped Nate learn so many tools to improve his speech.

Then, I told this teacher that Nate had been homeschooled, but that he was looking forward to a new school year. To which she replied to him?  "Well!  You'll have recess!  That'll be great!"

I know I already ranted about this comment, but I just have to again.  I could almost forgive other stupid people for saying it. (And as a couple friends have commented on my Facebook status today -- "oooo, they'll get to use the restroom!"  "Hey! They'll get hot lunch!"  More inane comments, left just to make me laugh, which I appreciated.)

But, a teacher??  You're going to tell my son that the thing he has to look forward to in your class is RECESS? What about telling him about some of the things he'll learn this year?  What about letting him know what units are coming up? Those are the things that my kids would be excited to know about!

As homeschoolers, they had hours of recess each day.  That doesn't mean that they didn't learn, however. (Nate was also in the high 90's average for his online curriculum last year and also scored above-average on standardized tests.) My boys love documentaries. They love visiting museums and really learning about the exhibits.  They have many interests, from space to geology to history. Colin loves to read, and Nate especially loves to read non-fiction. 

They also love cartoons, Pokemon, Bakugan and video games.  But, we have always encouraged a balance and they truly enjoy documentaries and museums just as much.  My kids LOVE to learn.  It's one of the things I wanted to instill in them and so far I've done a great job at it.

Yet, this year I've sent them to school where everyone thinks they should be excited about recess. 

It's a bit discouraging. 

But, I'll continue to assume good intent and continue to do what we've always done at home. Expose them to lots of different things and encourage learning new things.  I am excited about a couple things at their new school, which I'll post about later when I share pictures from when they headed out the door.