Going to War…
With the public school system! Ha, I bet you thought this would be another boring rant about the war in Iraq. Well, it’s not. Without further ado, let’s get on to today’s irritations.
I took my 1st grader to school this morning and upon reaching our destination she realizes that she’s forgotten her backpack. Unfortunately we cannot turn around and go get it, like she so politely suggests, because Mommy has about fifteen minutes to get to work. Upon explaining this to my child, she starts sobbing. She’s crying because she says the teacher will make her walk laps for the entire recess again, since that is what she made her do the last time she forgot her backpack. That said, the irritation began. Here’s my thoughts on the subject:
- The child takes her backpack to school with two small folders in it, and it comes home that way. That’s about, oh, 0.02 pounds. Not really sure why it would be a big deal for her to just CARRY her folders home.
- With all the talk about the child obesity problem in our lovely country, my daughter was forced to simply walk for her entire recess. That’s so much better for her than, say, running, jumping, climbing, laughing, etc.
- Upon bringing home said backpack from school any other day, those two small folders are crammed full of …. wait for it…. ADVERTISEMENTS! Sign up for this, sign up for that, this fundraiser, that fundraiser. Oh, and church fliers, don’t let me forget those lovely little innocuous things that are supposed to be SEPARATED from the school system. But my favorite is the conspiracy to turn all of our darling little children into door-to-door salespeople. Don’t even get me started on what a rip-off and guilt trip THAT is! I could buy my daughter that stupid blowup plastic lawn chair she wants to win so badly (by selling $500.00 worth of junk I could buy at the dollar store) for three dollars at Wal-mart.
- And last, but not least, where does this teacher get off by ‘disciplining’ my seven year old CHILD for forgetting to grab her backpack?
So I calm down my precious girl, tell her to dry her eyes and go to class, and that I’ll call the teacher. That makes her happy, so off she goes. And call the teacher I do.
I tell her who I am, and ask her why my daughter would tell me she was made to walk laps instead of play during recess. This “wonderful paragon of everything children” proceeds to tell me that she was felt it was necessary to ‘demonstrate’ to my daughter how important responsibility is and that it’s extremely important for her to remember her backpack every day. First of all, I tell her, it is not your responsibility to teach her responsibility, it is mine. Secondly, you are NOT to discipline my child for what I feel is simply being a child. Children forget things. Third, I tell her, you only send home a bunch of junk that I don’t want and throw away anyway (aside from my daughter’s drawings and such, I’m not a monster, you know). She got very snippy with me, and I told her that was the end of it. She will NOT discipline my daughter for forgetting her backpack. Click.
All the way to work I was fuming about this encounter, and since my mind can’t stay on just one subject for long without thinking of all the associated irritations, I came up with a WHOLE list of things I HATE about the public school system. I have come to a decision. I am going to war with them.
I dream of presenting a petition to the law of the land and getting this screwed up, bassackwards, farce for education, drop out creating, glorified daycare system changed! So be ready world, I’m creating a petition and I’m going to post it online and try to get as many millions of people to sign it as possible. And in the meantime, I’m going to list all of the horrendously dumb things they do to irritate the piss out of me and other parents on a daily basis. So stay tuned. There’s MUCH more to come!
In the meantime, here’s an interesting article about what we, as a society apparently, and the school systems, are doing to our kids: Are Stepped-Up Expectations Too Much of a Good Thing?
