I understand why people send their kids to school.
I don't fault them for that choice.
We sent our firstborn child to school. It didn't work out for many reasons, and I'm glad we not only had other options but open minds.
Our solution worked for us.
Kindergarten roundup was on Wednesday afternoon.
The school district sent out a big yellow bus to pick up the kids and bring them for a tour of the school building.
Kids only on this day. No parents allowed. They can come and have a tour and meet the teachers later.
We saw two different tour groups wandering around the school building. One group walked through the gym and watched my kids playing basketball in one end and jumping rope in the other.
Some of the little tiny itty bitty people (big eyes, nervous little faces, a few apprehensive tears) who came for the tour are four years old. They'll be five before September 1st, so that makes them eligible to attend K this fall.
I understand why the kids come for a tour. It's good for a small person to know what's coming and to have a little familiarity with a new situation. To get a glimpse of how they're going to spend a large part of the next 13 years of their lives.
I get the whole idea of separating them from their parents for the occasion. (Not that I agree with it... but I get it.)
I have fundamental disagreements with public education.
I know this is not a surprise to anyone who reads here regularly or to anyone who's known me for more than, oh, an hour or two.
What I'd wish for all those little ones is that their parents would evaluate them on an individual basis and decide, based on their observations, what educational method(s) would be best for each child.
I wish the parents of some of the four year olds would ponder keeping them home another year. Or two. Or three.
Compulsory education does not begin in this state until the child is seven on the first day of school in September.
Public school is not necessarily the best option for some children.
C'mon. Admit it.
I see kids who do okay there.
(They're 'doing well' according to the standards found in the strange and unrealistic world of schooling.)
They adjust to things like not being allowed to even say the word 'gun' without the thought police reminding them that it's not appropriate to say that word in school. They understand that they can't wear their hoods in the building. They learn to be quiet while standing in line. Even if the line is outside where noise doesn't matter. They learn to stay with their classification, be it age, grade level, specific needs... just pick one.
Kindergarten is also where they learn the lesson that kitties aren't pink .
::sigh::
Yeehaw. Round 'em up and move 'em out.
That would have scared the shit out of me as a kid. Most kids nowadays have gone to daycare or preschool so they're used to it, but for me, when I went to church, and the grocery store, and the bank, and that was it? Having to do that alone would have scared me senseless.
ReplyDeleteI think it's odd that the parents couldn't come with the kiddos. Seems like a potentially scary experience.
ReplyDelete"No parents" seems totally insane when we are talking about children not long out of the toddler age. You already know how I feel about schools. :)
ReplyDeleteOur children are learning to sit down, shut up and get over it. At the age of 5. but then again it serves them well when the government wants us, the adults, to sit down, shut up and get over it.
Shoot. I remember being scared my first day of high school. I can't imagine being as young as 4 and going it alone!
ReplyDeleteI think my daughter would be ready for Kindergarten at four, but that is only because she didn't even wave goodbye to me on her first day of preschool at age three. She is a month away from her fifth birthday now and makes her own breakfast and lunch. I don't let her use the stove, or she would probably cook dinner some nights too!
ReplyDeleteI would NOT be ok with the solo field trip to school--I try to be protective of my girl, even as she is pushing me away!
I would still be running if I had been "rounded up" and tour through a school without my parents at the tender age of 4!not sure I could handle it now at 42!
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad. I remember being that terrified little kid.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad our kids were able to stay home with us but we were able to survive on one income, for the most part.
That kitties aren't pink thing really fucking pisses me off!
Happy weekend and hugs!!
While I can maybe seem some of the logic of having kids day.... there is no way ever that my kids would go and check out a school.... before I went and checked it out and met the teachers myself first.... thats like that other annoying rule some schools have out here... about how you can not go on a field trip with your child and be a chaperone.. if you have a smaller child with you... you have to get a babysitter.... what???....
ReplyDeleteANyhows... how sad for all those poor scared little guys...
I know just what you mean. WIth all 3 of our children, what we decide to do that year depends on how they are. One year at home, the next year some school classes, some home classes. Another year, all day in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on them, how they do, the environment. It is always case by case, situation by situation.
I know just what you mean.
Sometimes, people don't even know they have the right to think about what to do.
It is the name that gets me; round-up. I remember taking exams in uni and waiting in the hallway like cattle to get in to the area for writing. It seems so young to start the institutionalization (wow, that's a big word) of little people. Glad we had a choice.
ReplyDelete