School Rants

Today is Labour Day. The last day off of the summer. Officially, summer isn't over, but technically it is. School starts tomorrow, and can I say, I am NOT looking forward to that! Back to making lunches, emptying lunchboxes and cleaning the contents every damn day. Back to walking back and forth to the school, trying to keep track of everyone and braving any weather thrown our way. Ok, I actually like the walking part, just not the part where I have to drag everyone with me. And back to facing the tears.

Oh, the tears. Just last week at the mere mention of the one week left till school, L was in tears. Full on bawling. And I feel for him. He is still my baby, and sometimes I look at him and think, "he's too young to be in school all day, away from his mommy." We had many tears during the two years of Kindergarten (JK and SK here). He never really resigned himself to the fact that he had to go. And this year, he truly does. It's the law, and if I don't send him, then I have to teach him myself, and that ain't gonna happen!

So here's my rant. I hate his teacher he had last year. Let's call her Cow. Cow had never taught kindergarten before last year. She looked to me to be about 20 years old. Not married. No kids. Obviously didn't have much education around teaching young children. And no. They don't have nearly enough of that in Teacher's College. And yes. Teaching K is A LOT DIFFERENT than teaching grade schoolers. The children are still very young, and their abilities are very diversified, plus the way they view the world and think is different. You have to be FLEXIBLE, and ADAPT. Something Cow didn't know how to do. You can't lump them all into the same group and expect them all to mold to your expectations. She thought she knew how to teach K, based on her 5 minutes of training.

So she thought that she "knew" my child somehow. Or rather she thought she "knew" how he "should" be. God. She thought that he should be split up from his very best friend, a boy who is so much like him in personality, a boy who had as much of a hard time adjusting to school as he did, and the boy who, if it weren't for him, he wouldn't have adjusted to school at all. She thought that L was "lost" without him. Truthfully, he wasn't. Once he made friends with J, he branched out, and gathered a group of friends that he played with (including after school and playdates). But still, the schools usually try to keep best buds together going into grade one. It's such a huge change for them, shouldn't they try to make the transition as painless as possible by offering a little comfort?

So why oh why, did this COW decide to not recommend they be placed in the same class? WHY I ask you??

Now I come to the second part. During the end of the last school year, I requested to L's teacher that when they make up the classes for next year that he NOT be placed in a certain teacher's class. There are four Grade one classes. Surely it's not too much to ask that he not be placed in just one of them, that leaves three other options. But no. I found out Friday that he has been placed in that class. Not only that, but it is a SPLIT CLASS!! Split with SK!!!

I am insensed! I am OUTRAGED!! The reason I asked for him not to be placed in that class, was because for the past two years, I have heard from other parents how she is not a very good teacher. Now, I can't exactly go into the office saying that, it's all hearsay. But I can express my concerns over the fact that it's a split class. I think he's going to be very distracted if half the class are playing with toys. How will he ever get any work done? He's not very good at concentrating as it is, and considering that many kids going into grade one are reading, and he isn't quite there, I think he needs as much concentration as possible.

This is what I hate. I HATE confrontation. I HATE having to talk to people about things I'm not pleased about. I'm a rug, just walk all over me. But I have to do this. It's for my child. The thing is though, is that I know that I'm such a wimp, that even if I do get a chance to speak with whoever I speak with, I'll present my case and then back off when he (or she) rebuts with reasonable answers. Rrrrrrrgh. Perhaps I can convince DH to do it for me. He is sooooo much better at it than I am.

So the last thing I want to say is this. I'm going to miss my boys. I always do when school starts back up. And it's just a reminder to me of how time is passing us by, how they are growing so fast.

That being said, I will go and spend this last day off with them. Happy Labour Day.