Not What I Had Planned

Called my school board about Tazzie. They have a reading program that he's eligible for. So, I signed him up, figuring, no biggie. Uh huh.

Til I ask, innocently, "So what do I do next year, sign up for this program again?" (Understand, Tazzie isn't 5 until February)

"Oh no. Next year you'd register him for grade one."

My heart and stomach plummeted. Tazzie? Grade one? Next YEAR?! I thought I had two more years before registering him for grade one! I thought he had to be six in September to be eligible. Nope. As long as he's born before the end of Feb, he's eligible. Holy old crackers! Mama wasn't ready for this. No Sir, No Ma'am!

The upside is, I can register him the first year in 'traditional', and then have him reregistered the next year *the year I thought he would be registered* in blended or aligned. (For those unfamiliar, aligned is following provincial standards. Blended is a 50% minimum provincial standards, the other percentage parent led. Traditional is all parent led)

I can't believe that I'm planning to flunk my son for first grade. Girlfriend K says not to look at it that way, its simply having 12 mths to complete 6 mths of work. *sigh*

On the upside, he is homeschooled, so nobody is going to be teasing him. I just honestly can't see Tazzie having the maturity for grade one. Truly. His birthday is smack in the middle of Feb. Two weeks, and he wouldn't be able to register for anything til next year.

And what whacked out school board has end of Feb for age cut off? Mine, apparently.

What also has my heart thumping and racing is that I could have been unregistered with him for a year, completely unaware that he should be. I can't imagine the fall out potential from THAT, legally speaking. "Hello, Mr. Truant Officer. You're here for WHAT?!"

And here's some irony. Princess, our youngest, whose birthday is in Sept, won't be allowed to register for anything for two more years, despite her and Tazzie being a mere 19 mths 7 days apart. She will have to be five before any registration of any kind is allowed.

Weirdos.

Yes, I'm totally committed (or is that should be totally committed?) to continuing our homeschooling efforts, including Tazzie and Princess.

I seriously believe I'm not only doing whats best for my kids, but also my bank account. There's no doubt in my mind that sending the Littles to public school would result in at least one lawsuit from a teacher for mental cruelty.

Teacher-Student Bonding

A new discussion is underway here in my city, amongst the public school board and its minions that I find disturbing, and makes me once again grateful to God to be a homeschooler, and affirm again my intention to NEVER have a child in public school.

Apparently the new idea being bandied about (it hasn't hit the general population yet, only those in the school board are aware of it, teachers, etc) is that teachers will be promoted along with the students. So Mrs. Crankypants who is Johnny's teacher in grade one will greet him on the first day of grade two! The idea behind this is 'to promote teacher-student bonding'

Pardon?!
I have two problems with this.
The first problem is minor in comparison to the second. If Jr gets Ms. Sea Hag, kiss goodbye his love of learning if he's stuck with her through elementary school.

The second is far more alarming to me, and is the exact basis of this idea. Teacher-student bonding. 'scuse me?! I find this frightening, I really, truly do. To me, its another way to widen the gap between the public schooled student and his/her family. Ensure that he's bonded to his teacher and further diminish his bond with his mother. (I'm going with the statistics that the majority of elementary teachers are female) To me, this is very very frightening.

I think that public school has a heck of a lot to answer for when it comes to the demise of the nuclear family. Anyone whose been through the public school system has been taught that homework is secondary to family commitments. I cannot begin to count the times that I was punished in school for not completing homework due to family commitments. My mother's notes weren't valid excuses, the homework wasn't completed, and that was all that mattered. I know that I'm not the only student to have experienced that. So many times I've heard people undergoing martial counselling and even divorce because they've been unable to balance work and family, and I've come to understand that the mind set for that started in the public school hallways, where homework was of ultimate importance, family a distant second. That was pounded in to us by our teachers, who had us 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week, in comparison to parents who saw us in the evenings and weekends.

And now they want to further those bonds, by ensuring that teachers follow students for six years or more?

The only bonds young children need to be fostering are those with their family. Not with paid representitives of the public school board!