My son, as I have mentioned before, goes to Catholic school. The local public school was an absolute horror and he went there for exactly one month; the first month of kindergarten. We pulled him from there and put him in the Catholic school, feeling very lucky to obtain a much coveted spot in the elementary school. We’ve been pretty happy with the school so far, enduring the fact that they expect a lot from the parents. And I do mean a lot. I have worked on the auction committee, obtaining acquisitions from local businesses and parishioners for the dinner and silent auction that tickets went for $75 per person. I designed, maintain and host the church’s website and there’s always something coming home asking for more money. Money for the school programs, money for building a church in a South African country or a South American country (I wonder if these people really want the churches or if the church is taking advantage of extremely poor communities and forcing Catholicism down their throats as well as rice and immunizations – treating relief like communion, collecting more souls for Jesus? ) Yes I am a Catholic, but that certainly doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that goes on in the church.
Yesterday, my son came home with a little story. Apparently his teacher and the teacher’s aide/religious instructor, thought it appropriate to question my son regarding his absence on Friday. I kept both children home as we had a family member show up for a surprise visit. Because we hadn’t seen him in three and a half years and don’t have one family member living closer than 1500 miles away, I kept the kids home to “get to know” Uncle Dale. When I sent T back to school, I told him that if anyone asked why he was absent on Friday, he should tell the truth. He was a little concerned about getting in trouble for not being there and I explained that he should always tell the truth and that if there was a problem, the teacher would come to me with it, not him.
I was wrong. Apparently the teacher and her aide questioned T at some length and told him that if he wasn’t sick he needed to be in school. This same teacher I recently had a conversation with wherein she told me that T took everything to heart, didn’t let go of anything and was overly sensitive. I told her she was absolutely right. (We don’t wonder where he gets that from). So, not 4 weeks later, she’s questioning a six year old, making him feel as though he’s done something wrong.
I have a real problem with this, a real problem. At first I wanted to go knock her down for making my son feel that this was his fault. I decided to squash that particular gag reflex and go home to cool off for a bit.
This morning I sent him to school with a note stating that I have some concerns and would like to address them with her. In the note I specified that I wanted to do this before the Easter recess. Other than the one I discussed above, there are some report card inconsistencies, and the fact that she absolutely refuses to give him more challenging, fulfilling work as a supplement to the work he does (or doesn’t do) in class – work that bores him to tears. What could possibly be wrong with using fun technology or science related “treats” for a finished Math paper?
Oh and did I mention the library book that states matter-of-factly that dinosaur and man walked the earth together and that the Old Testament provides irrefutable proof to that “fact”. ???
So, there’s about a month left of school and I guess I’ll be spending the better part of my summer seeking alternatives… but I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
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