Aaaaaargh!

THE COOKIE-CUTTER SCHOOLS

I am so mad! I am so frustrated! I want to gather my children together under my wings and demand the world leave them alone. How can they judge my children?! How can anyone say their standard is the right one?! Can't they see their faulty system themselves?!?! This school system with it's tests thinks they know my child, but I can see they don't know any of the children. They pass each one through the same testing system, calling it "personalizing" by grouping together similarly-achieving students. What about the kid at the bottom of the "smart" group? Her scores don't look so great in the book, don't show how smart she really is.

I remember... I remember moving to England for 3rd and 4th "year" which was my 4th and 5th "grade" in the US. Suddenly I was at the very bitty bottom of my class, quickly figuring out how to fill my pen with ink and use a blotter and play that recorder. They thought I was stupid and too tall.

These teachers at school have so many suggestions and ideas for me. "Don't worry about spelling", says one, "everyone uses spell-checks nowadays, anyway." "He really needs to work on his spelling", says another, "here's a curriculum that might help! It costs about $100." I worked so hard with my son on spelling last year. This year I decided to volunteer to give his spelling test, so at least the score would reflect what he actually knows. I graded two groups of tests today. One person did well in his group and got 100%, another struggled with the harder test and got only 60%. In the easier group one of the kids decided he didn't care that day and got most of them wrong, whereas one girl easily got her 100%. Does anyone besides the teacher recognize the difference between the 100% on the easier test versus the 60% on the harder test?!

How about when Moms drop off their 2-4 year olds in Sunday School and they're crying. There's the Mom that watches nearby until her kid is happy. The Mom that brings her kid with her to the big service if he doesn't leave his tearful post by the entrance after 10 minutes... and sits with him in the very front row so he can see good... just last Sunday. I've spent lotsa days in the classes, too - I was the Preschool department for a while at one church.

So, now I'm the Mean Momma that won't let my 3rd grader get on a Canoe with 40 other people. The teacher called me at home to say he'll be the "only one" not going, and, actually "the only one EVER" to not go. It reminds me of convincing the "helpful" SS Teacher to hand me back my child 'cause it's not OK with me that he's not OK. Some people are so certain they know what's right for other people's kids.

I feel like saying to the school... "give me back my kid. You don't know how to test him. You don't know how he's really doing and it's not my fault or HIS fault that your system is so limited! and, by the way, NO! I don't want him on a Canoe with you!!" Well, actually, we did stop the re-testing and the Canoe thing, much to everyone's flabbergastedness, which is somewhat satisfying. But I want to block their opinions from approaching my son's understanding, too... I don't want him to see their classifications, their test scores, their pre-set ideas of his success rates. I don't want him to decide that they're right, 'cause they don't "get him", yet, and he doesn't fit in their system.

PHOOEY on systems, I say!