Yes, you heard me. I am disgusted with some of the things that are happening in our school, our district, and across our state. Over in LAUSD there have been dozens of arrests of teachers and other school employees for sexual misconduct. I know that is making national news, so you can at least see how bad it is in our state. But what about our district and school? Lots of things, really, but the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back has been placed, I believe. And it's not just me. One of my best friends had a 504 meeting today for her child and got ZERO accommodations for the child. ZERO. What good is a 504 if the child doesn't get any help?
Lest you think that I'm only mad for a friend, it goes way beyond friendship. My children are being left behind and they are top performers. My boys are scoring "advanced" in all areas of state testing, on the honor roll, have never had any discipline issues, and yet they come home and cry that they are so bored. Not the regular kid mantra, but real tears for having to trudge along with the lower-middle of the class and never, ever, EVER being challenged, save for a few times over the course of the time spent at the local elementary school. This doesn't even tough some of the 'teaching methods' that some so-called teachers are using. You'll be shocked. I know I was.
There is so so so much more to the story and I fully intend on telling it. Telling it ALL. I'm beyond caring who knows how I feel or what I think. Our schools are broken, from the top, down, and it needs to stop. I have a few thoughts about that too, and maybe I'll even get to that, but first I will detail the ridiculousness that is happening in our California schools to my children. And we're in a top performing district in a nice neighborhood. I can't imagine what is happening in other communities where there are less resources.
So, before I dive in and actually tell you what's been happening, tell me what you would do. Seriously. What would you give to me as options? What options would you explore for your child? What advice do you have for me, oh Wise Internet People?
Thursday, March 1, 2012
I Hate Our School
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8 comments:
The only advice I have is what I did. I became THAT mom. That annoying, calling, requesting meetings, stamping foot, raising voice, bull-headed, stubborn, lawsuit threatening THAT mom. If that didn't work (and it ultimately did), I was going to pull my kids and homeschool. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for them, because they would lose my kid's state-per-head-funding. There's just no fighting bureaucracy, and so they don't bother unless they have a REASON to bother. I made sure they had a reason to. I don't know that that's much help, but it's what I did.
I think that you have to be THAT mom but not just THAT MOM, THAT FAMILY! Dad can ask questions too and request answers to all. We ask for emails be sent out to mine and my husband's email accounts.
Our Schools have webpages with homework listed daily. We have report cards set to our emails about 8wks at a time.
Homeschool? (Did you know I'd say that?) ;-)
I don't even know all the details, but I'm sensing that you and I have a few things in common with the way we feel about our schools.
Try asking your kids what they think the options are. Sometimes they are aware of things that we do not even see. You can always choose to homeschool, go private (tuition - yikes!) or even relocate to a different area. But whatever you decided just remember you are your kids' best advocate!!
You go girl!!!!! I am so proud u r my friend lol. I think if we moms, and dads because like kyooty says they do listen to them, us moms r wacky, dads carry more weight, banned together n refused to jump through hoops, something would be done. What if we all took our kids out of school during benchmarks, etc. then, because we r hitting them in the pocket book they would listen. My greatest complaint from Keaton's 504 was that we pay their salaries, yet they had all the power. We had proof of what he needed and still no.....they told us it was our fault we r helping him to much, we need to let him fail......and I agree yrs r just as much discriminated against then mine.
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My kids get painfully bored in school too. At this point I have done everything I can and I'm just gritting my teeth and looking forward to the challenges of high school next year.
*Lurker coming out of lurkdom*
I'm with you. I have one in middle school and one in high school. We're in Oregon. Our district has chosen to focus on test scores and graduation rates. The resulting fallout is that lower-performing students are receiving all the focus and programs while high-performing students are losing out, losing options, losing the electives that excite them. It simply gets worse each year. Yes, I'm the mom phoning the district administrators regularly throughout the year and attending the board meetings and getting the same song and dance of "...in this difficult economy..."
I don't have any answers, but I'd love to hear some options!
I caught up on this post and the one about science class and I'm so sad. It scares me and my kids are still in Kindergarten. I don't know what the options are. Here there are some "alternate" public school programs with fancy names. They make it hard to figure them out and hard to get in, but after reading your stories and many others, I'll be sure I am informed about them. We think of private school as a last resort for if one of our kids was struggling and failing. I know we can't afford it for all four kids!
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