Theater of the Soul

First day of school…the REAL Mother’s Day.

Monkeyboy was very excited and eager to get back to his school. BooBoo…not so much. He’s not at all impressed with his birthday being the first day of school, but he’ll get over it. He complained good naturedly and I think he was secretly eager to get back to see his friends.

Our middle school houses 4th-8th grade, so Monkeyboy is happy that this is his last year in the ‘little kid’ school. It might very well be his last year in public school if the administrators push me too far. The only reason why he isn’t being homeschooled this year is because he’ll have the same teacher as he had last year (she bounces back and forth between 2nd and 3rd grades). Mrs. B. is an excellent teacher and keeps a tight leash on my son, which he needs. She doesn’t take any crap from the administrators either, so that makes me happy.

There is a huge difference between the elementary and middle schools here. The elementary school won’t leave me the fuck alone, and getting anything done at the middle school is like pulling teeth. Both are supposedly in the Top 10 schools of my state, which leaves me very concerned about the schools everywhere else. The elementary school is pushing me to get Monkeyboy diagnosed as ADHD, and since I’ve refused thus far, they make me go in for ‘conferences’ every 6 weeks or so. His teacher made the mistake last year of drawing attention to Monkeyboy’s behavior (he’s attentive, but doesn’t keep his ass in his seat) and ended up with some occupational therapist giving him a T-bar to sit on (it’s supposed to give his muscles something to do besides squirm in his seat). Mrs.B. didn’t like that idea at all and was quite pissed off during our last conference of the year. I saw her over the summer and she said she wouldn’t make that mistake again unless he is truly having trouble learning, which he isn’t. His grades are excellent and his test scores are above average, so as far as I’m concerned, there is NO problem.

The middle school is a different story. Trying to get those damn people to do anything is impossible. BooBoo started trying to ditch his homework last year…leaving books at school, not getting his homework notebook signed…so that he didn’t have to do it when he got home. After no less than a dozen phone calls last year, I finally got pissed off and filed a complaint with the superintendent. THAT got their attention, and his teacher started checking his bag every day. I also had to throw a complete FIT when his science teacher failed him for the semester when he was out of school for a week with the flu. He didn’t bother to check to see if he had make-up work for that one class, so that is HIS responsibility, however I should think that failing a student should warrant at least a courtesy phone call to the parent. He’s usually an A/B student, but this school also gave him a D in Chorus, for christ sakes. Don’t ask…I have NO idea what criteria they use for grading in Chorus nor what would cause them to give anyone an F in a class that had NO homework or test requirements. Apparently, neither do they because they couldn’t give me a definitive answer to my questions.

I have an appointment next week with the administration and his teacher to discuss my concerns and expectations from them this year and I hope that the problems I had last year were just a fluke. I would rather not take him out of school if I can avoid it. Homeschooling is a lonely endeavor where I live since we’re not religious. I’m also not the typical homeschooling mom and generally can’t stand the ones who are, so those homeschool support groups aren’t anything that appeal to me or my kids. I don’t particularly WANT my kids in my hair 24/7, but I have no problem taking the plunge if I see the need to do so.