Friday

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." -Albert Einstein

I saw this on another blog here and they said it speaks to them like the education system. It has the same meaning for me. I have had my own struggles with my daughters education and her rights. As a child I was stuck in an alternative school (children that are in danger) not because I misbehaved but because I had gotten my head shaved and had a major surgery (One required the other.) I was the one who was treated with kid gloves when all I needed was a teacher that could do their job not stuck in a room by myself with a load of work. Children need to be taught not handed paperwork to do. I get the whole Teachers are in high demand and under paid. I get that... But dealing with the princess and her school(s) I have began my own struggles with just simply getting what we pay for. The school is more focused on who pays taxes (I live in a different county than the school so they don't collect taxes from me), BUT her being a Military Child brought in extra money to the school as I am sure there were moneys set aside for IEP which what do you know they put her in! Kindergarten year I fought with the school over speech problems. Yeah my little girl has speech she is missing most of her teeth. They basically told me without proper speech she can't learn to read which by the way she was supposed to learn in the non mandatory Pre K program that I would have to pay for. So they would just hold her back, several security issues coming out of this public school that mostly military families attended btw.. They weren't at all Military friendly IMO. Then 1st grade year. I liked the teacher at first she had an impressive resume but I noticed the princess wasn't learning anything. she constantly had work sheets after worksheets... (Yes they do ask for money for paper!) They gave the princess a test that she would have to read all by herself and no help at all from teachers... she failed. DUH of course she can't READ! Still in speech (showing improvement) they wanted to submit her to more testing. I was apprehensive and started doing my own research. I started asking my own questions. During one of the very few Parent Teacher Conferences the teacher was concerned about how The princess was coloring. The princess really doesn't color that often. She doesn't really draw either. She goes through phases and spurts. Well we live in Alabama and we see a lot of Tornado's which we didn't really see in our former home. So the princess became paranoid of Tornado's and House Fires so that's what she would draw .. black swirly clouds... the teacher didn't approve. WHO the CRAP are you to not approve of whatever creativity my daughter has or hasn't gotten! She only had spelling homework every week every day... We asked where is the math etc? Teacher said no worries she is doing it in class. After winter break rolls around and the teacher sends home an email saying that she was going to put the princess on a retention list when she sent out the progress report the next day.  she told me not to mention anything to the princess about it. Again WHO THE CRAP ARE YOU LADY? I wasn't appreciative and if there were signs of trouble shouldn't we have had more than one or two Parent Teacher Conferences the only conferences we had were regarding speech. Both my husband and I were blind sided by the school and had to endure several more incidents from the staff that were just completely uncalled for. I talked to some people that were not associated with the school system or the military I got prices for testing etc.. After much pushing I agreed to have her tested for learning disabilities. Her biological father and I both have them so I knew it was a possibility but I didn't want her labeled if she was "fine". I pushed the superintendent and the principle to not retain her and I told them I would fight it or pull her out all together. I did fight it until I just prayed about it and realized if the idiot teacher with the beautiful resume didn't give her the building blocks to succeed in second grade maybe retention was for the best. I had very grown up talks with Skylar during this time and at the time she thought it was also a good idea to do a "do over". My husband was retiring from the military and we really had no idea where our lives were headed and big uncertainty. I didn't need to put this on my daughter and her education as well. I decided that we would home school during the summer and see if things improved and have her retested in the Fall. The principle and superintendent told me I would be in the teacher picking process for the coming year and that the superintendent would personally handle it as well as put a friend of Skylar's in her class to avoid the social stigma. Fall came and we were over looked Go figure but after a rocky start things are going better where she currently is. She is almost caught up with the second graders and confidently learning finally.

After so much tension on my husband and I arguing about the future of our princess when in a time when we didn't need the stress we are now working together to give her the best education.

Last month I watched Waiting on Superman. It explained a lot about why this is happening in our school systems and how our children are being left behind with very few life boats to save them (reminds me of the Titanic). Its an awesome movie if you would like to sit down and watch it. I encourage you to do so..