More Expensive Class Field Trip Drama

And so the drama continues…

It seems this drama is going to continue – at least a few more days.

I’ve just spoken with the superintendent and let him know my position, what I did and why I did it.  He asked if I’d taken it up with the school that week – which honestly, I had not.  I was more wrapped up into being “ultra sensitive” as the principal has called me before (but that’s another story), that I was more involved in keeping my kids from feeling like such outcasts.

Throughout the year, notes were not an issue.  Who knew they’d become such an issue over this.  Of course they know a doctors note can only be produced for one child because he was sent home from school with pinkeye and I took him to the doctor, got a script and he was better the next day – so that wouldn’t count.

I made the decision I did, not to abide by any local policy of “sending my kids to school”, not to make waves, but to show my kids that their feelings are more important to me then following some local political garbage.  As I stated before, had this been a normal school week with a curriculum that consisted of something more then photocopied puzzles, my view and action would have been much different.

In my discussions with the superintendent, I realized he wasn’t even aware the school had completed their finals prior to the class trip.  Amazing at just how out of touch one can be, isn’t it?

After expressing my disappointment with the school, their policy and the treatment of those students more economically challenged, he boasted at how our school received some of the highest IStep scores in the state and had received numerous awards for academics.

Of course I had to let him know that while that is all great and good – there are some aspects of school that need to be rediscovered.  The part about letting kids know they are more important than a grade on a sheet of paper that brings more money into the district.

I’m very disappointed in what my own alma mater has become.  In a time when gays can marry and children in wheelchairs must be allowed to run track I would think children of financially struggling families wouldn’t be made to feel as their they are a lone cyclops – especially in the educational program that’s supposed to be assisting in the adult the child is to become.

While I may not agree with incidences like Columbine, I can certainly understand how they can happen.

update:  Someone pointed out to me how wrong my reference to Columbine might be.  Please understand that having lost a brother to the actions of a bully, I can understand the hurt and rage – where it comes from.  I see how much children who have loving parents suffer – I can’t imagine how those kids without caring and supportive families must feel.  That’s all I’m saying.  When schools punish good kids for being honest – what’s that saying to kids – encouraging bad behavior?