theITbaby

the IT city, the I.T. Baby

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Choosing a new school

We chose a different school for Maggie today. Yesterday in a bit of verbal abilities heretofore unknown she said she was miserable at her current school, but liked the teacher. This isn’t why we chose a new one, but it helped the decision out today.

From what I’ve seen that is probably the case. The making her miserable part. It’s a riot at her entire school. I don’t really recall much of the public education system from when I was her age but it was not this level of constant barrage. Then again maybe I’m only seeing loading and unloading and occasionally lunch.

Not sure if it’s the teaching style, the kids, no, it’s the kids there. I’m not going to bash on them, just say that we’ve got the perfect storm to make my kid miserable.

The management also has the perfect ability to take any piece of paperwork I give them and lose it multiple times. So many times the teacher went down with a copy she had made of what she turned in for me and yelled at them at one point that they could not keep wasting people’s time.

Multiple lockdowns where I informed the teachers, and in one case the principal, of why they were locked down (they evidently never know).

Today I was picking Maggie up after school. The doors weren’t unlocked at the right time, there was a line. I heard about twenty gunshots in a row. That’s what the kids get to listen to at recess quite often as the place is near a firing range. Not a normal firing range, but one that’s a lot of people firing all at the exact same time. Dress rehearsal?

Maggie’s learned a lot. The prospect of getting out of this school seemed at one point something I was not interested in but seeing a different school where the kids weren’t so… I’m guessing the phrase I’m sort of looking for is dropped off  to childcare as opposed to put in to learn.

Maybe that’s not it. Maybe I’m getting the wrong impression. Maybe I’m letting my homeschooled biases rule me. Maybe my kid getting kicked out of the school 11 times in under two years because she can’t stand to be around a couple of those kids, gets overly upset, and she loves EVERYONE but them in that situation is grating on me.

I’ve been a bit silent mentally this past week. The seven out of eight days of not fighting have given me pause to think as opposed to react. I’m not sure I’m thinking for the future or reacting to the not fighting but it’s both relaxing and terrifying.

We’ve got this very happy kid, and then we’ve got this kid who gets kicked out of school, who is terrified of going to sleep maybe because when she wakes up she’s going back to school. I don’t know.

It’s been a trying time. We’ve paid out of pocket for a behavioral therapist because damned if Metro has been able to get one to us (we put in paperwork in November I guess. Appointment was for two weeks ago in Feb and we got bumped out a month to March.)

Eh, we’ll see. Maybe I’m laying blame toward metro because I can’t parent real good. Maybe it’s the easiest target and when she gets to this new place I’ll be faced with the realization that it was foolish to blame a system just because it was in front of me.

Paul King

Paul King lives in Nashville Tennessee with his wife, two daughters and cats. He writes for Pocketables, theITBaby, and is an IT consultant along with doing tech support for a film production company.