School Dazed

First Born Grandson starts pre-school tomorrow. Today we are setting schedules. Who picks up, who drops off. He also has swimming lessons and kinder music. He is very excited. His mom is very excited. 

Papa & 'Bika have been waiting for Kaden to "grow up" enough to be able to go on an extended camping trip which we had anticipated to be this October. We are being "allowed" to bring FBG with us but his mother is stressed because she must pay for pre-school whether or not he goes, plus he is missing those precious days of schooling.

Yes, those of you who know me, the lip is curled, the sneer is locked in. I literally gag at the thought of bells ringing, schedules of convenience and me "having" to be a part of it. I despise the school systems of today. Little regard for actual education, windows of opportunity for individual growth slammed shut, teaching a child what to learn not how to learn.

"So," Eldest shoots back at me, "whats the alternative? Where's the Montessori school you were going to start? He needs structure, he needs an education!"

I am at a loss. The five year plan was long ago abandoned. We were supposed to have had a school by now. I was supposed to have a teaching certificate. Life happens, school didn't happen, I went in another direction and now my FBG is going into "the system." Bleeeck. Training kids to become factory workers. Teaching them whatever they want them to learn. I read stories like the one about that teacher out in Jewell using his class to push his own political agenda and it makes me nauseous. 

While I know so many people who are teachers who are good, good people I know just as many who have no right having any influence on any child and yet once they have tenure there is no way to get them out unless they are actually caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and just pray to God your kid isn't the cookie jar.

Second Born Grandson is in a Montessori school up in north Washington. I am so happy about that. Lot of parent involvement, the curriculum is child driven not state mandate driven. Policies are not adopted to keep people in a job. So very different than "public" school.

While many have said that the educational system cannot be changed from without, it can only be changed from within, that was one fight I dropped out of a long, long time ago. Way too much is vested in the travesty of public education for the government to give up and admit they haven't a clue on how to make it work. Or, maybe it is working to a tee for them? They are getting obedient soldiers and factory workers, service workers, and people who will vote however they are told to. People easily swayed by charisma without learning a lick of logical thinking or common sense. 

The travesty of this last week, when institutes of higher learning and law institutes didn't have the common sense to question what the heck a school newspaper was doing being published and already available on the first day of school, has frightened me as to the direction that education overall is going. I don't want any of my grandchildren to be a part of it. Now, to act on what to do about it.

Or ... Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised and it will be completely different than when I or my children were in school. sigh.