I'm Finished!

So, I'm done. I've had it. I'm ticked off and ready to vent to anyone about it. The school is out.

We're pulling our kids sometime in the next couple weeks, maybe as soon as Thursday, and they will start at a new Montessori school where the kids' old teachers are now working. The situation at school has progressively gotten worse and worse, and now I've been informed that Luke's disastrous classroom is being combined with Evie's calm, organized, productive classroom because six more kids dropped out today. Sadly, this is somewhat good news because now there are fewer kids to divide the teacher's attention. In the way of bad news, now all the primary aged kids will be subject to the bad behavior of a few kids and the poor classroom management skills of the teachers that are supposedly "running" the classroom. Frankly, the kids are running the classroom according to what I've observed.

When I dropped Evie off this morning in her quiet classroom, I let her continue eating her breakfast in her room - blatantly disobeying the "no breakfast rule" as well as the "drop your kid at the door rule". I took her into the classroom and dropped her lunch in the fridge. As I was doing so the receptionist (who was watching her class for some reason - I don't even know if she is child care trained) told me that now I have to check in Evie by signing a sign in sheet at the door even though the school requires us to check in the kids on the computer at the entrance. Annoyed, I said, "Why?" in a flat, even, pissed voice. The poor receptionist replied something along the lines of having the parents get more face to face interaction with the teachers. I scoffed at her reasoning and said, "That doesn't make any sense. I'm not even allowed in the room usually. I have to drop my kid at the door and I'm not allowed to walk her in here. I only did that today because I let her bring her breakfast in, even though I'm not supposed to do that either." Dim-witted receptionist (DWR) replied, "You're not allowed in the classroom?" Me now highly annoyed, "No. I'm not. I have to drop my kid off at the door and leave without entering the classroom. So exactly what kind of parent-teacher interaction are you looking for if I can't even come in the classroom generally?" DWR - "Oh, um, well, I don't know what . . . um, hmm." Me, "That's fine. Let me just sign it."

I give Evie a hug and leave to take Luke to his room where I run into another teacher that the kids have had in the past and I say, "Hey, what is the deal with two sign in sheets?" She gives me the same line on parent-teacher interaction. I reply with the whole deal about not being allowed in the classrooms and she says, "Really, it is because some parents drop off their kids and the kids never actually get into the classroom so this makes the parents let the teachers know that their kid is there so the kid isn't just wandering around the hall without being in a classroom."

Still generally pissed off, I leave in a huff, drop Luke off in his classroom (which looks like the first day of Daddy Daycare - kids running around, screaming, talking, chasing, not working - not a single kid is working, reading a book, or coloring a picture). I'm effing furious! I hug Luke and take off. He's still trying to take in the entire scene - it's like he doesn't even know what to do or where to go. I told him to get some work, but everyone else was having a grand time playing so I'm sure that is what he did. I sign him in at the door, then sign both in at the computer on my way out. I hate redundancy. What is the effin' point? (By the way, this double sign in thing wouldn't normally piss me off, but it was just the thing to set me off today on top of everything else).

All this is on top of the fact that Luke is now exhibiting certain behavioral issues that we've never seen before. I'm not proud of this, but Luke actually bit his sister on the hand Friday night and then he bit his good friend Maddie on the hand Saturday night. I gave him a blistering talking to, made him apologize to Evie and kiss her boo-boo, put him in time out, and sent him to bed without a book or song Friday night. Saturday night after he bit his friend Maddie, I gave him a spanking (because I told him Friday that he would get a spanking if he ever bit anyone again), made him apologize to Maddie and Maddie's parents, and he got one hell of a talking to . . . again. WTF?! He has never bitten anyone that I recall, even when he was in the biting age (18 months). Now, suddenly, he is biting people? Where is this coming from.

On Saturday night, I had Maddie and her parents over and I was explaining about how Luke had bitten Evie the night before and how I had punished him and threatened him about ever biting someone again. Maddie's parents listened and told me that other good kids are having new behavioral problems since the two primary classes merged. Add my kid to the list, I guess because not 20 minutes later he bit Maddie as described above. I am sick about this. He isn't a bad kid and I don't want him to become one. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm more than willing to acknowledge my kid's deficiencies and behavior problems (e.g. crying at soccer, throwing a fit so he doesn't have to do something, etc.), so I don't want you to think I'm being unrealistic about this situation. Neither of my kids is perfect. Nonetheless, I have no reason to believe Luke is learning or picking up biting anywhere other than school. I'm furious!

So, this morning was all I could take. I called Chuck and told him what was going on and how mad I am about it. He left work, drove downtown and stopped at the school to see whether the kids were doing work around 9:45. He said that five kids had work out, but the rest were playing and talking in little groups. Remember, Evie's class is calm, quiet, productive, and set off by the classical music playing in the background as the kid's little brains soak up their education. he visited some other schools and went back around 11:15 to see if the status had changed in Luke's room -- it was the same. Moreover, he watched the one girl with serious issues (that I mentioned in my earlier post) actually hit another little girl during the span of time that he was there. She poses a threat of physical and mental harm to my son, and will soon pose the same threat to my daughter when the classes merge. I can't keep my kids there in good conscience, and luckily, we have an alternative available to us.

We confirmed that there is room for both of the kids at a different school and we plan to move them this month. The only thing stopping me is the fact that we have paid our tuition in full for this month. The new school is cheaper and better organized. The teachers will keep the kids in line and devote themselves to making my kids the best little people they can be. I will be so relieved when they get there. The only problem is that George needs a school. They will have to be at two different schools, but Chuck and I are resigned to that fact.

The biggest sadness we are facing is leaving our friends behind at the old school. Both are kids have been there since they were 6 weeks old. They know nothing else and have always been friends with sweet Savannah and Maddie. We hate to leave, knowing that we will be disrupting that wonderful friendship, but it is the decision we've had to make. Luckily, there will be plenty of kids at the new school that were in Evie and Luke's classes at the old school and we know, without a doubt, that Savannah, Luke, and Maddie will remain friends because their parents are such good friends to us.

Enough of my rant.