The other day I posted about how my son, almost age 8, is having problems at school. More and more I’m starting to think the school is making the problems worse and the more I’m thinking about homeschooling (see my article about Homeschool vs Public School).
Earlier last week my son was refusing to do his work again. He ended up staying after school to finish it up. No problem, and that’s not a bad solution. Since once of his issues is wanting to be independent, I’ve been letting him walk home (we live less than a mile from the school in a very small town). The school knows this and called me to let me know he’d be late. 20 minutes after school got out they called again and said he was on his way. Again, no problem.
A few days later I went and picked up the little one from school and came home expecting my son to walk. I came home to a message on my phone stating I needed to come pick him up and they weren’t letting him walk. Why? What happened? I called back noting school had only been out less than 10 minutes, and asked why I needed to come get him. Their answer was “we don’t want him walking alone”. Again I asked “why?”. Same response.
When I got back to the school, he seemed to be fine. I expected him to at least be in a bad mood, maybe saying he didn’t want to go home. But that wasn’t the case. He seemed happy to see me and no arguments on getting in the car. If he had done something terrible, why weren’t they telling me? And why was that day different from earlier in the week?
I just don’t understand why they are trying to make this worse by taking away something that gives him the independence he’s craving. We all know that sometimes kids want to be more independent than they can be, but walking home? Why not? He knows it’s something he can do on his own (and yes, he comes straight home), so why are they taking that away from him?
This isn’t the only problem I seem to be having with the school. Yes I know my son is difficult and I’m not about to let him run the show. But I feel like they are not listening to me when I give suggestions (See my thoughts on Indigo Children, regardless what your religious beliefs are). Not only are they not listening to me, but they aren’t him either. It’s amazing how bright this kid is and how many good ideas he has, but it’s all falling on deaf ears and getting worse. The more they take away the worse it all gets, and I just want to scream.
Thanks for letting me vent. I know you homeschooling moms will understand completely.
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