Ok, I'll admit that I never wanted to have a child in school, so maybe my perspective is skewed, but my kid's school is really ticking me off.
First it was them giving me a hard time about keeping her home when she is sick. My daughter has HIV and I told them when I enrolled her that I would be keeping her home whenever I felt it was appropriate for her health, regardless of what their guidelines are. She has been in school for 2 months and has missed 3 1/2 days. I always call to let them know and provide a doctor's note, if appropriate, but they are telling me that her attendance is extremely important for their state funding. Excuse me, I thought her attendance was extremely important for her own education!
Then it was the nurse coming into the class with information about the meningitis vaccine and telling the kids to come home and tell their parents they needed to get the shot at school because if they didn't, THEY COULD GET MENINGITIS AND DIE! WITHING 24 HOURS EVEN! THAT'S HOW FAST MENINGITIS CAN KILL YOU! Yeah, this is the last thing that my daughter, who watched her parents die of AIDS and knows she has a possibly fatal disease, needs to hear. She cried for hours, even after I assured her that she has ALREADY had this vaccine. What's with the frickin' scare tactics?
Today she comes home with a note from the teacher "reminding" me that I haven't sent in money for the book fair books my daughter wants. They took the kids to the book fair last week and made them each choose four books to put on their "wish list." The wish list was accompanied with a really sappy, guilt-inducing letter about how the child would really enjoy adding these books to her library and look at the low low prices at the book fair! Ok, my kid has her own library card and goes to library every week. She can't even read the level of books that she had on her list (she's an English language learner) and when I asked her what the books were about, she had no idea and said her teacher said each kid had to pick four books for their wish list. She wrote down what her friends wrote down. (One was a good book, Bridge to Terabithia, but I don't think the subject matter is appropriate for my particular child) and the rest were fluff books. I explained to my daughter that she can get any of these books at the library and that she can buy new books for herself at the bookstore with the gift card her grandmother sends EVERY MONTH and that we don't need to buy book fair books just because the school is having a book fair (and honestly, right now we can't even afford the $24 that her four books would cost). So the letter the teacher sent home to me reminded me that "Parents who care have children who read."
I know that all these things are targeted at the parents who don't really give a cr*p, and that some of them need prodding from the school to make sure their kid shows up, gets healthcare, or reads, but I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PARENTS. And I'm kinda tired of how intrusive the school is being.
Sorry, rant over.
dm
First it was them giving me a hard time about keeping her home when she is sick. My daughter has HIV and I told them when I enrolled her that I would be keeping her home whenever I felt it was appropriate for her health, regardless of what their guidelines are. She has been in school for 2 months and has missed 3 1/2 days. I always call to let them know and provide a doctor's note, if appropriate, but they are telling me that her attendance is extremely important for their state funding. Excuse me, I thought her attendance was extremely important for her own education!
Then it was the nurse coming into the class with information about the meningitis vaccine and telling the kids to come home and tell their parents they needed to get the shot at school because if they didn't, THEY COULD GET MENINGITIS AND DIE! WITHING 24 HOURS EVEN! THAT'S HOW FAST MENINGITIS CAN KILL YOU! Yeah, this is the last thing that my daughter, who watched her parents die of AIDS and knows she has a possibly fatal disease, needs to hear. She cried for hours, even after I assured her that she has ALREADY had this vaccine. What's with the frickin' scare tactics?
Today she comes home with a note from the teacher "reminding" me that I haven't sent in money for the book fair books my daughter wants. They took the kids to the book fair last week and made them each choose four books to put on their "wish list." The wish list was accompanied with a really sappy, guilt-inducing letter about how the child would really enjoy adding these books to her library and look at the low low prices at the book fair! Ok, my kid has her own library card and goes to library every week. She can't even read the level of books that she had on her list (she's an English language learner) and when I asked her what the books were about, she had no idea and said her teacher said each kid had to pick four books for their wish list. She wrote down what her friends wrote down. (One was a good book, Bridge to Terabithia, but I don't think the subject matter is appropriate for my particular child) and the rest were fluff books. I explained to my daughter that she can get any of these books at the library and that she can buy new books for herself at the bookstore with the gift card her grandmother sends EVERY MONTH and that we don't need to buy book fair books just because the school is having a book fair (and honestly, right now we can't even afford the $24 that her four books would cost). So the letter the teacher sent home to me reminded me that "Parents who care have children who read."
I know that all these things are targeted at the parents who don't really give a cr*p, and that some of them need prodding from the school to make sure their kid shows up, gets healthcare, or reads, but I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PARENTS. And I'm kinda tired of how intrusive the school is being.
Sorry, rant over.
dm
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