Thursday, September 11, 2008

1 week in!

I sent the letter to the principle. Today she phoned me to ask me to attend a mediation with her and the teacher in question, I refused. The teacher tried to deny saying the things in the letter to my daughter .... then I said that they were said IN MY PRESENCE. So clearly if my daughter said that her teacher was saying unreasonable, cruel, damaging things it's up for debate, but since I was the witness it makes debating hard. What a bunch of nastiness!!!
She stated that she thought the bullying had been dealt with. I stated that I didn't feel the same way. She questioned my opinion of the punishment dealt to the girls when they left the school (they left the school one lunch time and went to one of their houses. The mother of the child whose house it was wat there! She gave them fried chicken from a well known multinational company, black fizzy poison, from another similr company, sent them to play in a neighbours back yard [through a hole in the fence of their flats] and then told them to go back to school. They were caught re-entering the school) and I stated that whilst schools feel they have no alternative but to punish, I don't feel that my child deserved punishment because it doesn't get to the rot of the problem and PREVENT further happenings, it merely shames them and humiliates them (they were sent to yr 3 classes for a day - they're in yr 5 - shame shame shame)
The principle claims that she intends to put me in to the Office of the Board Of Studies if I'm not registered for homeschooling shortly. But according to articles here .............
they OBoS is unable to persue it to her satisfaction. I have yet to make a decision about registering. I am leaning towards NON registration as I find their beurocratic shit over controlling and unneccessary. I am persuing a learning enabling lifestyle in our home, so what business is it of theirs????? My child is likely to learn more at home than most of the kids at the school, and that's based on ONE WEEKS WORTH OF HOMELEARNING!
She has soaked up so much about monkeys from a David Attenborough doco, tried an experiment with bugs in the garden, attempted and succeeded at Sudoku of varying levels, started a blog, learnt about South American life (from clothing and animals to food - which she has yet to cook), discussed the purpose of technology in our home, learnt new words AND WAS INTERESTED IN THEM, and the list goes ON AND ON AND ON, and she hasn't even finished the list!
I intend to include more of her interests and desires in the next weeks programme to incorporate more unlearning and schooling in the transition. But I also want to add a few things that might catch her interest unlke the school has managed to. History, art, and reading wise.
Anyways. On to lighter and more upbeat happenings! Stylish is doing well at home! She is following the list of ideas I made up for her to the letter, but she hasn't read the bit about choosing 3 out of 5 activities so she's trying to complete them all. I'm going to wait until the end of the week and then tell her about that because I think that reading instructions is a rather crucial life lesson!

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