Ty’s School Update
Friday, September 14th, 2007
I interrupt the normally scheduled Frugal Friday post, to bring you the news you have been waiting for with fingers crossed…
I found another school, a Montessori, and today Ty completed his 2nd day there. Of course, before we go into that, maybe I should backtrack a little bit and go into why I pulled Ty out of his other school and what has been going on since then.
I think most of you have already read my previous post about my early concerns about his old school. I spoke with Ty’s other teacher in depth and after talking with her decided that I would give the school a try a bit longer. She really seemed to care and was willing to get both Ty and my needs met.
I was going to speak with the director, but Ty fell sick on our scheduled day so I missed that. However, my very close friend, who was having the same feelings and issues about her son attending the school, spoke with the director and from that meeting I stayed firm on my decision to stay for awhile.
During the time between those discussions and this past Monday, there were small things that didn’t really float my boat, but I was trying to honestly make things work. Then Monday rolled around. Ty was not wanting to go to school again, and I was practically dragging him into the building. As we approached the door I noticed his teacher was standing there holding the door.
“Okay, Mommy. You can leave him here with me. He is too old to walk to class.”
“No, I want to walk him in to his class so I can see the lesson plan for the week.” (They don’t send lesson plans or calendars home to parents; they told us they don’t have time to do that. If we want to know what’s going on, we have to look at the one posted in the classroom. This didn’t really sit well with me.)
Ty grabbed my leg a little tighter. And we started walking back to the classroom.
“Mama. You need to leave your child up front. No more walking the kids back to the classroom,” stated the director as I brushed past her.
I arrived at Ty’s class and stepped just inside the door and looked at the posted schedule. Ty started crying and I looked to his other teacher for help. She stayed over in the corner cutting something and completely ignored that my Ty was not wanting to let me go.
With a heavy heart, I left him there and walked away. As I was about to turn the last of the hallway, I glanced back and saw him standing there just looking at me, while his teacher ignored him and continued to cut that stupid paper. I felt horrible.
The whole morning I went from feeling horrible about leaving him there to anger over the entire situation. I was literally shaking thinking about the entire thing. Finally I decided I was going to pick him up early and talk to the director.
Upon speaking with the director, I became even more agitated. I was surprisingly calm, even though I wanted to both throw up from nerves and scream at her. She gave me quite a workout, running me around with every ridiculous excuse she could muster. I called her on some of her lies, and she tried to sell me what she thought I wanted to hear.
According to her, no other class has ever had parents that wanted to know what their kids were doing while they were there and Ty’s class was the exception. She eventually was going to get a lesson plan out to the parents, just not sure when. If I walked my child to his class so I could see what was going on, I was hindering his growth, disrupting other classes, and being unfair to the parents who follow the rules.
Basically, I am not welcome in my child’s school either before or after class, unless I scheduled a meeting. Artwork goes home at the end of the year and I could see it then. Besides that, I am supposed to just trust that they are educating and handling my child properly because they say they will. Yeah. I don’t think so.
I picked up his school supplies and let them know we would not be returning. She begged me to try a different teacher, which had nothing to do with why we were leaving. His teacher called me at home pleading with me to give her another try. She was disappointed I did not come talk to her. I let her know it wasn’t her, but the administration that made me leave. I felt bad for the teacher, but in good conscience could not send Ty back there.
I called around to some other schools, a lot of them were full. I went and visited another, but there was just too much undirected play and Ty really wanted to have more scheduled time to learn. Then at TKD, I was speaking to another mom of a 4 year old and she suggested the Montessori that her daughter attends.
I went, I saw, I signed him up. It’s a really small school, the administration really seems to care about each child individually and works with the parents. Like the JCC, they allow the parents to volunteer. Ty liked everything especially all the cool learning toys and that he got to go on the playground two times a day!
Yesterday, his first day, he literally skipped into his class and didn’t even hug me goodbye! When I picked him up he was happy and telling me about how much he loved his school and got a sticker for writing all his numbers.
The school, after working with him a bit, moved him up to the advanced class, where he will be with some Kindergarten students, too. He was in his glory to be with the big kids and I couldn’t of been happier. Day number two was much more of the same.
I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I am hoping that the reason we went through all the drama of the last school was to bring us to something better, and I hope that something is this new school.
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