enjoyed reading this post...I will be starting to homeschool my grandson from this year he has been in PS until now..
Kindergarten and 1st grade were a wonderful experiance for him and he loved school, he hated holidays and was always bored, unfortunately he had to move to a new school last fall and it has been the worst experience he could have ever had.
He has changed from an avid reader and grade A student to one who has been told he must repeat 2nd grade next year,,,why? because he refused to join a gang in his new elementary school resulting in him being bullied everyday all this year. He has been bitten, punched, kicked, scratched, pinched (until he bled), threatened and called everything you could think of, and all this from 8 yr olds
The school was made aware of this and the response we got was ' we are really sorry this is happening but we cant do anything, unless we actually see it happening, and then all we can do is send the offender to the principle for a talk about his/her behaviour ( yes girls were involved too ).meanwhile my grandson is coming home covered in bruises everyday, often with reports from the school nurse, he is unable to concentrate on his lessons because he is worried about what they are going to do to him, and the bullying continues in class too, ( throwing things at him, tripping him up poking him with pencils, one of which broke and we had to remove the lead from his arm) and if he asks them to stop he gets into trouble for talking in class.
The school has let him down really badly this year has given no support to help him catch up , even though we asked them to, they only hold catch up lessons for grade 3 and above, they told me I would have to teach him at home and that it was up to me to get his grades up ????? but they couldnt let me have the books I would need and wouldnt tell me what curriculum he was doing.Summer School was mentioned back in Feb but we have heard nothing about it since, although we have been asking his teacher if he would need to go, and when we got his final report last friday all it said was Academic Retention, Summer school not an option.
They also added that in their opinion they think he is ADHD and needs professional advice, he isn't ,yes he sometimes cant keep his mind on what he is supposed to be doing and will occasionally let his mind wander instead of doing what he should be and he hates sitting still for too long.He has been tested and we were told that he is a bright but bored child, the school was informed and the reply.....well he should be able to keep up easily then, so why isnt he?
and the real reason he can't concentrate...he's scared. he has admitted that he has sometimes deliberately got into trouble just before recess...so that he will be kept in and not have to find out what they were going to do to him.
I have tried all year to help him without the necessary tools to do so and no help from the school, but he has hated school so much this year that we now have tantrums even trying to get homework done, so trying to do extra has been really hard on all of us. We have wanted to take him out of school since last November but circumstances meant that we couldnt, so, finally the horror is over for him,I am taking his teachers advice and I will be teaching him at home, the difference is that this time i know what the curriculum is and I will have the tools I need to do it.
In the last few days he has changed back into the loving little boy he always has been, and I actually saw him pick up a book to read last night,he would never have done that last week,he's starting to ask questions again, wanting to know how things work etc what the planets are and who named them and the most recent one 'why did they call it that?', he's always been a very curious child and has to have a good explanation for everything or he's not satisfied.
Until this year I had no problems with the PS system, he was doing well and had many friends, now,I don't think he will go back to PS and if bullying is part of socialisation for young children then I choose that he misses that part of it. ( and so does he )