Struggles with the school system

I never liked school as a kid. I was just trying to get through it so I didn't have to go back. Once I was out, I never wanted to go back. I figured my struggle with the entire school system was over. However, I didn't factor in when I had children and the fact that I would enter an entirely new struggle.

I was in school a long time ago, if I'm being honest. I was in the class which was the last ones to have grade 13. I never really fit in when I was in school. Like most people, unfortunately, I was always picked on. And I barely felt like I was learning anything. You know how it is. You learn things to pass a test and then you forget it right after. Rarely do they teach actual life skills that you actually need and really use. I figured that once I was out of school, that my struggle with the school system would be over.

However, now I have entered into my struggle of having children. My problems with the public school system started last year, when my daughter was in kindergarten. She didn't go to junior kindergarten due to covid. I was trying to avoid doing online school, as I knew that she wasn't going to learn anything that way. My frustration started when they said that she was behind. I didn't understand how she was behind when she had only been in school for a few months. She is a very shy child until she gets use to you. So I knew they weren't totally right. The things that they were saying she didn't know, I knew that she knew. Such as her alphabet and identifying different words.

They suggested a special program for half the year to help her catch up. I went along with it, and she did well there. My other struggle though was that they would send her home sick almost every other week. How can you tell me that she is behind, but then send her home all the time? Every time she would cough, or a runny nose at all, they would send her home. It was very frustrating. Of course, any time she was out of school, she wouldn't be sick anymore.

Then grade 1 happened. Her teacher seemed to be great, and didn't send her home sick for every cough. Of course, midway through the year, the struggle started again of her being behind. Once again I was in the struggle.

My large problem this year had been that her class had a lice outbreak. I know, bad, but not life-threatening. They told me that I needed to have a doctor's note to clear her to return to school. Which I thought was a crazy thought. It wasn't like anyone ever died from getting lice.

Her school brought me so much stress. I just felt like she wasn't getting a good education, and that the school system was failing her. So we moved. Her father and I decided to live together. Being that he lived in a different city, we decided as a family to move to live with him. I still want to have hope that it will get better. That she will get a better education here in a smaller town.

However, I am not off to a good start. To begin with, they are telling me that she has to go to school, where she has to take a bus. Even though there is a school down the street from our house. In trying to do the registration, I only came into struggles. I had to do it online. Once I did, I had to wait a week before anyone even got back to me. Now I need to go to show them all these documents before they even consider letting her go to school. And they had a lot of questions about her father, and needed a letter to say she could go to school.

They say that children have to go to school. But then why do you make it so difficult in order to send them? It doesn't make any sense to me. She is only in grade 1 and the school system has already brought me so much stress. I have considered homeschooling her, however that worries me as well. I never said that I was a teacher, or know how to teach anyone. So what do I do? Why do we have a school system that is so faulty? It should be easier to have a system that actually teaches our children.

To be honest, I am not even sure about the answer. All I know is that our school system is not in the best place to teach our children. There has to be a better system that will be better for our children.

If anyone does homeschool their kids, or has a system that they like, please comment and share your thoughts.

-T