Tick Tick Tick

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.

-H.L. Mencken

Clem didn't seem as happy as usual when I picked her up, but she wouldn't say what had gone wrong.

At our homeschool Park Day (can't stay away) a friend asked her if school was thumbs up, thumbs in the middle or thumbs down. Clem said, "Thumbs up! But," she racheted her thumb down, "ticking down every day. The teachers act nice on the first day and then they just get meaner and meaner." Yesterday she was having trouble with some sticky, gloopy crayons and couldn't color neatly. Ms. A said, "Are you going to color like a kindergartener, or like a first grader?" Then today she said "push your chair in" in a "harsh voice" and snapped at a boy to "get over here." Clem prefers Ms. Park, whose class they visit to hear stories.

I perked up at this.

Wow!
Reading?
At school?

So far, there hadn't been any that I had heard of.

Ms. Park read Clifford's Family to them. Clifford. And then they watched videos The Rainbow Fish and Dazzle the Dinosaur. I started to get a sinking feeling in my heart. This class is aimed at least two years below Clem's level.

Evelyn's day was an enthusiastic "good!" down from "grrrreat!" yesterday. But, she said, "as each day goes by I'm getting more excited to do some reading and math."

It is the third day of school and all she has read is "I am extraordinary." She reports that the crafts are fun, but not all to her taste. She doesn't enjoy self-portraiture, for instance, and finished hers quickly. She had to sit bored for a long time while other kids finished their pictures.

Couldn't you read while waiting?
There aren't any books in the class.
I thought Ms. Q had a little library.
They are all baby books. The best book there is Hooway for Wodney.
Aren't there any chapter books?
I didn't see any.

Mission for next week (it will have to be done by Mike since I won't be here) is to get permission for Evelyn to read books from home after she finishes her work. She was so starved for reading time that she read all evening after we got back from Park Day.

I get that it is hard to accomplish much on these minimum days, and maybe it seems pointless to the teachers because their classes are likely to get shuffled. But just reading a quality book out loud to the class seems a better use of the kids' time than busywork crafts and videos. Or what about doing some hands-on exploration that you don't have time for when you get into the swing of marching through the curriculum?

I'll have to take stock when Greta and I return from the U.K. and France on the 13th. Maybe this is a two-week, rather than a 3-month experiment. On the other hand, while this hasn't necessarily been great for Ev and Clem, it has been good for me.

I get to be hot-cocoa-and-kisses mom in the morning and so-happy-to-see-you-tell-me-all-about-your-day mom in the afternoon. The relief from drudgery has been great, too. The house stays clean during the day. We arrived home and
everything was neat and tidy. Friends were due to arrive, so I set about making beds, and while I was distracted the baby found a bowl of instant oatmeal that never got cooked and proceeded to play Hansel and Greta with it. The trail went into the guest room where I was making beds, out through the addition and around the couch, through the kitchen, past the front door, down the hall, into the bathroom, and then into Evelyn and Clementine's room where the empty bowl was abandoned. That was just one child in five minutes. Multiply by 3 and contemplate results after 7 hours. Day after day after day.