Another Phase Passes

This is the last Friday that my youngest son will have to be free before starting school. I am spending the day with him, for me to enjoy the time more so than he.

Last night we had gone up to the Elementary school to meet both his and my middle son's teachers for this year. The youngest seems pretty excited to start, though, I am sure that will change when he realizes we will be leaving him there, and not just hanging around. The oldest son went with, and was able to see some of his teachers from his younger years. Of course the usual comments about how big he has gotten were said.

Though this is a bit saddening time for me... I get a bit sentimental thinking about my kids getting older, and moving forward in their education.... that I know they will get to that stage when they will no longer feel the need to come to us for knowledge and answers. So I was feeling a bit... sorta, ehhh... I should provide a bit of back story....

Shortly after the end of the last school year (meaning early June) is when we had registered our youngest for Kindergarten at the school. At the time, his Immunization record was lacking his next series of shots to enable him to start this fall. No problem. We would get him in to the Dr. over the summer and get it completed. The school office went ahead and kept his file (the paperwork we filled out) and informed us they would start his process, and for us to just bring the updated record at the 'Meet the Teacher' night, they would add it to his file, and he would be able to start. No other contact was received from the school or the district office. Last night, we head over to the little board that had the K-grade teachers listed, with the students per classroom, searching for David's (my youngest). You would think it would be easy, considering our last name is Smith, but out of 5-6 classes, no Smiths were listed ANYWHERE.

Hmmm, that's weird. Well, maybe because they didn't have his immuno record updated yet. So over to the office we go, wait in line (behind several adults that didn't speak English) to be told, for starters, that David was not even entered into the system since his FULL file was not there (lacked immuno record). We explained what THEY had told us to do 3 months ago, and that if that was the issue, why were we not contacted - even as a reminder to provide the updated records by a certain time, so that this all could be avoided. Of course, they have no idea. Then, they can't  even locate his file that has the paperwork in it already. We overhear them asking each other, "Oh, have you seen this (name) person's file?" with the inevitable denial, because why would one Anglo name stick out from all the mexican names...especially one such as SMITH.

As those of you know me, I get impatient when it comes to dealing with stupid people. But I had been biting my tongue, letting the Wife do the talking. They made a copy of the immuno record for his file (whenever they find it). My Wife asks about since they had the info now, what class/teacher was he being assigned to for the year. In a non-caring way, the lady says,"Oh, we can't assign him to a teacher. Only the Principal can do that, and she is not here. They will have to do that later." Wife: "Well, what is the purpose of telling us to bring this document this night, if we are not able to meet his teacher as well?" Lady: "Oh, I don't know, but we can't assign him. Only the Principal can do that. He'll have to come Monday and find out where to go."

Note: One reason we had wanted to meet his teacher, is to explain how he is to be picked up from school. My In-laws usually do it, and we wanted to make sure she knew that they could not come to the classroom to pick him up, since it would be difficult with my FIL having Parkinson's, etc. So, defeats the purpose if they don't let us meet his teacher on Meet the Teacher night.

My patience was at its end. Raising my voice (which, might I add, I do VERY WELL) I inquired "So, not only can you not find his file, which we were told he would be int he system. You have the paperwork you require, that we were told to bring tonight - not anytime earlier this summer. We have followed YOUR instructions, and yet you not only do not have him in your system, assigned to a teacher/class, but you are telling me that *I* have to take time out my day additionally next week to come here to assure that he is assigned to a teacher, and to meet them." Here she nods at me, and starts to mutter about only the Principal - I interrupt in an even louder voice  - "This is nothing but a clusterfuck. I expected nothing better from this school." Then turned and walked out the office door.

Within 5 seconds of thought, I realized I shouldn't have used that language (kids all around) but I was pissed. I knew the Wife would not be happy either. I stood there talking just loud enough, so passing parents would hear, about how the administration has always been screwed up in dealing with regular White people, because we are the damn minority. Yeah, I got quite a few mad glances from all the mexican parents, and the blacks. Fuck them.

The Wife comes out of the office, with some lady (an Anglo - wow!) who is telling her something. As she walks away, the Wife says let's go meet the other son's teacher, and as we walked to the other side of the school, I asked about what that was about. It turns out that my statement was heard in a backroom of the office, and this lady was going to make an effort to locate the Principal (who was on campus) and get our son assigned ASAP. I wasn't holding my breath.

We met the other son's teacher, who evidently was new to the school, so I have nothing to say bad about him. At least he is white, and doesn't appear to have to use his class as an ESL (English Second Language) room. On our way back across campus, we stopped and talked a few to some of the kids' past teachers that we liked. As we neared the office, The one lady approached us to say that David had been assigned to such-n-such teacher, and we could just tell the teacher he was a late assign to her class. We finally got to meet his teacher and the room where he would be. So all ended up fine, and we went out to dinner.

I have no solution to our education system. Seemingly, no one has. I think the first damn thing to do is to get rid of the fricking illegals that are bringing down all our systems. This whole ESL shit is retarding the learning curve - not just for AZ, but for almost every state. Unfortunately, the only fix-all I can think of, is going to cross damn near every other problem we have as well, nationally. Healthcare, poverty, education, employment, government spending... hell, who knows how many more. Get rid of the damn illegals...

Sigh, okay, off my bitch box. School starts Monday. I am out to spend time with my son.

PeacE