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Things I Can't Relate To


clueliss

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Reading the local news online yesterday I encountered one of those things in life I can't relate to.  

In our fair city, the ebil school board is redrawing lines for a couple of the junior highs to combat overcrowding.  The article I read on said subject quoted a parent whining because of the number of schools their kid has gone to.  Without moving.  

Unhuh.  Let me do the math on my personal history.  We moved between kindergarten and first grade.  Mom divorced dear old dad and we moved between fourth and fifth grades.  Now, the district we moved to?  I went to 3 different schools in 3 years (granted it was with the same group of kids).  We moved between seventh and eighth grades.  The junior high in this new city/district went through ninth grade.  So I went to junior high for 2 years and senior high for 2 years until - guess what.  We moved because Mom decided to get remarried and nevermind uprooting her kids and all that.  So I went to my senior year (and only my senior year) in yet another district.  So pardon me in an age of internet and social media if your child has to change to a new school.  Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt a few times over.  

And my thoughts on this then go to other things I cannot relate to because of my working class, single parent, checked out father upbringing.  

This morning I watched a Goldbergs episode on Hulu as I ate breakfast.  From last season.  Adam wants to go to Space Camp.  Um, Camp, in general, is a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around and feels, in general, to be very middle to upper middle class.  I didn't run in neighborhoods with kids who went to any camp, ever.  Camp for us was the week of Vacation Bible School.  And that wasn't even a full day.  

And 2016 was an Olympic year and I remember seeing these athletes in sports where I thought, yeah, never ever would have gotten into that sport, it would have required parents who were checked in (thinking specifically of my father).  Or money to be involved.  

My thoughts on the above are probably totally warped by the fact that I don't have children of my own.  

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DaniLouisiana

Posted

Nope, not warped view, absolutely agree and I have three bio kids and bunch of brought home by kids that call me Mama. 

On the multiple schools:I only have one kid that attended one elementary school, one middle school and one high school. Bigfoot went to 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 3 or 4 high schools including being home schooled four awhile. Kiddo went to 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 2 high schools including home school.

GrandGirl has also had to switch around a couple of times to find a safe school in her neighborhood.  So no, I don't get the whining about switching schools. You're a parent. Pull up your big girl/boy pants and deal.

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louisa05

Posted

I went to five schools from K-6. Then we stayed in one town and my parents switched us to Catholic school and I only went to two more, in the same system. 

I went to three different schools in third grade alone. It sucked. That year was terrible for both my brother and me (he was in 8th grade). But if you are just being redistricted, the change is not that bad and some of the same kids will be moving with you. We had moved across the state when we had to change. 

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WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?

Posted

I was a lucky kid who attended one elementary school (K-6), one junior high school (7-9), and one high school (10-12). I hope my kids are able to do that, too, although we would love to move houses. But I understand that school districts have to do the best they can with their resources and that population trends change. I hope if we ever face school changes because of redrawn lines that I will help our kids see it as a positive thing. 

The worst case of charging schools that I know is of a friend of my older siblings. She is the youngest kid in her family and always expected to attend the same high school as her older siblings. She came home from summer church camp and found a note from her parents: "We're getting a divorce. You can go live with your grandmother." Adding insult to injury, not only did she not get to attend the same high school as her siblings, she got to attend and graduate from the rival of that school. Compared to her parents doing that to her, attending the rival high school doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but that was the part she always sounded bitter about when I heard the story.

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