Obey Gravity, It's the Law

Obey Gravity, It’s the Law

I received a phone call from my 6^th grader’s B&M English teacher this morning regarding the confiscation of a shoulder satchel. According to the middle school rules, the students are not allowed to carry around bags or backpacks, for the safety of the other children. The students are required to carry their binders with them to each class, stopping periodically throughout the day at their lockers to retrieve any material for another class, they are not allowed to carry material for one class to another however, so they have to make a mad dash to pick things up or put them away. This got me thinking about the other rules that make the compulsory education system here so irritating to me and my children.

B&M: No backpacks. No carriers of any sort. One binder that weighs up to ten pounds.

Home: Grocery bags, laundry bags, overnight bags, all required and standard equipment

B&M: 3 minutes between class, to go to their locker, go to the bathroom, get a drink.

Home: 15 minutes between subjects to play tag with the dogs, act out Great White Hunter scenario’s on flies, feed the rat in the cage or a pair up a sock that went missing two weeks ago. Plus go to the bathroom.

B&M: Obey gravity, it’s the law…you will drop your pencil/pen/binder/pants at the absolute wrong time.

Home: Obey gravity, it’s the law…if you drop an egg from four feet into the air, it will break and isn’t it great that we have tag-playing dogs who will clean up the mess?

B&M: 6 hall passes per semester, after that, you are responsible for the mess.

Home: One hallway that resembles an obstacle course more days than not, and if you pass it, you can swap laundry after you use the bathroom.

Don’t even get me started on the homework requirement. They are in a school setting for 7 hours a day, then are expected to complete 3 to 4 hours of homework a night. I understand that they (the teachers) have more than one student in their class, but I have more than one kid at home! His homework requirement kills my afternoon and evening time, when I could be doing other things like actually having a conversation with him or his brothers! Or cooking dinner, or reading a chapter in my book with a glass of wine.

Our children learn the rules of society from the moment they enter the world, we take them out into the world and we expect them to behave a certain way, they learn. And there are rules for everything, from dating to driving to picking your underwear out of your butt when you stand up at the restaurant. My children all attended public school for their elementary years and learned certain things, some positive, some not so positive. One thing I don’t want them learning is to suffer through a miserable situation if there is a better alternative to achieve their goals. My son will be leaving B&M this week, and beginning a clearer path with his education. I don’t want to teach him to just give up if the situation is bad, instead teach him that there are usually better means, that not everything in this life has to be a fight, and that confrontation isn’t always the solution to a problem.