Are Our Elementary Schools A Joke?

I found myself with two children one day, one in second grade and one in third grade, I was aware that they came from a difficult school district, and that the one in third grade had struggled through second grade and need help.  I did not know the extent of the help.  So we get everyone enrolled in school and my second grader, she does great, most of her grades are 3 & 4 (don’t even get me started on this number thing), but my third grader was behind form the start.  The school notified me of his difficulty, so I put him in an after school math program, his teacher, counselors and myself were involved.  We worked with him or so I am told through the school year trying to help him get up to speed while introducing course work, by the end of the year these New York State tests determined him to be at a second grade level. 

The school was going to push him right up to 4^th grade when I asked about summer school.  So here we are enrolled in summer school his last resort before I request he be held back.  Now let’s discuss summer school, it’s 3 hours, yes just 3 hours and so far he hasn’t learned a thing, they are on multiplication and division and he is still struggling with adding and subtracting.  So he comes home and I teach him, which begs the question why I send him to school if I am the one that has to teach him anyway. 

So he goes to school for three hours, which means we get up get ready and hope the bus isn’t early as it was today, and we don’t have to make a mad dash to the school.  There is a schedule, but apparently it is okay to ignore the schedule if you are early, if you are early and no one is there just keep going right?  That is what the bus does, so we as parents go out ten-twenty  minutes early for pick up and drop off because half the time we have no idea what to expect, way to set an example!  At least our kids are learning how to be early for an appointment. 

I digress, back to the school, so he goes to the school and they make tie-dyed T-shirts and do whatever else the first week, come the second week I still see no homework sent home.  He says he hasn’t really learned much since starting, and although it is only week two shouldn’t he have ironed out some of his deficiencies?  So here I am teaching my boy how to add and subtract (and he is in 3^rd grade!) because I have lost all faith that the school is teaching him anything.  I ordered the text books, I took time from my schedule, and I sat down and gave him assignments and assessed his learning myself.  Why am I sending him to school again?  So he can socialize, okay that is important, but what is he learning about socializing? He is learning what his peers teach, he is learning the good that bad and the in between, so I teach him tolerance and I teach him how to defend himself, and how to think for himself, but the school does not teach him that I do.  So I am teaching him social skills and I have to teach him core content, then why am I sending my kid to a school?  Why not home school him?  Well because I am a single parent household and society puts little value on family anymore.  Our society has advanced in some ways and degraded in others.  It would be great to homeschool my kids, but sadly society has made it difficult to survive on a dual income let alone a single income, and as a single parent I have to work harder to provide for my family.  It is getting hard not to turn this into a societal blog, but I will refrain.  

Some children don't want to do the work, if they don't and you push them through you are teaching them they don't have to work to progress, that is not a message I would choose to send.  Some children have "disorders" (putting my personal feelings aside) if this is truly the case they need special assistance and a solid foundation not to be left behind. The bottom line is our education system with its ”no kid left behind” policy is a joke, it’s a wonderful concept to leave no child behind, but if you are just pushing a child through when they haven’t the proper foundation, you are failing them in an even bigger way.  What happens to a house without the proper foundation?  It crumbles.