I HATE SCHOOL (and the idiots who work there)

I Know, we shouldn't paint everyone with the same brush, but Jesus Christ what the hell is wrong with these idiots who work in the school system?

I know that there are some good teachers out there and I am sure there might be one or two good people on the Administration staff of a school somewhere in this world... But judging from my experiences at my children's school, these good people are few and far between. Two of my closest friends work in the public school system in this province and I know they are very good at what they do, so for those two people... I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU (well, maybe a little).

From top to bottom, our schools are going to hell. The teachers are unhappy, the children are unhappy and the parents are damn unhappy.

It seems like any control that the teachers once had is long gone. While some of the teachers (the good ones) do try to make things better, many just accept the status quo and let the madness continue.

What is this madness I speak of, you may ask? Well, the rules that the teachers and school staff in general have to follow have made it very difficult for the school to run smoothly. Perhaps I should explain some of these rules...

1. Teachers are not allowed, under any circumstances to enter the school change rooms/locker rooms, unless accompanied by another teacher or staff member. While on the surface, this seems like a good way to protect our children from exploitation, it also cripples the teaching staff's ability to supervise the students. I know of an instance where a child was beat up in the locker room at the school and the teacher could do nothing about it because he/she had to run to get another staff member to supervise his/her entering of the locker room to break up the fight. Because of this, one of the students had to be transported to the hospital. You might think that the school would allow teachers to use their best judgement and if there was a situation where someone was hurt, they could ignore the rule and help the student, but apparently the teachers aren't paid to use their judgement. Have we lost so much trust for our teaching staff that criminal background checks are not enough?

2. Children on the playground are not allowed to touch each other, throw snowballs (even if it is just at trees or throwing them into the woods), or do many of the things that we did when we were children. First of all, how can the children be children if we try to put them in a bubble and not allow them to do anything for fear that they might get hurt? How are the teachers supposed to keep these children from doing the things that children like to do? Maybe we should send a few rolls of duct tape with the kids' school supplies at the start of the year so that the children can be taped to their desks every day and that way they will be safe.

3. We ran into a situation a couple of years ago when our child never arrived home from school. He took the bus to a friend's house and we never knew where he was. The school's response was that it was the responsibility of every child that is in grades 1 to 5 to make sure they get on the right bus and get off at the right stop. So I guess that we have a little Lord of the Flies situation going on at this school (except, of course for at recess when the children aren't allowed to touch each other).

4. Janitors.... where can I start? I guess a janitor does not have to clean anything or do anything that is not specifically mentioned in his/her union contract. This does not apply to every one of them, but it seems like taking pride in your work and going above and beyond is not in the union contract so f#%k it! I guess that picking things they like out of the lost and found, however, is in their contract. I am sure it happens alot and it is not only the janitors who do it, but this year I had an occasion when my son came home without his brand new jacket. He said it wasn't in the lost and found, but he's young and I am sure he just looked at the top of the pile in the lost and found bin when he looked for it (if he looked at all). So I decided to go to the school and look for it myself. It wasn't in the lost and found. I searched the entire school with no luck. Finally, I walked to the end of a hallway that was well away from my son's classroom (not a place he would frequent), and I saw a piece of the sleeve of his jacket sticking out from under the janitor's jacket on a hook that most of the kids in the school would need a ladder to reach. I wonder how it got there?!?

5. Apparently there are some brilliant teachers who think that getting elementary school children to write down their homework is a great idea. So these children come home with a couple of words written in their homework book and the parents are expected to make sure that this homework gets done. I once wrote to a teacher asking for an explanation about homework and the response I received was "I explained the assignment clearly to the class". Hmmm.... I have completed 2 university degrees and I can tell you that a university prof can explain an assignment until they are blue in the face and the student will forget most of the explanation by the time he/she takes a piss; That is if the explanation is not written down. If a university student cannot retain this information, how can an elementary school student be expected to? And how is a parent supposed to help a child with an assignment if they don't have instructions? Maybe we can call JoJo of the Psychic Friends Network to help us read the mind of the teachers. It'll only cost us $4.99 per minute.

6. How about inclusion... Maybe this is not the most popular stance, but I think inclusion in the classroom sets up kids with special needs for many more problems than having special classes ever did. It is also distracting to the rest of the class to have some students with aides in the classroom, doing different work than the rest of the class. Some classes where inclusion is great in my opinion are Phys Ed (I am sure that there are many "non-special-needs" kids who could use an aide in this class), Art and maybe music. I really think that having anyone who is doing a significantly different (easier or harder) schooling program than the rest of the class is being set up to be teased and bullied.

7. Suspensions - I was recently told of a situation where a student in middle school was suspended from school for cutting classes. Who was the Einstein that came up with this idea. Isn't that like punishing a rapist by putting him/her (wouldn't want to be sexist) in a room with a bunch of sexy naked people and saying "you better have sex with those people"! Why don't we just punish a thief by giving him/her all of our bank account numbers and passwords! That'll learn 'em!!!

Seems to me that teaching our children in a clean , safe environment is no longer a priority. As long as the schools give the appearance of being politically correct and they don't get sued, they are content to let our children slip through the cracks.

F#@king Schools!!!