Back to School

The kids all started school on Monday. I have to say that so far, I'm not impressed with the school system here. Even the Kindergarten, which are usually bright and cheery, seemed dismal and almost depressing when we visited yesterday. I don't know why, it just seemed that way. The elementary school looks like a kiddie warehouse - although it isn't packed with kids - the ceilings are bare, exposed wiring runs from room to room. It looks like the school district just doesn't care enough to actually FINISH fixing the school. Hell, the other day we went in and they were still painting the doors. You'd think that be something that was done BEFORE all the elementary school kids came back to school.

The oldest daughter is going to middle school - and she takes the bus every day. The bus is not exactly on-time all the time and in the first three days of school, she was almost late twice. She got to choose two electives to take this quarter or term or semester, whatever it is, and she chose Spanish and something else. For her first homework, she is supposed to answer these questions about Spain - and the answers clearly need to come from a book that she says the teacher won't let them bring home. I looked all over for the teacher on the school page only to find out that he isn't even listed. So, I do the next best thing, I begin searching online for the book. As it turns out, her book IS online but the teacher is supposed to give them a username and password. Which he didn't. Talk about setting the kids up for failure. So, I dug a little deeper into the WWW and found someone who put THEIR user name and password up for everyone to see. I used that and viola we were in. So, now she can do her homework.

Also, seeing as though Georgia is a highly religious state, my daughter has already taken a little flak for wearing her 5-pointed star at school. Not flak from the teachers or administration (which we wouldn't tolerate), but flak from other kids because she doesn't believe in hell and the boogey-man under the ground. Well, that's just not fair or right, so I think we're going to begin giving her a little history lesson every once in awhile about the Bible and what it says so she isn't defenseless out there against the sheeple who think they are Christians because they go to church every week.

Normally, I wouldn't tell my girls what to believe or how to believe it, or even that someone else's belief wasn't right - after all, its everyone's choice to make. But, when people are harassing her and can't seem to keep it to themselves, then it only seems fair to give her the other side of the story than what she's hearing from the kids at school. She's a tough girl and can handle it - I just think she deserves a little help if she wants it.