Ugh! I'm fucking furious.

[tripperfunster]

I just recieved a notice from my kid's school that they are going to be splitting the classes next year.

They are already split into two grades per class (3/4, 5/6, 7/8) Next year they plan to do three grades per class. 3/4/5, 6/7/8.

No fucking way.

The princial is happy to spout all sorts of happy statistics about how mixed grades are beneficial, and how kids learn better in these types of situations bla bla bla.

Really? REALLY? Then whey did it take budget cuts and smaller enrollments to impliment this? I would have thought, if it was so great, that they would have done this years ago. In fact, why aren't ALL schools doing this, if it's such a fantastic oppourtunity?

Not to mention, that there seems to be a very large amount of special needs kids in this school. Which is fine, but the bigger the class size (and grade amounts) the larger amount of special needs kids in each class.

And I"m talking ACTUAL special needs here, where the children have been diagnosed. I'm not talking about the usual 'problem' kids, like mine, where Harry has social anxiety, which of course, is also a distraction for everyone else. Add to that the non diagnosed ADHD kid who sits beside harry and drives him crazy every day. (seriously, all he does is complain about this kid, who seems like a real a-hole.)

Plus there is a boy with Downs Syndrome, and another boy who ..? I'm not sure what his issue is, but he has a full time Assistant with him.

THAT IS JUST WITH THE GRADE SPLIT IN TWO. I shudder to think what will happen next year.

Not to mention that I have spent a BUTTLOAD of time doing fundraising for this school. I'm the vice chair on the Student Advisory Council, and every year we bust our humps to raise money for different programs, for smart boards, for science equipment etc etc etc.

If there is such a shortage of money for actual TEACHERS then why the fuck have we been buying computers and cool technology?

*KEYBOARD SMASH OF RAGE*

My options are, obviously, to take my kids elsewhere. Although, I'm reluctant to rip Harry out of a place where he is finally settling in. the boy does NOT like change. Homeschooling is not an option. I do not have the patience to sit them down and teach things like math, plus I really think they benefit from the social setting of school. (not judging people who homeschool here, just my opinion).

Urhg! Fuckers. It's a good thing i wasnt' at the school today, because lemme tell ya, the kids would have been learing ALL SORTS OF NEW WORDS from me.

Comments

[lilliesmum.livejournal.com]

God, that sucks for Harry! I HATE it when the school or teachers do something that is detrimental for my kids, then try to tell me it's really good for them. My nephew died suddenly a little over a year ago and my kids have had such a hard time dealing with it. My 11 year old's teacher decided last fall that ghost stories would be great to tell the class to celebrate Halloween. He also tells them that the stories are all real, he's seen ghosts-IN THE SCHOOL!-and that he's been chased by a ghost. When I called to talk to him he refused to take my call and when I emailed the principal she says it's inappropriate to talk to me if I haven't talked to the teacher. So I set up a parent teacher conference and the other 5th grade teacher shows up to tell me the one I'm pissed at has laryngitis and can't talk to me. Then he sends me an email to say that he is done with that section. My daughter won't go into the bathroom by herself, has been having nightmares and won't sleep with the light off. Urgh is right!
How many students in each class are they talking about?

[xenafox.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Where I grew up we were so small that we HAD to just squish 3 grades into a classroom each day all day, but for a larger school, the abrupt change is...ridiculous. There's something fishy going on.

ADHD people drive me nuts; I have serious problems handling them even when they are perfectly nice people. Poor Harry :/

[antisocial-nerd.livejournal.com]

Oh my god.. really??? That is way excessive... How big are these classes already split between two? With all the special needs combined it doesn't sound like every kid is going to get the attention they may need/deserve. They just made this decision and never asked any of the parents??

I read an article in Dublin yesterday that unqualified randoms were substituting for schools (so much money, forget) because schools didn't want to pay actual qualified teachers.

What the fuck is going on :/

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Mixed grades are beneficial, but I don't get how mixing THREE grades is beneficial. How many students are going to be in a classroom? What's the teacher-student ratio?

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Is Canada seeing the same massive cuts to education that we're seeing int he US? I've yet to see multigrade classrooms as the solution, but I do know class sizes are going way up as teachers are being laid off. On of our local school districts has increased class caps to 40. I hear that some districts around the US (e.g. urban Detroit) are seeing class sizes go up to 60.

I have yet to see multilevel/multigrade classrooms being touted as a solution. This has got to be phenomenally difficult to teach.

If there is such a shortage of money for actual TEACHERS then why the fuck have we been buying computers and cool technology?

I could say a whole lot of cynical things about this trend, but I won't. We're royally screwing over the educational opportunities of this next generation, and it frustrates and overwhelms me that this is not blatantly apparent to those with the power and opportunity to change things.

[melisus.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who experienced split grade classes for three years in elementary school... whatever stats exist to say that kids benefit from learning in that sort of environment is bullshit.

The grade with the majority of students ends up with most of the teacher's attention. And either way, they always have to sort of hover between the different grades. You'll be trying to do your math work while the teacher is explaining a different math lesson to a different grade. French class for me was completely messed up too since we always had a language teacher come in and they would only teach the french program for the highest grade. In other words, when I was in the second grade I was learning third grade french which I found became a problem later on because during those years french lessons were all about building vocabulary so I never developped ANY of the vocabulary I was meant to learn then.