The school year is now officially over. What a year it was. Poor Chai had the worst year of his short schooling life so far. Withdrawing him from school was one of the best things I've ever done. It reminded me how important it is to trust my instincts. I wish I'd done that sooner. If I'd trusted my instincts I would not have sent him to school when he was three, I would have insisted he start the year after. I would also have sent him to the beautiful free range school straight off.
This year taught me how important it is to do what's right for me and my family, not what society and the government say we have to do. We don't have to send our kids to school, we don't have to spend our lives working to pay off a house, we don't have to do anything that doesn't work for us or our family.
It's easy to get caught up in doing what everyone else does, adapting to societal norms, which is fine if they work for you, but if they don't it's important to do what works for you. As parents it's our duty to do the best for our children, to advocate and fight for them because they can't fight for themselves.
Children are not second class citizens. They have needs and rights just like we do, however society thinks it's okay to treat children badly, in some instances it's even encouraged. If we wouldn't accept certain treatments as adults, then it's not okay to do those things to children.
Our school system is failing our most vulnerable children and yet nothing is being done about it. Naplan results came out last week, in several areas the standards are either worse or stagnant. What's being done about that? It's commonly known that the way we educate our children isn't working and yet nothing is being done to change that.
We can talk with our choices. We can choose not to send our children to schools where they aren't educated and taught in a manner that works for them. We can discuss our issues with the school, the education department and our local member of parliament. If enough of us do that things will have to change. It's up to us.
We don't have to blindly follow along. We don't have to do what society tells us to. If we want to be happy and fulfilled we need to walk our own path and speak our own truth. It's okay to be different, it's okay to choose the path less trodden. It's okay to be authentically and unapologetically you.
We've got the class lists for next year and I'm not optimistic. Out of five kids I didn't want in Chai's class, three of them are in his class. Two of them are really bad.
One of them is so awful that he freezes in fear every time he sees her.
If my suspicions are correct then I am going to be very, very angry with the school next year.
The deputy told me that if I can get the right referrals I'll be able to get funding for an assistant for Chai. She said that she'd pair him up with one of the other children who also has funding and they can share the assistant. The child she mentioned is the daughter of one of my friends and happy to share an assistant with Chai.
That child isn't in Chai's class, but there is a child with autism who is very violent. If my suspicions are correct, she's paired Chai up with him.
Autistic children get funding for an assistant two days a week, so the rest of the week the teacher has to deal with them.
Aside from him having bullied Chai for the last three years, he needs attention full time which means that Chai will get no help from the assistant.
I've spent $630 trying to get an assistant for Chai so far and if they are planning to pair him up with the autistic child that will all have been a waste.
Let's hope I'm wrong.