School Sucks

School is no longer about learning. We register our kids for school, hoping that they will become kind, likeable, intelligent little humans who will soon make our world a better place, but that is no longer the case. The moment we take our kids to their first kindergarten round-up, we enlist them in a lifetime of contests and conformity. School is now about who is the best, who has the best clothes, who has the most successful family, and who can participate in the most activities. School has also become about shaping our children into little carbon copies of one another. It is no longer okay for kids to express themselves creatively or emotionally. School is more like prison rather than a center for learning. It is a place to punish children into submission and conformity in hopes that they will all behave and act as the teachers feel that they should. They should not express themselves in any way the teacher does not like.

Recently, my son got into trouble at school for humming during class. My son is in first grade. He reads at 160 words per minute which is unheard of for a first grader. He is highly intelligent and gifted, including musically. He enjoys music and focuses better when listening to music or humming. He hums all of the time. His humming was bothering another student so he was told he had to stop. When I asked him about the situation, he said “I know. I can’t hum because I am a distraction to the other kids.” FUCK. THAT. My son focuses better when he is able to hum. The other student focuses better in the quiet. Why is it MY SON that has to stop his behavior? Why can’t the other student suck it up and learn to adapt to his or her environment like my son has been forced to? Oh yeah, because my son is expressing himself which is against public school “normality.”

After having a talk with my son and seeing that he had been shamed into thinking that humming during class was not okay, I informed him that he could hum any time he wanted and if his teacher had a problem with it, she could call me and I would handle it. I refuse to let school take away my son’s spark and make him feel as though he cannot express himself. That is what is wrong with the world. This is why our children are growing up miserable. We are taking away every unique personal quality they have because we force them to be just like their peers which is however their school decides they need to act.

I recently attended a field trip with my son. We sat together on the bus in the seat behind one of the two teachers on the trip. The seat across the aisle from us seated two boys behind the other accompanying teacher. I have never been more appalled, heartbroken, or angered by two adult women who claim to be “teachers” in my entire life. The one boy in the seat, I was familiar with. His mother is locally known for her run-ins with law enforcement here in town for drugs. They also live near the school and the home is visibly too small for the 5+ kids and 2+ adults it is housing. The boy was visibly dirty and smelled terrible. It was a really heartbreaking scene. What was even more heartbreaking was the way the boy was treated! He could not make a peep or let his back leave the seat or the “teacher” in front of him would turn around and tear his ass wide open! It was unbelievable! These are little boys! They are on a field trip and are obviously excited! Who knows how often this boy gets to go do things fun?!

The field trip was terribly put together and time management is obviously not a strong suit of these two teachers. Lunch time was rushed and the above little boy’s lunch was cut short. Rather than letting him finish or save his food on the bus, the teachers forced him to throw it in the trash! He began to cry hysterically!  They did not care one bit! They didn’t care that this may be the only meal this boy sees all day. They didn’t give one shit about this boy or what kind of life he comes from. It was the most heartbreaking and disgusting thing I had ever witnessed from two people claiming to be teachers in my entire life. The boy was well-behaved and was not acting out of line one bit. But for him to become that upset over a bag of chips and an apple, it was obvious that the food meant a great deal to him.

My son’s first grade class gets two recesses, MAX. If they “talk too much” during class, they lose their second recess. What the fuck?! These are little kids! They were not made to sit in one place and not talk or move for long periods of time. When the weather is nice and the sun is shining, do you think it is easy to stare at the same walls and the same miserable teacher for hours on end? Hell no! Give these kids what they need to function and learn; physical activity and freedom! Let them express themselves! Let them be kids! Maybe if we let our kids be kids again, we will quit raising broken kids that overpopulate our prisons.