I've gotta say, the American public school system is kinda sorta WHACKED OUT.
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A daughter, sweet, charming, and slightly stubborn, gets tired of home-schooled life. the friends she's made in the homeschool community are good friends, but she's a social butterfly and wants to flutter around with all the other people her age. After convincing her parents that she knows what she's going back to, she's released into the wilds of public school.
For a few months, everything is fine. Complaints are made about homework, but that's to be expected. And, also as expected, a number of new friends are attracted to her charming disposition.
A year into public school, things go awry.
A mother and father get a call from the school. Apparently, their daughter has been in a fight on school grounds. Last word: they've got a parent-teacher meeting at the school and a court date to meet and the daughter will miss a day or two of school because of it, for which they'll get MORE calls about her being absent from a few classes. Go fig.
At the parent-teacher meeting, a video is shown of the fight. Their daughter has always been kind and more-or-less mild-mannered, and even the student counselor says that the daughter was barely tapping the other girl with her tentative punches, while the other girl was taking every opportunity to slug her in the face. No blood is spilled, but the daughter is left with a few bruises and a shiner for future reference.
Court date approaches. Mother and father, due to the nature of the fight, want to say she did the right thing, but are honor- and rule-bound to tell her to avoid such fights in the future. It doesn't matter that the daughter was only defending her friend, or that the first hit that authorities say she gave was nothing more than a light push to keep the other girl out of her face. She "hit" first and fought, and the rules of the school are not on her side.
Court date comes. The judge is nice and allows her to explain her side of the story, but she still has to do community service. It is not certain that the other student is punished at all.
Community service is the hardest part. It's not that the service is hard, it's just that she can't FIND any. Most of her choices close before she even gets home from school, and the ones that don't won't take her because of the charges pressed against her. After all, can't have a troublemaker as an employee, even a volunteer.
Nevermind that she didn't cause the trouble to begin with.
As the parents help her look for work and consider just paying the fine instead, the father, torn between making it to work and helping his child, shakes his head. This is just another one of the many, MANY stupid reasons their kids were homeschooled.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A daughter, sweet, charming, and slightly stubborn, gets tired of home-schooled life. the friends she's made in the homeschool community are good friends, but she's a social butterfly and wants to flutter around with all the other people her age. After convincing her parents that she knows what she's going back to, she's released into the wilds of public school.
For a few months, everything is fine. Complaints are made about homework, but that's to be expected. And, also as expected, a number of new friends are attracted to her charming disposition.
A year into public school, things go awry.
A mother and father get a call from the school. Apparently, their daughter has been in a fight on school grounds. Last word: they've got a parent-teacher meeting at the school and a court date to meet and the daughter will miss a day or two of school because of it, for which they'll get MORE calls about her being absent from a few classes. Go fig.
At the parent-teacher meeting, a video is shown of the fight. Their daughter has always been kind and more-or-less mild-mannered, and even the student counselor says that the daughter was barely tapping the other girl with her tentative punches, while the other girl was taking every opportunity to slug her in the face. No blood is spilled, but the daughter is left with a few bruises and a shiner for future reference.
Court date approaches. Mother and father, due to the nature of the fight, want to say she did the right thing, but are honor- and rule-bound to tell her to avoid such fights in the future. It doesn't matter that the daughter was only defending her friend, or that the first hit that authorities say she gave was nothing more than a light push to keep the other girl out of her face. She "hit" first and fought, and the rules of the school are not on her side.
Court date comes. The judge is nice and allows her to explain her side of the story, but she still has to do community service. It is not certain that the other student is punished at all.
Community service is the hardest part. It's not that the service is hard, it's just that she can't FIND any. Most of her choices close before she even gets home from school, and the ones that don't won't take her because of the charges pressed against her. After all, can't have a troublemaker as an employee, even a volunteer.
Nevermind that she didn't cause the trouble to begin with.
As the parents help her look for work and consider just paying the fine instead, the father, torn between making it to work and helping his child, shakes his head. This is just another one of the many, MANY stupid reasons their kids were homeschooled.
