The One About Parental Frustration

Ask me how I feel about my daughter's school or extracurricular activities and you're likely to get a growl at best.

My daughter had her first day in grade 2 last week and I was quite annoyed to discover she's in a split class of Gr. 1 & 2 kids. I don't like that. We've had issues before where she's struggled to advance because other kids were bringing down the teaching level in the class. Add to the mix the troublemaker girl from her class last year and there's going to be bad chemistry.

I'm confused, though. When I went to school and was in a split class (Gr. 2-3 split), it was because there were a number of extra Grade 3 kids and and a number of extra Grade 2 kids. Neither group was enough to justify 2 teachers for 2 classes, so they merged into one room. At my daughter's school, there's 4 classes of Grade 2 kids. All are split. 3 are with younger kids and one with older kids.

My daughter's best friend is in with the older kids and she was already reading at an advanced level like my daughter. She's got a great opportunity to learn more with the older kids, as opposed to my daughter who got to spend a day this week learning the alphabet....

Enter the grumpy father. My daughter's home reading was at too low a level, so I let the teacher know. A book about rhymes (bat, cat, dog, bog, etc.) is too low. My daughter's reading for the weekend is a Junie B. Jones book. Much better.

As I deal with my daughter's school life and the breaks her best friend gets, it reminds me of their ballet school. 2 years ago, when they had their year-end dance exams, both girls had chicken pox and had to cancel. I found out about 2 months later that they offered a new exam date to my daughter's friend, but never said anything to us. So, my daughter continued with a new class, but not at the same level as her friend. Then we discovered that they invited all the younger girls (age 3-5) to join my daughter's class. Essentially, she learned nothing all year as the dance instructors spent the classtime chasing around toddlers.

So, my daughter's now in her 3rd year of ballet. I found out this week that another friend of hers will be in the same class. This girl's never taken a ballet class before. I detect a repeat of last year...

Enter the grumpy father. I'm going to the first ballet class and have already warned the dance school that I'll pull my daughter from their program if this goes the same way as last year.