I happen to be staying in a major metropolitan area while all of this is unfolding... meanwhile, folks back in my small hometown can't even make it to a bank, and as far as grocery shopping goes, there isn't a single large supermarket to speak of, just a handful of tiny corner stores where if you're lucky, you might actually snag a chicken breast before they run out... They can't even head out into the countryside because those roads cross over into another county... At least I know I can still make it to a pharmacy... The neighboring township doesn't even have a gas station, so people actually need a permit just to refuel their cars.
People who have spent their entire lives living in the big cities... they truly haven't the slightest clue what this situation has done to those of us living in the smaller towns...
My brother’s residency permit is set to expire right in the middle of April. His permanent address is actually all the way out in 249 miles. He just realized this morning while he was on the phone with the FBI, and apparently, there is absolutely no way to extend his stay, change his residence, or do anything of the sort at the moment... Since he works locally and falls under the category of essential services, I don't see them barring him from his job, nor do I expect the situation to return to some semblance of normalcy anytime soon... Well, I suppose he'll just have to exist in a state of legal limbo until they decide to lock him up.
It is such a quintessential display of how our government functions: they realize they have absolutely no way to monitor whether overtime pay is actually being issued on Sundays, so their brilliant solution is simply to ban Sunday labor altogether. They find themselves unable to track a mere 15,000 people in quarantine, and their immediate reaction is to lock down 4,000,000 citizens instead...
I am heading out now to collect my paperwork, and leaving the city should be quite easy enough, though I suppose I should cross my fingers that I can actually manage to make it back... 👍
Back in elementary school, our religious studies teacher—who was actually an ordained priest—cornered us right there in the hallway, trying to pressure us into attending his classes while whispering that our parents didn't need to be informed about it... I eventually mentioned the whole thing at home, which prompted my father to go on a bit of a hunt to track him down through town. Honestly, he just couldn't stand someone trying to manipulate kids like that.
By the way, my father was a bit of a loose cannon, if I'm being perfectly honest... though sometimes, his intensity really paid off. 😁
Quick question regarding the reading assignment for Coca-Cola in Paris...😛What did the Greek shipowner refer to the vessels as?😛Saying it was about famous paintings isn't quite right; the actual answer😛pertains to those legendary works of art...
Honestly, I feel like most people need to undergo a complete mental overhaul before we even bother attempting to reform the education system.
And then you look at the schedule, and suddenly science and geography only get an hour and a half of class time per week... honestly, it’s a joke. Religious studies is clearly being prioritized over actual academic foundations here. They might as well just scrap those two subjects entirely and let religious studies take up five hours instead. I mean, why bother? After all, the Earth is nothing more than a flat disc and evolution is just some fairy tale they made up... 😁
Well, we finally received our new schedule, and it looks like religion class is set for third period both ways... 👎 Since they’ve reorganized everything into five-person groups and every single subject now requires its own dedicated classroom, whenever the library is closed, the hallway becomes our only option...
I keep trying to convince him to just head home during that hour, but he’s being quite stubborn about it, mostly because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of lugging his heavy backpack around all day...
I just got off the phone with my godmother, and I had to ask her how their whole enrollment process went... and well, here’s the gist of what they told her... she was given the option to try a standard public school, but the caveat was that if he hasn't developed any speech by the end of the first semester, he wouldn't be allowed to stay in a mainstream classroom. Since it was pretty obvious there wasn't going to be some sudden miracle where his speech catches up in just six months, they immediately pivoted toward the special education track.
The thing is, the administration at this particular school felt like his development was being stifled, suggesting that maybe—just maybe—he might fare better in a regular classroom setting. They actually went so far as to suggest she move back to her small hometown, where there's only one elementary school in the whole district, because then they would essentially be forced to accept him into the general curriculum.
She turned them down flat, of course. First off, she moved all the way to NYC specifically so she could have easy access to speech therapists and specialists, and honestly, she can handle a lot of the work at home herself... but more importantly, she truly believes he isn't cut out for a traditional classroom environment. The kid is constantly jumping around, banging on his desk, and tossing his pencil into the air just to catch it two hundred times in a row... imagine what kind of chaos that would cause in a room filled with twenty-five other children!
As for the question about delaying enrollment, she mentioned that they eventually told her they do respect parental wishes, so if a parent insists on a delay, it will be granted.
When it comes to children facing more significant developmental hurdles, I’ve always felt that specialized special education instructors possess a much deeper level of training than your standard elementary school teachers... In my son's classroom, there is a child with Down syndrome, which, in my estimation, isn't even the most taxing challenge. However, my godmother's son... he simply cannot function within the confines of a traditional American school setting. He just can't sit still for more than five minutes at a time; after five minutes, you absolutely have to let him jump around in place for another five just to burn off that energy.
Even my godmother was told that if she truly, absolutely insisted on it, they would grant her request—even though they hadn't originally seen any need for it...
So, I really do believe you'll get what you're looking for, especially since you already have that recommendation from your psychologist in hand.
The process started when he was about two and a half, with some diagnosis of speech delay—which, quite frankly, felt like complete nonsense since he’d been speaking perfectly fine for his age up until he turned two...
They spent an entire year just chasing after a diagnosis. They eventually enrolled him in a preschool in Savannah, only to have them turn him away, claiming he wasn't a good fit because his issues weren't limited to just speech... apparently, they were seeing signs of motor skill struggles and ADHD as well.
They ended up suggesting a preschool over the lime trees, which is where he eventually transitioned into elementary school. But in his case, there really wasn't much of a debate to be had; given his lack of verbal communication, a standard classroom would never have been a viable option anyway.
I truly believe that delaying things won't do any harm, especially if he was attending a regular preschool program in the meantime.
They told her right away that she was someone special—and honestly, she knew it... he’s on the autism spectrum, a rather complex case to navigate, if I'm being perfectly candid.
I suppose I wonder how things are handled in your neck of the woods...
From what I’ve observed firsthand, in those specific instances where a child is already enrolled in specialized programs—you know, working with speech therapists or developmental specialists and all that—they actually seem much less likely to experience any kind of delay...
My godmother actually tried to push for a deferral, though they weren't having any of it... they basically told her that they didn't anticipate seeing any massive leaps in progress over the next year anyway, and besides, the little one wasn't exactly ready for the rigors of a standard classroom setting yet. So, despite all that back-and-forth, he ended up starting seventh grade after all...
My boy ended up with an F in art class simply because he forgot to sign his name on the back of his assignment... 😁
I honestly thought he was pulling my leg, at least until his teacher confirmed the whole ridiculous situation . As for PE, getting Cs or Ds is pretty much par for the course around here, even though he’s been training in martial arts for ages and is actually quite talented at it; unfortunately, since the school lacks a proper gym, the curriculum just devolves into playing with a ball, and our coach is—well, let's just say he's about as useful as a screen door on a submarine 😁.
Personally, from fifth grade all the way through high school graduation, I only ever walked away with three Cs in physical education regardless of how hard I pushed myself, so these little grading mishaps don't really faze me one bit...
When I was just a little girl, my first neighbors were devout Christians, yet they were also true-blue die-hard Communists. 😁
As for me today, I don't really fit into either camp...
The distinctions were quite specific, you see: they would have a small tree for Christmas Eve, while our family waited until the end of the holiday season, usually around the 27th or 28th... Oh, and they always had a Nativity scene, which we never did.
For them, gifts arrived during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas, brought by the Baby Jesus, whereas for us, everything happened on New Year's Eve when Santa Claus would make his appearance.
I honestly can't wrap my head around how it all made sense to us kids back then, but somehow, it did... Santa Claus would visit everyone at preschool or elementary school, though even then, we were savvy enough to know it was just the principal in a clever disguise. 😉
I honestly don't think he would have been let in 😁. But since I was just there as a guest, and my friend decided to be lenient, I didn't feel it was my place to step in... though I certainly wasn't part of the decision either. 😛
Well, a dear friend and I once found ourselves in quite the predicament during our college years... One particular night, I was staying over at her rental apartment, and we were both still lounging about in our pajamas the next morning when there was this sudden, sharp knocking at the door. To our absolute bewilderment, it was a local priest accompanied by two altar boys, arriving to perform a house blessing. I turned to my friend, whispering urgently, "What on earth is happening?" and she just looked at me, completely baffled, wondering why anyone would even want a blessing in the first place. Being an atheist myself, and with my friend leaning more toward the agnostic side of things, I decided to step up and politely attempt to explain to the gentleman that a blessing wasn't exactly what we had on our agenda... However, the priest remained quite steadfast, insisting that since the landlord had requested the blessing, he was duty-bound to see it through. My friend, ever the pragmatist, simply shrugged and told him, "Fine, if you absolutely must, then go right ahead."
So, there we were, just sitting on the couch sipping our coffee while he went about his business... We did make one small request, asking if he could perhaps just bless the physical space itself and skip over the actual inhabitants, but, well... one must respect the formalities when they arrive at your doorstep.
Exactly. A close friend of mine has two kids attending that school—one is about six and the other is eight... Religion class always seems to be scheduled as either the very first period or the absolute last one. Everyone ends up taking it. I suppose you could say that’s how most of the grade levels have it structured, though I can't quite wrap my head around why they wouldn't just standardize it for everyone...
I haven't the slightest clue, nor do I have the energy to sign up for anything or engage in any sort of debate; we’ve already pushed through more than half of the schooling years by now, and there's no way the younger ones will end up at this particular school anyway. It isn't just about religion class, mind you, there's a whole host of other matters involved...
And really, who can blame me for moving into the most devout Catholic neighborhood in town? On Sundays, when Mass is being held, you can't even walk down the street without it being completely blocked off because everyone is heading toward the church... 😉
Back in our district, they didn't even bother asking for input... which resulted in nine non-religious kids being split up across four different classrooms, when honestly, they could have easily just been grouped together in one... It’s quite a peculiar setup at our local school, too; most classes where everyone attends religion studies have those lessons scheduled for the very first or very last period of the day, which is how it usually goes... Our generation was actually the first to deal with a classroom dynamic where at least one student in every single group opted out... and because of that little quirk, for our first three years, those classes were always stuck right in the middle of the daily schedule... presumably so they could send us a notification or something...