Skip to main content

High School Blues.

I keep misplacing the tuition subsidy forms for 2011/2012.  Not just because I don't want to pay the thousands of dollars I still owe them from the past school year, though that’s part of it.

I just really, really don't want to send her back there – or anywhere.  :-(

It is creating a level of stress that our family simply does not need… but the tough part is putting my finger on exactly what “it” is.  Some of the stress is normal teenage stuff we would have even if she wasn’t in school full-time.  But I think stress over school is adding to that, very unnecessarily.

Leaving school would KILL her social life.  Not just decimate, but perhaps destroy it.  Indeed, social life was one of my main criteria for choosing this particular school – not that there were a ton of choices, but it’s a school where the girls seem happy and there’s a lot of fun stuff going on all year.

I mentioned getting together with friends outside of school, but when all your friends are there from 8:30 to 5:30, there is no “outside of school.”  Plus, at school, they’re interacting with each other constantly, so you’re automatically an outsider if you’re not with them all the time.

But what about the fact that the school isn’t doing its core job – educating my daughter?  Or perhaps she’s not doing her part – getting an education.  When her personality clashes with the teachers’, she learns nothing.  This past year, that meant history and math were pretty much write-offs.

I haven’t seen her complete report card yet… and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t arrived.  I thought it got snagged in the mail strike, but that’s over and it’s still not here.  So I don’t know exactly what the damage was in most subjects.  Do I want to know?

Her bottom line:  She doesn’t want to leave school.  Says she WON’T leave.

My bottom line:  I don’t want to keep pouring money into an institution that I can see every day is making her miserable.

Do I get to make this call just because I (sometimes) pay the tuition bills???

Comments

  1. If her marks are suffering in any case, and you don't imagine that will improve next year, then why not consider it just a social outlet? Take the pressure off for her to get the marks, let her stay home as often as she wants this year... let her fail the year, if need be. She can always get her GED later, go through College to University (or whatever happens in Israel).

    Not about marks (my were good), but in terms of staying home, I stayed home several days a month, for health reasons, and I was still able to keep up with schoolwork. So more days home doesn't mean more failure. It might be just what she needs to recharge and do better?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Shira "why not consider it just a social outlet?" Because $500 or so a month is a LOT to pay for a "social outlet." :-o
    I could increase her "mental health days" for this year. But I don't think it will help.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You,...

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful....

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused o...