Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Moving On

First off, some knitting stuff. Here's the sweater I'm currently working on:
It's for Older Son. You may recall, he's a redhead and these colors will look good on a redhead (So Celtic Queen, who coincidentally by some freak play of genetics has the exact same color hair as OS, assures me.) And it was a skein of this yarn that was lost at Damon's. I'm knitting on size 6 needles, so it may take awhile. I think I'll do EZ's "Nalgar" shoulder, I've been intrigued by it for awhile and have wanted to try it. I think it also may enhance OS's broad shoulders.

Other Stuff
Thanks sooo much for your support of Younger Son and I in his troubles with bullies. I have homeschooled both of my sons in the past, but my husband insists that they attend public school. Bullying is endemic in the district, at least in the elementary and middle school grades. One of my neighbors actually moved to get away from it. In the incident where YS's glasses were broken, the children involved attended the elementary school, so although I reported it to the counselor at YS's middle school I didn't bother with the elementary school because I knew (from bitter experience, I tell you!) that the principal would do nothing. In fact I was kinda hoping to hear from her -- I SOOOO wanted to say to her "Well, as you so often said to me when I came to you with problems, 'It's one child's word against another's, there's nothing we can do'". While I don't go crazy maintaining that my kids are blameless (I know they're not saints) I do insist that rules be enforced equally and fairly. (Which they rarely were, hence my run-ins with the administration.) Also, I feel my role as a parent is to be my child's advocate (If I won't who will?). I could go on and on and list several horrible incidents, but that's not what we're all here for. The outcome I would like to see from the incident is this: I want the school to tell my husband and I that they have spoken to the parents involved here and have been assured by them that nothing like this will happen again. (I think that's completely reasonable.) If that doesn't happen then I will do everything in my power to get a restraining order against these people so I can have them arrested if they come near my kids again.

3 comments:

Heather said...

mmm,handsome sweater. And how very smart of you to knit in the round.:) I dare say, all of mine will be from now on! *giggle*

Liz said...

Relative to the violence against your son, I think it was John Holt who pointed out that this sort of behavior was not tolerated anywhere else in society. If an adult had come up to you and smashed your glasses it would not have fallen into the category of boys will be boys. They would have been charged with assault. No one is doing these young thugs a favor by giving them a pass on this at this age.

What does your husband see as the advantage of having the kids in school? Is it the socialization or the academics? Or does he perhaps think that they will be better off for encountering bullies and dealing with them while they are young (I know some men feel that way)? Is he aware of the negative impact that bullying has on a child's emotional development? Is the school administration aware of it?

Seriously, someone needs to be proactive about a zero tolerance on bullying rather than just a zero tolerance on fighting. There was a book written a year or so ago, for kids, that addressed the subject of bullying. I don't recall the author's name, I only know that I saw an interview on a Vermont station with the author, so I assume that he is at least now living in Vermont. You might check the subject out on Amazon.

Be sure to document the incidents (time, place, persons involved), so that if you later need to involve the police you'll have some record.

Anonymous said...

Trust me he's going to look great in that sweater. I like the colors even more now that I see them knit up. He'll have to beat the girls off with a stick. :)