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Edited on Tue Nov-15-05 06:41 AM by Maddy McCall
was a teacher's aid pinching and twisting his tricep, leaving an orange sized, black and blue bruise on the backside of his upper arm--and her nails broke the skin. He was ten when it happened. As a result of all of this, he suffered emotionally--I won't detail it all here. Anyway, after the abuse, I went to the principal. I went to the superintendent--all to no avail. Instead of fighting them, I chose to preserve our sanity and take my kid out of school.
I could tell you so much about our experiences with this school. The elementary office secretary told me that my son "would get along much better if he'd just go to church." I set her straight. I told her that, first of all, she was treading into a private area of our lives in which she had no business, neither professionally nor personally. Second, I told her that, unless she was snooping or gossiping, she had no way of knowing what our religious beliefs and church attendance was like, since we didn't wear our religious affiliation on our sleeves. That was the beginning of the end--and this happened when my boy was in kindergarten.
The sad thing is that all of these kids are being taught by women (no male elementary teachers at all) who feel it is their mission to become teachers, so that they can enter the vile public schools to reform them and bring God to the children. They think of themselves as professional martyrs. I heard one say, "If I want to pray with a child, I'll pray with him. Damn the laws."
For that, our children's education suffers.
I have a year until I finish my dissertation, at which time, the world is wide open for my son and me. Now, don't get me completely wrong--I love the climate, the food, the better parts of the culture here. I'm close to New Orleans and Natchez, so there are plenty of fun things to do. The public schools really suck, though. (And the private ones were founded during integration, so they are lily-white "Christian academies." ) No choice, here.
But the school systems here are a total loss, at least in my area of the state, where Southern Baptists rule supreme.
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