My daughter went up to fifth grade this year. Taller and more beautiful and sweeter with each passing year, she was delighted to go to school this year.
Each year the school has an arrangement. The government places strict limits on class size, which is 35. If enrollment for a given grade exceeds 35 students, then there must be two classes. What our school does is enroll several students who are homeschooled, and persuade others to register who actually intend to go to another school. The result is that it can turn in enough names to permit two classes to be hosted, thus preserving at least two jobs, and much higher educational quality. Meanwhile some kids move on to the big schools, where we are always being urged to send our kid, since they really crack down on the kids there, and class sizes are huge. It's an article of faith among the parents that bigger must be better, and at PTA meetings the parents and old graduates complain that the school is too small. We love it....
Last year was a social nightmare for my daughter, stuck in a class with only one friend and ignored and abused by the other girls. This year the classes were mixed up again, and she got in with all her friends. A new teacher came as well, who, as my daughter put it, yelled at everyone, kicked a table, and then apologized for his behavior.
Looking forward to much blogging on the politics of fifth grade again...
[Taiwan]
4 comments:
I'll look forward to reading about the 'politics of the fifth-grade' :)
my daughter is going into fifth grade too, in NJ. The other daughter is going into fourth. Why was your daughter ignored/abused by her classmates last year? Do they treat her a lot differently since she is mixed?
For Pete's sake, these are the fifth graders. They are just a bunch of kids. Kids don't hate a kid because he/she is a mixed. There must be a reason.
God help her if she goes to class and brag about how great DPP and president Chen is....
PL said...
For Pete's sake, these are the fifth graders. They are just a bunch of kids. Kids don't hate a kid because he/she is a mixed. There must be a reason.
My daughter befriended a girl with learning disabilities, and stubbornly stuck by her even though the other kids abused that girl. So the in-clique abused her as well, and snubbed her. It was a painful year, and a painful lesson.
Michael
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