So. Here's the sordid school affair post.
When we were looking at schools for our eldest at age 5, we only considered public schools. Since we're Afrikaans and living in a mostly-Afrikaans community, the public schools around here are plentiful and exceptionally good. There were no reason to look futher than what was around us, and I come from the public school system myself, with parents who worked for the Department of Education.
We went to 2 of the nearest schools' open days. The one didn't impress us at all. They had 6 grade R classes, with 20 kids each, thus 120 children. I thought it CRAZY. My precious, shy, quiet little boy, one of 120 other little ones??? No way!!
The 2nd school had the opposite effect on us. They impressed us immediately. The way the school was run, the teachers, the school grounds and surrounds, etc. Most of all though, it was the fact that they were the smallest school around that impressed us most. There were only 2 classes in grade R, with a total of about 40 kids. We were assured that classes will be kept to 18-20 kids per class, and in grade 1 to 22 children.
Yeah. Right.
We believed it!
In the beginning, the school was so great. I really loved it. Mr N was so happy in grade R, and adapted very easily. The 2 teachers were very good and experienced, Mr N made friends, and it was a real "community" spirit. Even when Boeboe joined 2 years later, it was still a fantastic school. The standard was good, though of course by this stage, we had a few smallish complaints. Like the fact that the grade 1 teacher didn't teach them well enough how to form letters. Both my children struggles today to know where a letter has to start. It's a pity. Still, it was small, normal complaints. No school is perfect, and not all teachers at a good school are exceptional.
When Boeboe started grade R, there were about 54 kids, and still just 2 classes. So she was one of 27! We had no choice but to accept this. She was happy, and being amongst 54 kids were still good. She did well and made a few good friends. Most of the other surrounding schools were all well over a 100 grade R's. So 54 still counted as a "small" school.
As they went up in grades, there were more and more classes added, so in grade 1 Boeboe was one of 22 kids, in 4 classes. In a way, it helped, of course. 22 vs 27 in class made a big difference. But being 1 out of 54 kids in grade R was much better than being 1 out of 88 kids in grade 1!!! People seemed to mostly being bothered by the number of kids WITH their child in the classroom. To me, that's not the only important thing. When there's a breaktime, or a sports event or practice, or something going on, even some periods like MBK (psychical, I think called PT in America?), then the WHOLE grade participates together. So then you're one tiny, shy little girl out of 88 others. It just cannot be easy or nice, not if you have Boeboe's personality. The more movement and activity there is around her, the more she backs into a corner, and tries to hide away. Quite similar with Mr N. So over the years, they dissapeared more and more. They had less and less friends. They didn't feature anywhere anymore. No sports, no culture, nothing. They just literally dissapeared. (Apart from Mr N's tennis, in which he made team and competed in the legue for his school. He enjoyed it thoroughly!!)
Now, it gets worse. Where Boeboe and Mr N are each 1 out of about 100 in their grade, Monkeyman is one of 150 grade R kids!!! Put into 6 classes, thus 25 kids per class. Usually without any assistants. Just the teacher and the 25 kids. We're lucky though, there's a young girl studying to become a teacher, and she's assigned to our class, so Monkeyman does have an assistant teacher. Thank God. But just the thought that for the next 6 years, he's always going to be 1 out of 150 kids, gives me the creeps. 1 out of 150 others vying for the 6 teachers' attention, trying to do academically well, participating in events and sports and compete. He's gonna dissapear too!!! So the school grew from about 700 when we started there, to almost 1000. And in the next 6 years, this is going to grow to about 1400 (because they added 50 kids into grade R, that will be phased in for grades 1-7).
The other problem I have with 100+ kids per grade, is that from grade 4, when children starts to have different subjects with different teachers in our country, that means that for example a subject like maths, the teacher have 4 classes in that grade that he teaches. So in total, he still have 100+ kids whose homework he has to check, 100+ exams he needs to mark, 100+ kids who he has to get to know and make sure they stay "up to par". (And 150 in the future with Monkeyman!) This, I believe, is where a load of things go wrong with the kids. Because no teacher has the time to mark homework a couple of times a week or even once a month, when he has 150 books to work through! No teacher has the capability, to know which children of that 150 has fallen behind or didn't understand a part of the work. And just think about it. What human being will enjoy having 6 classes every day, where they have to repeat the work EVERY TIME. Six times in a row. Every day. How boring!! You'll have to be an exceptional teacher to keep that momentum going every day, and make sure the 6th class get the same enthusiasm and effort that the first one did!
I know that in alot of countries, it's normal to have schools of 1000 or 2000 or even more kids. But I grew up in a school where we were 150 kids from grade 1 to grade 12! So seeing 150 kids in a single grade, is seriously overwhelming to me. I really think that it was my saving grace, being in such a small school. I'm pretty sure things would've turned out much worse for me otherwise. As I'm seeing happening with my kids. They don't have autism. But they both have a lot of autistic traits. Diagnosed as such by 2 specialists over a couple of years in Boeboe's case. And I see the same in Mr N, though not nearly as much or as bad as in Boeboe (who doesn't have enough traits to have Aspergers, but a good few that it was suspected numerous times). This, I believe, is one of the reasons my children suffer in school. I know they'll be fine. They have been fine, and will continue to be fine, in their current school. But will they ever excell again?? No. Will they ever reach their full potensial again? No. Will they ever do academically as well as they're able to? No. Not until we, as parents, realise that this setup isn't working for them. Which we did.
When Mr N was 4, he was evaluated by an occupational therapyst and we realised we have an extremely intelligent little boy. (He for example tested age 9 and above on all levels bar one, at age 4). It was confirmed by his neurologist a couple of years later. So we weren't surprised when he got very high marks during grades R-3. Even grade 4, when they had 9 subjects (he did a different curriculum to what's done today), wrote exams and had classes with different teachers (not 1 teacher all day anymore), he still did very well. Mostly what I think the American's call "straight A's". Grade 5 and 6 he went over from the old education system, to the new curriculum introduced by the department of Education. Called CAPS. And his marks went down. We left it be. We thought he was just spreading his wings, testing boundaries at age 11 and 12. All normal, not true?
Then he started in grade 7 this year. And his average fell with more than 20%. Not only that, some individual subjects he did atrocious. Normally, when something like this happens so quickly, on this scale, everyone would assume something terrible is wrong. No, not our school. Because not only did Mr N's marks fell, ALL the grade 7's marks fell. Most with an average of about 20%. So clearly it wasn't Mr N specific, or something that happened to only him, that could explain it. All the parents were up in arms and got very upset. The school pacified us and said oh, don't worry. All kids do badly in the first (of 4) exams in grade 7, because grade 7's curriculum is part of high school, so even though they're psysically still part of the primary school, they're treated as high school students. And this is a shock to the system, so their averages usually takes a dip, which recovers itself by the 2nd exam.
This didn't sit well with me. I'm extremely involved in my children's lives, and know exactly what they study, how the work looks, what it's about, etc. I had my own theories about what went wrong with MY child. Not the class, group or whatever. Just MY child. But the teachers all assured us we're worrying about nothing. Yeah right. Second exam came round, and 59% of the kids failed. Yes, read that again. 59% of the grade 7's failed their June exams. FAILED. Not struggled. Not fell behind or dipped in average. THEY FAILED. Almost 60% failed. How is that even POSSIBLE??????
This time, the parents were stinking, blinking mad. And what did the school do? They refused to listen to our rants. They organised an information evening where THEY told US what went wrong, why and what they're doing to fix it. Without EVER giving the parents a voice, or a chance to voice their grievances. They let the Department of Education came, who did a thorough investigation, and determined that the standard of our exams were a bit "too high", "too difficult", "too advanced", in some subjects. But that there's not really anything wrong. Not with the school, the general standard or the teachers.
So where did that leave us? Well, the school put some (really wonderful) steps in place which has made a difference already. For one, they employed another teacher so that instead of the 3 teachers for grade 7, there were now 4. Thus, 24 kids per class instead of the 32 they were during the first half of the year. They also spread the workload of the teachers. And all math classes had 2 teachers in the classroom. Though maths was the least of Mr N's worry. He still did exceptionally well in it. Unfortunately, a number of children were not as lucky, and maths was one of the subjects that needed urgent help the most. You can see why I thought my child's problem wasn't completely the same as everyone else's problem.
So what to do? We didn't know. We were scared, we felt lost, and very, very worried. What would happen with our boy in High school, grade 8, next year? Personally, I didn't believe it was just the standard of our current school's exams that were too high. Or the fact that the teachers were expecting too much from kids that were still just... kids. My theory goes much, much bigger than that.
When Apartheid was abolished, the government overhauled the whole education system. We had a fantastic education system for about 4 decades, but unfortunately it was mostly implemented in the so-called "white" schools. So I understood that the new government thought it best to overhaul the whole education system. Unfortunately, within 5 years, it was clear that the new system was failing. So again, a new system was designed. This system failed as well, though there were definite margins of improvement. So, they tried a third system. My children was taught this system, called OBE (outcome based education). Mr N was taught OBE in grades 1-4. I disliked OBE intensely. It was cumbersome, it failed to teach the basics as repeatedly as was necessary to instill a good foundation, and the workload was too much. It also relied heavily on teamwork between children, which was a drawback to someone like Mr N. He's extremely responsible, dilligent and respectful. He could not understand how or why children would act undisciplined in class, disrespectful towards the teacher or uninterested in doing their work. Trying to work in a team with such children caused him alot of frustration and marks worse than what he would've gotten on his own.
So when OBE was replaced, once again, with another education system, I was one of those that cheered hardest. Especially when we realised that the Department of Education has turned full circle, and has gone back to a system similar to the one used during Apartheid. There were less teamwork, and a little bit less tasks, projects and such (still way too much for my liking). The one BIG advantage of the new system, called CAPS, were that they reverted back to handbooks. Yay!!! The old OBE system allowed the teachers to decide by themselves, on an individual basis, which workbooks and notes they're implementing. Now, with CAPS, there's prescribed handbooks like in our days (when I were a child). The handbooks are the same all over the country, so that any child could move to any school, and be on the same standard at any stage during any given year. So even if you move halfway throughout the year, the work is the same, and done at the same tempo, so the child just falls in in the new school, without missing too much. The Department of Education has set prescriptions for every teacher. What must be done when, which term, how long to spend on what chapter, etc. They even prescribed what tests or assessments must be done, how much it counts, and so forth. Very limiting to the teachers, but great for standardizing. I loved it! I loved the promise of CAPS. I loved what it would mean for my children.
Until it was phased in.
Slowly, I realised that with all the good it brought with it, there was one huge disadvantage. The workload was doubled. From OBE that was already too much for little minds, CAPS was worse. Much, much worse. The subjects in grade 4 and 5 were reduced from 9 back to 6, which were FANTASTIC and probably the reason why Boeboe can still cope. She would NOT have coped with the grade 4 that Mr N had to cope with, writing 9 exams and studying 9 subjects' work. BUT, the workload per subject has increased with the new system, and especially from grade 7. It's an inhuman amount of work they have to memorise, study, work through. And from grade 7 it's back to 9 subjects again.
This workload can be seen in 2 areas. The one is the sheer amount of work that's covered per year, as well as at what age this workload is covered. For example, with OBE, the children only really started on their 2nd language in grade 2. Now, with CAPS, they start in grade 1 (age 6-7). Instead of starting to write letters in grade 1, they now do it in grade R. Money-word sums in maths is now part of the grade 1 curriculum (even though they can barely read!!).
Instead of for example have 100 facts about the emigration of the Khoi and San in Southern Africa in grade 5, they now study 200 facts about it in grade 4, and again 300 facts about this in grade 5 and then another 600 facts about it in grade 7!! It's just absolutely crazy, the amount of work they want the kids to get through.
My son has studied the same and more facts about economic management in grade 7 than what I had covered in grade 12. The experiments he does in natural sciences is the same now in grade 7, than what we did in grade 10 and 11. Why do they do this? And what's the advantages?
I don't know. Maybe it gets the kids used to much more work than what we had to face. Maybe it prepares them better for univarcity. Because in our day, only the top 5% or so went to univarcity. It was for the elite. Now, every 2nd child goes and studies a bachelors degree!! No wonder the country has a problem with good handy people. People that can do the physical work needed to run a successful country.
So CAPS is a sign of our times. Getting kids ready for a world that's crazy. Expecting so much from 18-year olds at univarcity, and getting them ready to make it in this tough economic world of ours. I get it, and I understand that it was necessary. I still don't think CAPS is all bad. Not at all. The good still overshadows the bad of it. I think it's a wonderful step in the right direction for our kids. BUT, it's still just a step, in my opinion. I don't think it's the end result just yet. Because they're going to realise that does not matter at what speed the world change and evolves and adapts, children stay children. Children needs time, love and play to grow. To learn. You just simply cannot expect the same from today's 10-year olds, than what you expected of the 15-year olds of 3 decades ago, just because you think it's necessary!! The 10-year olds of today still needs the same amount of playtime, moddycoddling, love, nurturing and emotional guidance than what they needed a hundred and a thousand years ago.
So it's fine to say times have changed, and adapt the curriculum to this. But keep in mind that you're working with children. Not static objects. And children needs to be children. They need time. Time to love. Time to learn. Time to play. Time to study. Time to participate. Time to wait. Time to be lazy. Time to relax. Time to read. Time to do nothing. Time. They need time. And taking all that time away from them, and expecting them to still grow normally... it's certain to fail.
This is just my opinion. And why I say the issue is much, much bigger than just my little boy that didn't do well in school because the standard was "a bit high". Much, much bigger. There's a lot more I can say about this. About countries all over the world that push, and countries that starts to realise that what we need, is to get back to raising children, and not raising a workforce when they're just babies still. But this post is already way too long.
So our solution? Well, we can't change the world. We can't change our country's drive to get back to the standard we had before Apartheid was abolished. We can't change our school system. We can't change our school. We just know that life should not BE like this. Life should not consist of studying day after day after day, for 5 weeks in a row, 4 times a year. Just to pass. Not when you're an above intelligent boy that should not have to study this hard. Life should not consist of a mom and dad's life revolving around exam times. We can't even visit friends for a coffee when it's exam time. We can't take an evening off where they just might get to bed too late, which might make them too tired to get the huge amount of facts into their heads the next morning. We can't even braai or do a family thing together for a Saturday lunch, because they have to study. The little ones have to walk on tiptoe, so as not to disturb the studying kids. There's no playtime really. Just small little breaks. They study, and study, and study. And I'm the one standing with a whip behind them, encouraging, summarising, quizzing and supporting and making sure they study. Because if I don't, if they don't, they FAIL. And what will happen when they fail? What future will they have when they can't even pass primary school?
Life should NOT be like this for primary school children. Life should NOT be like this at all. Not for us as parents either. Yes, small, short bursts of tests or exams are necessary and good. But 20 of the 52 weeks a year??? At age 10??? No way! I refuse to believe that this is normal nor acceptable!!
So what can we do about it? We can look at our children as individuals, list our options, and see which one fits them best. And that's precisely what we did. Our options were limited, pity. But for example, things we can do to get them educated are:
- Move to the country where the pace of life for children is much slower. (Not an acceptable option, since my husband's work is situated in the city only).
- Homeschool (only an option when all else fails - reasons I'll discuss in another post, since it's long)
- Homeschool centre (definately an option, but seemingly an extremely expensive option. In our currency, sounds like it could be anything around R3000-R6 000 per child!!!) That's 3-6x what we pay now!
- Another public school (an option, but will only fix a small part of the bigger problem). The children would still be unhappy due to the big number of children. They would still "dissapear" in the masses. They would still do CAPS. They would still be part of the bigger "system". Part of the bigger problem as I see it.
- Go talk to our current school's teachers/principle. (Not an option anymore, we've tried it multiple times already. With very limited success.)
- Stick to the school they are in currently, and hope for the best. Well, we've tried this for 3 terms now, and guess what? 8 of the 24 grade 7's in my son's school has, again, failed this term. Fortunately, Mr N isn't one of them. With ALOT of hard work (a huge chunk of that from my side!) he has risen in average with 10%, and did very well in some subjects. Really well.
So if all of the above options aren't really options, what can we do? Private schooling. It's the only solution I've researched, that seems like it might just be the answer to our prayers. Unfortunately though, we can't afford the expensive, big private schools. Not at all. So I never looked into this option until a friend of mine told me about a school close to our house that has gone through a few changes which made it an option for us. Financially, and in other ways. So here's the advantages (for OUR family, OUR kids) of this particular school:
- VERY small. Only about 90 kids at the moment, from grade 1-7. Next year, they start with grade 8, year after that grade 9, etc.
- Classes of about 10-12, though in some instances it can and will grow to about 20 kids. But still only one class per grade, maybe growing to 2. The grounds are too small to handle a school bigger than about 500. And that's from grade R-12!! So next year, Boeboe and Mr N will be about 1 of 10 kids in their class/grade, and Monkeyman 1 of about 20.
- Quality teachers
- In our hometongue, Afrikaans
- Supporting our religion and culture completely (huge advantage to us)
- Supporting children that needs that extra bit, because teachers have the time and knows what each child is capable of, if they understand the work or not, etc.
- No huge time constraints like in the bigger schools. Kinder to children who's slower, for example. Because they can. They have the time, because they deal with 10 kids, and not 150.
- They do their own curriculum in primary school, so no CAPS. And in high school, they do Cambridge International (from the UK). I need and want to say alot more about the subjects in CAPS, but this post is so long now, I'll leave it be for now. Maybe I'll get back to this.
There's more advantages, like all 3 children in one school, not far to drive, etc.etc. But those are kinda cherry on the cake advantages, not reasons to move your child to that school. The above is the major advantages to us.
It's been a really, really hard decision for us, and we've been thinking almost constantly about it for about 2-3 months now. So it's not taken lightly. We've spoken to the principle, the teachers, the owner of the school, some of the kids, etc. We've looked at it from different angles. We spoke to other parents whose kids were there, but who moved them out for various reasons to other schools. So we're trying to go into this with huge, open eyes. Still, it's scary. It's been a really difficult decision, and it consumed us. We've almost reached the point now where we believe this will be the right thing for our family.
Change, to me, is one of the most difficult things. I hate change. My eldest has been in his school for 8 years. Boeboe has been here for 6 of that 8. They've both only been in 2 schools. Their pre-school/playschool from ages 4-5, and then this current primary school. I don't do change well, not even for my children. They'll probably be fine, but for me, this is huge. This is really, really, really huge. If I hated their current school, maybe it might have been easier. But I still like them. I still think they're one of the best in the area. I still believe in them! But for my kids, we need something different. It took us a long, long time to realise this. That despite our children's good qualities, their dilligence, their intelligence, they're not coping in normal, big-city, mainstream school. So we're moving them. And it saddens me no end. Every day this week, I parked the car, and after 8 years of parking in the same few spots, I get tears in my eyes. I walk through the gates, I look at the flowers, the neat grounds, the little strawberries on the grounds, and I just want to cry. I really love their school. And it saddens me to move the kids. To know that Monkeyman won't move over to the "big" side where the grade 1-3's are. That he won't get to wear his brother's old school clothes that I packed away for him. That we'll never have a photo of him on the fridge next to his siblings, in that school's clothes. That we'll never get to see him play in the school's tennis team as we did Mr N. Ag man, I can just cry. I absolutely hate change. It's gonna take me a few months to get used to the new school. Until then, I'm gonna be a mess of sadness, indecision, worry and stress. There's a number of negatives of the new school, that's positives in our current school, that I'll have to accept. Like the anonymity of being one of thousands of parents. I can just dissapear. Suits me perfectly. Now, in the new school, I'll be one of about 160 parents. No chance to dissapear. Anyway, we'll make this work. And I know it'll be better. Anything will be better than the year we had. Children should still be children, and it seems that in this new school, that's exactly what they will be.
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