Friday night we took Caroline to her first high school football game. She had a great time although she did ask if “it could be a little more quiet”. She’s not a fan of loud noises unless she is the one making them.
At one point, P and Caroline went down to the concession stand to get a delicious bean and cheese taco, and by delicious, I mean absolutely disgusting but what do I know? I don’t have the discriminating palate of a 3 year old.
Anyway, while they were gone, a dad comes and sits behind me with his little boy. It just so happens that I knew this little boy was in Caroline’s class last year, but I didn’t really know the dad. Someone asked him where his son was in school this year and he precedes to tell them, and talk about the wonderful curriculum and how superior it is to the school the kids attended last year.
After sitting in front of them for about 30 minutes, I can promise y’all that one thing the new, improved curriculum at the new, improved school doesn’t include is a lesson in how to not kick the back of the person in front of you 184 times in a 3 minute time period. I knew for sure that by the time we left, one of my kidneys was going to be permanently damaged.
Fortunately, the dad was so preoccupied with discussing this new school’s academic superiority that he wasn’t worried about my kidneys or the fact that his son was about to take a header onto the ground below.
I’m sorry, back to my original point.
Apparently, the preschool our children attended last year has a subpar curriculum in his opinion and they aren’t focused enough on educational goals. I guess my standards are a little lower because I was just impressed that they taught Caroline not to throw sand on the playground and how to glue a popsicle stick on some construction paper.
I had no idea that she was going to be so behind because she wasn’t attending a preschool with a curriculum that placed more emphasis on quantum physics and algebraic equations. How on earth is she going to have a chance of getting into the Ivy League with St. Episcopal Preschool as part of her academic record?
I’ll just have to hope and pray that we can overcome this educational deficit in the dog eat dog world of elementary school.
She is also at a new school this year and I have really lofty goals for her academic progress. I’m hoping she might learn to share toys, develop friendships, learn how to slide down the big slide and if we’re really lucky, not pick her nose in a social setting. Now I’m questioning if that will be enough on her kindergarten resume.
Of course, I can take some comfort in the discussion we had on the way to school last week. She told me she didn’t want to go to school today. I said, “Well sweetie, you’re going to school. It’ll be fun and you’ll learn something”. She looked right at me as I was getting her out of her carseat and told me, “I’m going to school, but I’m NOT going to learn anything”.
I guess all this worrying about school curriculums may be an exercise in futility given the fact that we are talking about stubborn, willful 3 year olds who aren’t really worried about our agendas as much as they are worried about whose turn it is to be line leader on the way to chapel and if they’re going to get any candy today.