Acquara Independent School

Avery went to Goddard and I continue to get a kick out of the freelies. It gives me sympathy for the teachers who have to write that they talked about the first Olympics and signed the word “past” to two year olds, But the bigger question is, do the “curriculum specialists” or whoever at Goddard headquarters really believe this shit (are they that out of touch with child development?) or do they know that this type of stuff sounds good to parents who choose not to really think about whether they are really reaching the kid’s zone of proximal development and just like the sound of all that stuff. At two, I just want my kids to be able to explore a lot of sensory experiences and to have a language rich environment (which means using language to talk about things that two year olds actually understand and are not completely abstract.) I actually think they DO do this there, just that the reports are just so stupidly over-the-top. I would actually like to really KNOW what my kid does all day and not be given a load of BS. I know some of it is true, but I don’t feel it should be my job to pick the truth out from the crap.

I tried to have school today but was too sick and nauseous to pull it off. throwing up all weekend. It is the usual problem, which I am now hoping is some kind of perimenopause thing, which would be good because that is normal and not something like cancer, and can be dealt with to an extent. Very, very very annoying. Four solid days of pain, dizzyness and vomiting.

The one thing that did happen is that we looked at the “Sergei” file for the first time, including listening to the taped interview. I have told them bits and pieces about Sergei, but this is the first time they showed interest in reading the file. It is also the first time that Nik has ever seen/listened to the file. So, it all went well. Nik having a background where Belarus was as close as Idaho is to us and then living in Little Poland in T.O. helped fill in some of the cultural blanks. That was really interesting. It is amazing the back-ass wards and really, nonexistant world cultural education I got growing up in the midwest. Although my immediate family was never overtly racist, they were not knowledgeable and there was a lot of racism in my extended family. I grew up with no concept of Belarus, and Russia being the evil USSR that was a one dimensional comic strip bad guy. All I knew of Poland, I am embarrassed to say, were of Pollack jokes. The admiration that Nik has for the Polish and for the eastern bloc countries from Estonia down to the Ukraine is something that I just never grew up with. He tells of independence, athleticism, high priority on education especially math and sciences, and of problem solving and “get the job done” attitude. It fits in beautifully with the little that we do know about Sergei. Having him here to give first-hand (or at least second-hand) knowledge of these cultures was, I think, a huge help in giving the kids a more full picture of the unknown part of their genetics, and done in a much more positive way than I probably ever could have done. I think that instead of technically being half Belarussian Ashenazi Jews being this strange foreign thing, it gave them a sense of pride in it. I can see them getting into this file every few years, and each time getting a deeper understanding of the information it entails and what it may mean, if anything, to them. As their donor sibling, Jonas’s mom said to me once, we cannot cross these bridges for them, we just have to be available however we can when and if they want to cross it themselves.

Filed under: Communication, Spirituality | Tagged: Goddard School |