school

Back to School

Today represents almost 2 years of homeschooling! Some of the pros:

  • We can sleep late! šŸ˜
  • Homeschooling is substantially more affordable!
  • We set our own schedule and go at our own pace. If we feel to skip a day and go to the movies, we sometimes do that!
  • We can pick exciting topics which may not necessarily be covered in a traditional school curriculum.
  • Our focus is learning, not preparing for exams.

But there is also a bittersweet perspective. For us, homeschooling was not a deliberate path. It was a decision made out of necessity. A choice because we had no choice! I saw my son struggling so much with his social anxiety and his dysgraphia that I feared allowing him to continue in his neurotypical school would be detrimental to his health and overall development. The unfortunate reality was the lack of alternatives: zero publicly funded special needs schools equipped to deal with his challenges and private schools which were beyond our finances.

On a day like today, I look at all the back to school photos, proud parents and smiling kids, and I’m reminded of what we don’t have. I’m grateful for the opportunity to homeschool, the flexibility in my work to allow me the time and the progress that has come with that decision. But I’m also sad for the opportunities that my son may be missing. I’m tired of the constant juggling of full-time work, special needs advocacy and single mama-hood. I’m always second guessing myself and wondering how I can approach things differently and how I can make this easier for both of us. So to those moms and dads, who get to count down the days until school re-opens, always know that this isn’t a luxury open to all parents. Be sure to enjoy šŸ˜‰

I know in my heart that this was the right decision for us and will open up paths that we never imagined. But sometimes the journey is tough!

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Education or Torture

Yesterday marked the annual Secondary Education Assessment (SEA)… that revered examination from which a childā€™s future success is determined. TheĀ test that almost always decides the advancement of children in todayā€™s society. Yes, there are those who did not achieve their desired results and went on to incredible success later in life. But the reality is that for many, this examination is the beginning of achievement or struggle.

SEA came about in 2001 as a supposed improvement over the colonial Common Entrance exam. Call it what you want but itā€™s not improvement. In Trinidad, up to 1968,Ā secondary school education wasnā€™t free to the general population. However, a select number of students who achieved success through the College Exhibition, were granted the opportunity to free secondary education. The College Exhibition was later replaced by the Common Entrance Examination, but even with the introduction of free secondary education, there was a prestige established by the exam. The previously existing schools catered to the higher classes of society, who had the financial resources to pay for their childrenā€™s education and it was of paramount importance to maintain that standard of separation. Additional secondary schools were established, but they were not on an even footing. They didnā€™t have the finances to be properly run, inexperienced teachers and a system still being fine-tuned.

50 years later and we still canā€™t figure this out. The prestige schools in the 1970s are still the prestige schools of today. Parents are known to bestow huge rewards on their children for success and toĀ severely punish if their placement is not to the desired standard of excellence. Primary schools focus only on language and mathematics, to the detriment of art, music and sports, because those activities will supposedly have no bearing on success at SEA. At home, children are subjected to hours of homework and revision, with no time for play or relaxation. Children from the age of 9 are suffering from anxiety, nightmares, headaches, depression and countless other behaviors, stemming from this examination. Children have committed suicide due to the pressures arising from this day. And as much as some parents may try to hide their own emotions, they are also contributing their negative energies to an already volatile child.

Don’t get me wrong… Iā€™m not blaming parents. I believe that the vast majority are doing their best with the skills that they have. They believe that a ā€œprestigeā€ secondary school is going to provide a doorway to better. They know that their kids are under pressure but in many instances, donā€™t know what to do about it. My question is… why arenā€™t we pressuring the government and ministry of education to make changes? Why isnā€™t this a more prevalent issue at election time? Strength is in numbers and if 18000 children are sitting this exam annually, thatā€™s a lot of parents whose voices can be heard if they unite.