A while back, I was thinking about content scheduling and how to try to plan posts better for the future. I thought for the month of October, it might be fun to share some real life “horror” stories.

I jotted down a couple of ideas, looked at them the last time I posted, and here it is October already. And now the idea of real life “horror” stories no longer sounds like fun, because of the challenges of day to day living. Our systems are broken and getting even more so with our toddler in charge looking up to the regressed tween boy attitude of a one time hero.

The week started off with my tween child tripping over one of our fast moving dogs and fracturing his fibula. Nothing like learning how inefficient a healthcare system can be than by having to move through it – slowly.

I finally got him scheduled to see a specialist tomorrow morning. (And I’m grateful it didn’t take longer).

Meanwhile, I think my son got a helping of some universal karma, because he had been refusing to go to school for the past couple of weeks. Not because of anything that happened, just because he was finding it boring and not worth the time. (And not thinking much of the idea of personal responsibility).

I had no idea how to deal with this and had been talking with the sixth grade guidance counselor at his school somewhat regularly throughout this. She shared with me that I am not the only parent struggling with this issue. We discussed online options and other things that might be tried, like reaching out to the truancy office, which she did last Friday.

So when the dropout prevention officer called me on Monday after we had returned from urgent care, I mostly listened to what he had to say. He wanted to know what he could do to support us. All I could think of (but didn’t say), was why can’t schools be a place where kids want to be? Middle school has sucked for eons and yet the format remains the same. I want outdoor, hands-on, experiential learning – not just for my kid, but for any who wants it. I ant them getting their hands dirty with garden science and then cleaning up for digital creativity.

I want teachers to get paid an honorable salary, including pre-school teachers. I want people to stop being selfish about paying for “other peoples kids”, when we are all in this together. Someday one will need help from someone who is a kid today, if one lives long enough.

And I want to stop being charged for things like computers and trumpets that I know my son returned. He never even brought the Chromebook home. It was always only used in school, so how can the school say it was never returned? Possibly because it was collected during recess when the soon to retire teacher was absent and there was a substitute? I have another charge on my son’s account associated with a Chromebook from a school he never even attended. How does an error like that happen accidentally? And it’s up to me to call this unknown school to get the mistake corrected.

The dropout prevention officer mentioned things I already knew like my son needing to learn social skills and presentation skills for entering the workforce later. And I’m thinking the workforce? The same one that uses as much as it can from people and then spits them out when they’re done?

Nah, that’s not what I want for my child. I want him to build his skills so that he can choose how to contribute to his world in a way where he is compensated fairly for his contributions. F*ck the workforce.

And my son wants to be a YouTuber and there is no middle school curriculum that supports that in my son’s school district. Can you imagine if there was? Maybe it wouldn’t be as common a problem for this segment of society to get to school if there was actually something they were looking forward to doing. And they are already doing so much with having access to the internet for their entire lives, basically. They’re changing language faster than I’ve seen it change before.

Anyway, I’ve been moving slowly and repairing things. It’s my act of rebellion in this crazy world.