STRESS: You Keep Using that Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.

Tonight when I went into my sons' room to tuck them in my oldest told me that he was "Stressed about something at school."

Lots of things ran through my mind; bullying, recess, the fitness challenge, etc.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Well," he told me, "We have this project to do where we have to read a short story and then there are 8 questions about it and we have to answer four of them."

"So what's the problem?" I asked him.

"I keep forgetting the book at school." he said, "It's due Friday and I haven't even started it."

"So bring the book home tomorrow and we'll get it done." I told him.

"Ok." he said and laid down.

"Wait," I said, "Go downstairs and make a note to yourself in your folder to bring the book home so you don't forget."

So he did.

Later, when I came upstairs to go to bed I found a note on my desk.  It read, "READ!!!: All the Famous People were homeschooled.  PLEASE! Can I too?  Public School is to stressful! People who are Homeschooled are smarter!"

I laughed and wondered how being homeschooled would solve the stress of forgetting to do his homework.  Then I realized that I SUPPOSE you can never forget your work at school if you are homeschooled.  On the other hand, you never leave school!  

THAT would be stressful.

I'm sorry that my son wants to be homeschooled.  He's very bright and goes to a small school so I know that it's challenging for him to find people he has a lot in common with.  If we won the lottery tomorrow I think that I would enjoy homeschooling my children - if we had the money to build a home with a dedicated "school area" and if we had the money to take long "educational" trips.

But I don't think that homeschooling is going to work for us right now.

And I don't think it's going to solve the problem that my son wants to solve - namely not having to do the things he doesn't want to do.

My husband has mentioned moving to Texas a couple of times.  Last week my OTHER son asked hopefully, "Do they have SCHOOLS in Texas?"

He was of course hoping that they didn't.

I'm sorry that my kids think they're stressed out.  I'm happy that the most "Stress" they have in their lives is not wanting to do their homework.

Comments

[DaddyRunsALot]

Yes, school, itself, is stressful enough -- but that seems to be regular old "be a kid" stress. That said, I get the idea that you as a teacher would be equally "stressful," if not more so, than whatever your son deals with, currently.

Ultimately, the kid just doesn't want to go to school -- not that I blame him :-)

[Jenny]

Poor guy! I used to get physically sick every morning before school. I homeschool our kids {and we're - by standards not our own - "poor", and can't afford a school room or trips}, but I know that not everyone feels ready/able to tackle it. It's taken me 5 years to find our groove {unschooling}, and now it's mostly smooth sailing. You didn't ask, but I wanted to share! :)
I hope that your son finds peace with learning.

xo

Jenny

[Kana]

Way to have a kid that says things like, "I keep forgetting the book at school, it's due Friday and I haven't even started."

My roomie's a teacher. Guess how many of HIS kids worry about that.

I'll give you a hint -- the digit is shaped like a goose egg.

[Handflapper]

My 14yo nephew just came to live with us this because. He has missed over half the days of school this year and has a 1% grade average in most of his classes. One percent! I don't even know how that's possible. He is so stressed by family stuff he has migraines and vomits all day long 3-4 days out of the week. Your kids are lucky!

[CR]

My daughter used to ask me to be homeschooled as well. (Citing the same sort of reasons). Then one day, I realized that in her small private school; she was bored with the kids. She need more social outlets; and she was not accepted in the "in" crowd. With only 12 kids in the class, if you were not in, you were alone. She is now in a public school with 700 kids and is THRIVING... dig deeper into your son's request for homeschool.