School has all ready started in NC where my friend, Susan lives.  Today she mentioned all the paperwork that the school sent home for her to fill out.  It doesn't really matter where your kids attend school because it's the same everywhere!  Each year the school sends home a truck load of forms to be filled out for each child attending the school.  This has always annoyed the heck out of me.  It is especially a time wasting chore (not to mention the redundancy!)  when the child has attended the same school for 3-4 years!  I mean, why fill it out AGAIN when the kids still live at the same address, still have the same siblings, phone number and so on.  And yes, they are still stuck with me, the same mom that they've had every previous year that they attended that school.   So why can't I take my red felt-tipped pen and in big letters write, "SAME AS LAST YEAR"?  I've seriously considered doing this but then worried that my kids would catch heck for their mother's rebelliousness.  I know these authority figures would not be satisfied with my time saving answer!

I'm not sure how many parents recall when one of the forms sent home by the school asked:

1)  Household Income?

2)  Education Level of  Parents?

Question one: Why do they need to know this? Does being poor mean that my kids are automatically labeled academically disadvantaged?  A problem child?  Too poor to have ever seen or read a book?   I always  marked this question with "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS".

Question 2:  I answered with my own question..."If I am a high school drop-out am I too stupid to raise my kids?"  Then, since I am a high school drop-out, I offered a solution to this problem by adding, "Fine. You take the kids then."

 Anyway,  I answered these two questions...then waited for my usual call from someone in the school office, demanding that I appear there in person, pronto, so they could explain why it was important for me to  completely fill out these forms, with acceptable answers.  Of course, I gladly made the trek down to the school so they could explain. ;)

The powers that be argued that the questions were for keeping statistics.  (What statistics? How many poor, stupid people are raising kids?)  I argued that the questions were bull and that the answers I wrote down were the only answers that I'd give them.

I don't know if other parents bristled at those two questions.  But, I have noticed the questions are no longer on the forms that my younger kids are bringing home.

And I suppose it is my dislike of filling out these repetitive forms that allowed me to understand when my son Danny acted out on his feelings about  standardized  testing.  You know...the  tests where you answer by coloring in the dots  using a number 2 pencil?  Danny very neatly filled in the dots on the first page of the booklet so that they spelled out "DUMB TEST".  Of course, the folks in charge were upset and demanded that I make a personal appearance at the school so they could show me what my son did!   They were livid.  I was biting my tongue to keep from laughing.  Finally, I managed to keep a straight face as I said, "Well, you have to admit, it was creative of him."

Yeah, in my kids school records there is probably a notation about ME being a "problem child."  Or perhaps there is a paragraph warning everyone that  "This kid's parent has the audacity to question authority!"

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