We don’t have a landline, and I like it that way.  I’m not constantly interrupted by phone calls, which makes working from home a truly virtual experience.  Our cell phones don’t work in the hills where we live, so we can’t use them.  I don’t even have voicemail set up on my phone, it’s just not worth leaving a potential client in the lurch because I never know when I’m going to town or whether I’ll actually remember to turn my phone on.  If folks want to get in touch with me, they know by now (we’ve been here three years) to email me.

But, there are a few of my friends or relatives who don’t live on the computer as I do, therefore, I try to take the time to call them every once in a while.

Last week, I called a relative.  I hadn’t spoken to her since the beginning of summer, and I happened to be on the road for an hour and figured that’d be enough time to catch up and chat with her.

Let me just start by saying that my feelings were hurt and I probably won’t be calling her anytime soon.  First, she had to tell me all about their lives (which is good), but when she asked questions about our lives, she would interrupt me with something else about their life (which is not so good).  Then, her house-guest walked in and she carried on a conversation with him WHILE I WAS STILL ON THE PHONE.  Then, she asked me about my extended family and as I was explaining some things, she immediately said – sorry, I have to take this other call.  Bye, love you. 

And.  She.  Hung.  Up.  On.  Me.

I have no time for rudeness from my children or anyone else.  I have no patience for people who say they love you, but don’t listen to you.  I have always tried to maintain a relationship with people I don’t see often (and since I’ve lived in so many places, there’s a lot of folks I don’t see often) – but, not at the expense of my time being wasted. 

I’m going back to live in my virtual world – it’s the only way I can maintain my peace of mind!

Yup, it’s happened again.  Except this time, it’s with DD#2.

We received a call from the school nurse that our second daughter was lying down, because she’d had to run very hard at PE and she vomited afterwards.

WHAT IS IT WITH PE???

Why do these particular PE teachers run a child so hard that they get sick or hurt?  WHY is THAT important???  She will now miss nearly an entire day of school — you know, EDUCATION / LEARNING, because of the insensitive and abusive (IMO) behavior of the PE teacher. 

I’m livid.  Trying to remain calm so as to not upset my children.  But, you can bet I’m trying to soothe myself enough to write an intelligent, yet demanding letter to the principals of the school. 

I won’t stand by while they abuse my children.  If they think that’s ok, they’d better think again!

DD#1 came home crying yesterday.  Again.  It’s been a recurring thing since starting school. 

Why?

PE

Yup, physical education.

She’s not very athletic, and after a summer of reading and little else, she’s not in shape.  She knows it.  But, because of the crazy way the classes rank students in the local public school system, her brain is not enough to keep her in the running to be in the top 10% of her class.  She can be a straight A student.  She can get the highest TAKS scores in her grade (which she did), but she’s not ranked high enough to be up in the top 10% because she’s not involved in athletics.  What a sad, sad state of affairs (IMO) this ISD is in.  Does a college application CARE that she’s involved in athletics, if they’re not recruiting her for such?  NO.

Anyway, in order to try to get a higher ranking – because she DESERVES IT based on her grades and TAKS scores, she joined Tennis when she filled out her schedule last year.  Whoa. 

So, instead of regular PE, she had to take off-season PE.  They started them, the first day (with no summer requests or requirements for getting in shape / getting ready for sports) by making them run – miles around the track.  Weight lifting.  Crunches and leg lifts.  These are things she hasn’t done since last year, and in no way had she done them at the pace or speed that is now required.  Ignorance on our part?  Perhaps.  But, to me, a teacher GUIDES a child – they start at the beginning and help them move toward a goal.  That’s not what has been happening here.   Their expectations started at a level she wasn’t at – and that just frustrated all parties.

On top of the ganglion cyst she has on her right wrist (which changes her weight-lifting routine), and babying the leg/foot that she broke her growth plate on two years ago … she sprained her other ankle last week. 

She said her coach YELLED at her yesterday, telling her she was not taking pre-season seriously, that she was not giving it her all and that she was complaining too much.  Granted, she admitted to doing all of these things.  But, having a coach yell at her really hurt her feelings.  The coach told her to get to the counselor today and change her schedule and get the heck out of off-season PE and get into regular PE. 

I explained to her that the coach did that (right or wrong) to either make her mad enough to get in the game, or to quit.

She chose to quit.

Her dad went with her this morning and they got her schedule changed.  I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened.  But, I do know that the current ranking at this school stinks and that I have one of the smartest children in the entire school.  I also know that she’s enviously gifted in art and loves her drama class.  And she’s relatively bored in all of the core classes such as world geography, introductory to physics and chemistry, english, etc. 

Do we care that she’s not athletic?  Absolutely not.  Do we support her decision?  Undeniably, we do.  Do we have concerns?  Of course – the main one being that the same PE teacher will have her in the new PE class – and will she be treated bad because she quit?  We’ll wait and see.