I took a week off from writing this because of Christmas and New Year's, but I'm back now. I hope everyone's had a wonderful holiday thus far.
In the week leading up to the holidays, Forster was visited by both the Board's Director, and our school's Superintendent. I spoke to both of them about this blog and they each offered me their support along with ideas for future posts.
In the case of the Director, he told me that he'd been a transient student when he was a child, and it was always sports and extra-curricular activities that allowed him to fit in at new schools.
Our Superintendent pointed out that, at elementary school, at least in Ontario, students moving from school to school would not suffer too much as long as teachers concentrated on teaching "the big ideas," or the overall expectations.
He also told me, and I didn't know this, that sometimes parents moved their children from school to school to school simply because they get angry at a school's administration and think that things will be better at the school "down the road." If they rent their accomodations, picking up and moving is not seen as the issue - the issue is that the Principal or the teacher has said or done something to annoy the parent. Sometimes, it's a simple statement such as the child might benefit from some extra support.
While it's emotionally satisfying for the parent to pull their child from a given school, they don't realize that they're really disrupting their child's life - and usually because of issues that have nothing to do with the child or his/her education.
Sadly, the reasons behind the move of schools are repeated within a few weeks or months, and the child suffers again.
After this pattern has been repeated for a few years, the parent finally turns to the school for help because the child is now more than a full year behind their peers or is acting out at home.
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