School Registration, 2007

I don't know if any of you remember, but last year around this time the entire parental population of our local public school, including me, were wringing our hands about school registration and teacher assignments. I'm ashamed to admit it now, but I think that I even ran over to the school once the class lists were posted to take a picture of Madeleine's class list so that my obsession would be accurately fueled when all the other manic moms called me.

This year I feel like I've discovered the cure for high blood pressure: home schooling. Sure, that brings with it its own stress and obsessions, but they're different and, best yet, fall entirely within my own control.

Yes, I played the school registration game yesterday for Hank but my mindset was entirely different; I was really more of a benched, red-shirted player (he's only going into junior kindergarten for pity's sake). I just didn't care who his teacher was or who was in his class because I feel like making the decision to home school has empowered me, in a way. I now realize that it's OK-- no, good-- to challenge the assumptions of the experts because doing so actually causes you to challenge your own assumptions and the net result is knowing more about something than you did before, and I think this is true whether your child is home schooled, or taught in a public or private school.

My neighbors and friends are still calling about school registration, but they're calling either to celebrate their child's teacher assignment or to complain about it. I can hear the stress and the angst in their voices, the same stress and angst I remember lacing my own voice at this time last year. It's stress and angst that, I know, will dissipate in a week or so; probably it will correspond to mine increasing exponentially or, in other words, when I actually start home schooling instead of just talking about it.