Under Pressure

Upon receipt of my son’s report card yesterday, it really got me thinking.  We are putting out kids under so much pressure to perform and to be the best they can be, but if I look at the workload and the caliber of work they are expected to do now days, it is beyond ridiculous.

My son is currently 8, he is in grade 2, and well with a long bumpy road to get to the place that we are now, with unhelpful teachers and having him at a social therapist, we are doing well, not exceptionally well but good.  When we were in grade 2, I cannot remember that we had the extent of homework that they are receiving now! And to my amazement they are in the 3rd Term now and will be starting to write cursive soon!!!  They have not even properly mastered the art of their own handwriting and yet now they are expected to write cursive, which in my opinion should be optional, why do we even need it now days?  Anyway, don’t even get me started on the math, lets just say we have started multiplying and the way they break a sum down is totally different to what we learned.  But my point being, we are expecting so much of our little ones now days, when do they actually have time to have fun and be kids learn by default and discover things in the outside world.  My son finishes school at 13:30 in the afternoon, then he has extra class which finishes at 14:30, then he arrives home at 15:00 and then is still expected to do home work and then still be a kid?

We are living in a time where kids are even committing suicide and are living under depression and goodness knows what else.  But why?   Can we really blame them?  Look at what we are doing to them, they are receiving pressure from all sides, imagine what they must think life beyond school must be like.  I honestly would not want to know if I were in their shoes!

Sad thing is there is nothing we alone can do about what is happening, this is our government and our educational system that is failing us, and yet if we do not keep up what will happen to our children.  We do not want them to fail at school, but how do we keep the balance between school and social life for them?

This makes me so angry as I feel I am useless and cannot protect my child… Where do we go from here?