The Garden School Tattler

There has been some discussion about the long field trip and behavior and some suggestions concerning some children going and staying at the school in the comments section at the bottom of some of the blog stories.

Here are some things to consider:

The educational plan of the school not only includes but focuses on field trips. Rarely if ever have we taken a "non educational" field trip. In other words, they are a part of our curriculum. These trips help to educate our children by an extra means. Children are fully immersed in going and doing. Sometimes what the non observant parent doesn't see is how much children actually learn from going and doing.

In addition to field trips are student activities like the Thanksgiving play, the St. Patrick's Day play, the parties, the visit from Santa, Halloween, The Valentine's Day Dance, Spring Sing and the Awards Day activities.

Over the years, many parents have not been interested in these activities and have either not attended or they have kept their child home. When a parent neglects to come to one of these events, a child is crestfallen. Often parents don't see that either because "work" is the focus of some parents' life, and in dialogue we hear this.

The Garden School bends over backwards in planning school activities, scheduling field trips in advance, posting as much information as often as we can. We send out letters, post on the blog, and notify parents by word about upcoming events as regularly as we can. We are always genuinely sorry about oversights and misprints, and they do happen.

At the same time, we are always delighted to welcome parents who want to come along on our field trips so they can enjoy the adventure with their child. There is never a charge.

But to take it one more step - splitting our curriculum - having an alternative activity because of a few children says two things: we are not sure about what we are doing, and what we are doing is not really important.

That's not how the Garden School is set up.

We are a very small place because we want to know each child as a separate individual person at the primary learning time in their life. Teaching children to swim, being there as they fall down, bolstering up bad days, teaching a concept like addition, geography or science allows a kind of individual knowledge of another person that can't be made with a larger and impersonal agenda. At the same time, we can go on long trips and do exciting things other places can't because we do know each and every child.

Three children did not attend our major field trip this year. The actual reasons were: violence toward another child, chronic hysterical performances through the week, and a general refusal to cooperate with any single request. Now the idea of taking these children across two state lines three hours from home is called negligence.

Is this a surprise to parents of desperately poorly behaved children? If a parent does not know his child is in serious daily error, there is a root problem that does not need to be challenged three states away. Every day a child's behavior is posted. Rarely do some parents even look.

During the year we have what we call the "breaking point." When a child misbehaves to the point where he is violent toward others, hysterical and unapproachable, and generally refuses to cooperate on any level, we send him home. We put him back into the control of the parent - where he should be. Parents are the primary educators of their children. When chronic bad behavior is not curbed by the parent, teachers have no choice but to send a child home.

This is actually a relief to the exceptional 95% of the students. We can take our 95% anywhere to do anything and it's a tribute to them, to their choices of behavior and to their parents who teach them at home how to enter the world. Good children will always have to wait for the others. It's a fact of life, and one they will encounter all the way through school.

As far as a regular school day goes on field trip and party days, the Garden School does not offer a regular school day as part of its curriculum. Every good parent should have a back up situation for ill days, for school holidays and for days when a child can't go to school - like oral surgery days and sleep deprived days. School is a place to learn; it is not a place to be punished.

As far as teachers go, our staff treasures our out of school learning days. To punish two staff members to stay with poorly behaved children is the kind of thing that causes teacher turnover.

Behavior begins in the home. If a child does not know how to behave, that's where he should return to learn it. If he needs to return there on field trip days, that's probably not a bad plan.