BusynMember
Well-Known Member
My easy child (but Learning Disability (LD)) twelve year old wants to go to a large Middle School next year. In Wisconsin, you have a choice where your kids go to school. During a three week period you can "choice" your child into a public school in a different district as long as you provide the transportation.
During the last year my daughter, who is not a difficult child, has joined a skate club at our roller rink and has made many friends at a nearby middle school. She wants to go there next year for many reasons. One is that the girls at our very small school (there are only 15 girls in all in 7th grade) are starting to gt b*tchy and fight. She has always had a lot of friends, but this year some have turned on her and, since there are hardly any kids that go to this school, she can't really disregard them and join another group. She doesn't like the fighting and backbiting.
Her second reason is that she loves sports and they have more opportunities at the middle school for competitive girls sports and at a higher level.
Her third reason is that there is more educational opportunities. Now daughter is Learning Disability (LD), and there is no real Learning Disability (LD) program in 7th grade at this small school. They help her out, but they don't really offer that much. In the bigger school, they still have Learning Disability (LD) services. She is doing ok grade-wise this year, but sometimes she needs extra help and doesn't know quite where to get it, and we've been getting the runaround. Sounds simple, right?
My now 24 year old went to the middle school that my younger daughter wants to attend. She started using drugs there. The kids would smoke pot on the way to school and there is a tough element at the school that doesn't exist in the smaller school. Pretty much, it's such a small school that everyone knows who does what and there is much less of a drug problem and a "bad kid" element. They tend to ship the bad element out fast.
Not everyone at this bigger middle school is "Bad Element." Many are very good kids who do well in life, but I'm terrified because of what happened with my older daughter. Her situation was different. She had been put into this school not knowing anyone and her personality was different. Nobody knew her and nobody paid attention to her except for the "bad" kids. My twelve year old already has friends at the school.
Everyone, even my 24 year old, tells me to let younger daughter go to the bigger middle school, but I'm afraid. Younger daughter is begging me to let her go, that she is tired of the small amount of kids at her current school, that the sports teams aren't good enough, etc. etc. etc. She says, "I'm not J." She isn't.
Comments? Thoughts? Anyone?
During the last year my daughter, who is not a difficult child, has joined a skate club at our roller rink and has made many friends at a nearby middle school. She wants to go there next year for many reasons. One is that the girls at our very small school (there are only 15 girls in all in 7th grade) are starting to gt b*tchy and fight. She has always had a lot of friends, but this year some have turned on her and, since there are hardly any kids that go to this school, she can't really disregard them and join another group. She doesn't like the fighting and backbiting.
Her second reason is that she loves sports and they have more opportunities at the middle school for competitive girls sports and at a higher level.
Her third reason is that there is more educational opportunities. Now daughter is Learning Disability (LD), and there is no real Learning Disability (LD) program in 7th grade at this small school. They help her out, but they don't really offer that much. In the bigger school, they still have Learning Disability (LD) services. She is doing ok grade-wise this year, but sometimes she needs extra help and doesn't know quite where to get it, and we've been getting the runaround. Sounds simple, right?
My now 24 year old went to the middle school that my younger daughter wants to attend. She started using drugs there. The kids would smoke pot on the way to school and there is a tough element at the school that doesn't exist in the smaller school. Pretty much, it's such a small school that everyone knows who does what and there is much less of a drug problem and a "bad kid" element. They tend to ship the bad element out fast.
Not everyone at this bigger middle school is "Bad Element." Many are very good kids who do well in life, but I'm terrified because of what happened with my older daughter. Her situation was different. She had been put into this school not knowing anyone and her personality was different. Nobody knew her and nobody paid attention to her except for the "bad" kids. My twelve year old already has friends at the school.
Everyone, even my 24 year old, tells me to let younger daughter go to the bigger middle school, but I'm afraid. Younger daughter is begging me to let her go, that she is tired of the small amount of kids at her current school, that the sports teams aren't good enough, etc. etc. etc. She says, "I'm not J." She isn't.
Comments? Thoughts? Anyone?