That would describe this afternoon from 1-2PM for me.
I was at the dentist. (Normally a very pleasant experience. I love to get my teeth cleaned. I would go once a week if I could afford it. It's that slickery feeling on the teeth afterward!) This time, though, they did "periodontal mapping". In a word: painful. They poke the gums around each tooth--front and back--from 3-4 times with the sharp pokey thing. Supposedly it is to check for infection/bacteria under the gums. I think it is to punish those of us who do not floss twice a day.
Anyway, as if that weren't enough, I had to field questions while there were hands and tools in my mouth. Not just any ol' questions...homeschooling questions. And not all were garden variety, either. Oh sure, there were the "What/Where/How do you find curriculums [sic]?" questions. But those are easy, and I actually can answer those with my mouth full of hands and pokey things. The ones that bug me, though, are the ones that presume supreme authority of the government over my children. This is the one stuck in my craw tonight, "How do you meet your P.E. requirement?"
Where to begin? How about: the plural of curriculum is curricula. Then, I could bring up the idea that P.E. isn't actually an educational issue. Or I could start with the radical idea that the responsibility to educate my kids lies solely with me, and not a government institution. Oh, the myriad possibilities.
I opted to just smile and nod.
Do government schools meet a PE requirement? (yeah, I know they set the requirements for themselves, but I thought that these days they were cutting programs like PE right & left.) Seems like homeschoolers would be much more likely to be active.
ReplyDeleteYep, that's an annoying question!