Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Who Is Standing Behind You

Tell us about a time you made the most out of a bad situation...and if you'd do anything different should you be put in a similar one again.

OK you asked for it. I was teaching a grandchild in a home school. The evaluation teachers kept giving her really bad evaluations. Then, they would come up with solutions for her to try out. Before long they were loading her with so much extra work she could barely think straight. She was only 6. She had not gone through kindergarten and even though there was home school kindergarten they insisted on starting her in first grade. That means she was not prepared for the first grade curriculum. They kept insisting that she could catch up to the grade level.

At one point,an evaluation teacher, tried to draw in another person to help her. In a 3 way telephone conversation she tried to make me look as if I was the one who put her in the first grade curriculum, but when I started asking pointed questions and told them my back ground the 3rd teacher on the phone wanted to know what was going on and why I was being targeted.

Eventually, my daughter moved out of the state and took her daughter with her. She blames the state educators for the entire situation. Plus, I discovered later, that the educators were being coached by relatives of mine who work in state education.

They are against home schooling because it would mean a decrease in job opportunities that their own children and grandchildren have as they grow up.

People who have moved into home schooling their children have done it because they are not satisfied with the public school systems. I applaud people who have had to buck the system in this way. As, a child I grew up in a group of people who at holidays always got together and had things to say about how they were teaching. If you knew some of the things I heard you would be locking your children into private schools.

If I was ever in a similar situation I would be fore armed with knowledge. I did not find out who pulled all the strings until after I was not homeschooling anyone, and I had never home schooled anyone, so I was at a disadvantage. I am in a similar situation now as my dentist has a friend or relative of my relatives working in her office. I get treated badly there at times.

I have always believed I may have to consult a lawyer before the end of my life. I once was approached by a women who saw some stupid thing being done to me. She told me she sued people and they quit. A teacher at the college where I studied, told me he knew some of my relatives and knew things they had done to me. He said if I ever wanted to sue he would help. Just having people stand up and tell me they know what I have gone through helps. I'm not happy with the thought that I might have to use the law to live an ordinary life in the USA. What does that say about our country?

Anyway, I just read "The Lie Tree" and kind of laughed throughout the story because it is such a great picture of how gossip can destroy lives. Then this morning I read a story in "The Pennsylvania Game News" about some men who were in WWI. When the war was over they were having trouble returning to their former lives. They used to hunt so, they went out to hunt Bear together in hunting season. It was a misty morning, they were each standing in a different part of the terrain. One man heard one shot. Not long after he heard another shot. He was afraid to approach his friend in the mist because of the shots being so far apart so he called out and crept up to the place carefully. After all these were soldiers with PTSD. He found the cartridges from one shot and blood on the ground. So, he crept along the blood trail and called out again. Soon he found his buddy who was also following the blood trail. They found the bear dead. It had a would through the chest. Then the friend turned to him and said, he knew the bear was wounded and was coming around in a circle. In the mist it was going to try to get him. His military training and war experience showed him where the bear would come up from behind him and so when it attacked he shot it the second time in the head which was the death wound.

During the years of the Reagan administration I noticed people breaking into groups. The unity brought about by WWII was waning. Now, people were becoming a Greek community or an Italian community or your church group was more important than other church groups. This was exceptionally prevalent in the communities around here. Everyone who had a reason to need monetary help, such as volunteer fire departments in every small community were trying to tie their supporters into a family scene so they would only support their own community. This kind of competition can become a bad part of any neighborhood l. It separates people. It makes an arrow of a group and a target of any individual.

I guess that is why people spread so many evil thoughts about someone they think is an enemy. Years ago I learned to get to know people before I believe anything I hear about them.