For parent's with young grade school children??? My son is now in the second grade, he has been in the same

Question

school sense kindergarden, and we really like the school. They are top in the district, and they are an independant school! This year my son was so excited to have his best(girl) friend in his class. They spend alot of time out of school together, but he has always wanted her in his class. After the first week of school he told me that the girls and boys are not allowed to play together at recess. One day the girls get the swings, and what not and the boys play in the field and the next day vise versa. I talked to his teacher about this and she said that it was due to inapropriate behavor of student's from previous years. They agreed to have a meeting with the parent's to discuss the issue. Well we finally had a meeting and the teachers have stuck with there decision to keep the kids seperate. And they are talking about changing it so it is like this in all grades not just 2nd. I think it is important for my son to play with girls as well as boys. If you were me would you keep your son

in this school?

How do you feel about it, do you feel that the interaction with opposit sex is nessisary at this young age? Or should I be more concered with his education, as like I said this is the best school in this district!??

Do you think I am over reacting by beung upset about this?

being* sorry they really should have spell check on questions! lol

Answer 1

If this is an indication of how the staff of this school regards children I'd find another school. It is important that all kids play together. The school is sending some very dangerous messages. One is that children of the opposite sex are not to be trusted. Another is that there is something shameful about having friends of the opposite sex. Still another is that children cannot be trusted to choose their friends. Yet another is that the staff is incapable of supervising the children. None of these is a very good message. It sounds like a place with good test scores but no understanding of children. I'd leave.

Answer 2

I had the same problem when I was little He might have hdhd and it's not his fault Me and him both had a short attention spans I good idea is to set up a reward system say If he does his homework the whole week On the weekend we can pick out a toy go To McDonalds go swimming ect. And how to get him to pay atention in class If behaves though school at the end off the day the teacher can give hima piece of candy Oh and he might want to see a mhhh Am I thinking of a sicaratres he'll just tale some pills to help with his attention span And in a few years he'll mellow out :P Bye they my parents gave me away :( He has it lucky just show him you care And if you take EVERYTHING away he won't have any to look forward to Ps. you and him can make it though this

Answer 3

Sounds like since, it`s independent, that`s theres not much you can do.You could be on the news if it were public.My, daughter does really great in a public school.This, would make me wonder, about there other rules.I can`t help, but feel that the parents are a Big factor on how well a child does.
As, a rule at this age, boys play with boys & vice-versa. My, child too, has a best friend who`s a boy., they are in the same class together & play.How does the girl`s Mom feel? This , just isn`t right -keeping friends apart, because of their sex.

Answer 4

i don't think you're overreacting at all. kids should be able to play with their friends at recess. period. what kind of lesson is that that girls and boys can't play together in second grade??? (my 1st and 3rd graders would be devastated; they all have very close friends of the other gender, too). It's the responsibility of whomever is monitoring recess to make sure there isn't trouble.

is it a public school? if so, i would go to the school board, pta, and district school superintendant. i think the policy is not only unfair, but teaching bad lessons (and possibly even illegal). if that didn't work, i'd even consider going to the press. a little bad press might change their policy....

if it's a private school, yeah, i'd switch schools. my daughter was 3 at a preschool where the teacher had the idea that they were too old for the boys and girls to play together, so she'd segregate for activities and try to pair kids up with a "friend" of the same gender. how dumb is that??? we switched preschools and she has had boys among her closest friends ever since (now she's 8).

Answer 5

Of course you keep your son in the school, if you re happy with the instruction.
It's just SO unfortunate that other kids' behaviour which is bad ends up affecting the school body as a whole.
What you've described is not uncommon. Neither is separating grades at recess in different parts of the playground or at different times, for example keeping grades 1-3 separate.
Maybe this is a great topic of discussion for you to bring up at the next PTA meeting.

Answer 6

Hi, I understand you feel your son should play with his friend thats a girl and your frustrated he can't play with her by recess. However, I would respect the school rules and since you find it to be a good school, keep your kid in it. It would be better for him since he feels comfortable in the school and has made friends and shouldn't have to adjust again. What you can do is encourage him to become friends with another boy in the class, make a play date for them to have a chance to get to know each other. Then outside of school your son and his friend thats a girl can play and hang out. A boy has two sides to him, theres one way he acts when he's with other boys and one way when he's with girls. Boys like to be macho and there will be certain times when his friend thats a girl will not want to do the same stuff at him. This will happen more as he grows up. So I would suggest now is a good time to get him started on getting more boys for friends so later on when it gets harder he won't have to start making new friends. So I would take this school rule as an oppertunity to make this change.

Answer 7

Wow, I'm with you 100%. I always taught my kids that we are all people, first. Then we are boys or girls, black or white, Asian or Hispanic. And they have grown up to have friends of both sexes and a wide variety of ethnicities. I think it's very wrong to keep the kids segregated like this. How will they learn to relate to and respect members of the opposite sex in this learning environment? I would be seeking a new school.

Answer 8

How are they going to interact if they are never together? It would be better if they were just supervised well and told of appropriate ways to interact. It is a hard decision to change school. He is at an age where they play less with girls at school so i think I would leave him and take it to the principal.

Answer 9

I think interaction between both sexes is VERY important. If the children are doing "inappropriate" things during school hours then that should reflect on the supervision of the teachers. I would pursue this further.

Im willng to bet this is because of the incident of the 3rd graders having sex in the classroom while the teacher left. You shouldnt punish all children because of the mistake of others (and mistake of the teacher)....

Answer 10

That's very strange, at my son's school, they just imposed a new rule demanding that girls and boys must sit at the same tables during lunch... Personally, I think that there should no rules of any sort about this type of thing, and if boys and girls want to play or sit together, that should be up to them... And if they don't want to play or sit together, that should be their decision too. Nobody should be forcing them into anything one way or another. (I would hope that they WOULD play together though!)