Pulling Your Kid From School.

I *love* handing that notice to the bewildered principal. I've done it twice, with two different principals. The first time was after a long, protracted battle with the school district... well, read this link if you haven't already. The second time, I had my withdrawal notice already printed up on HSLDA letterhead.

Ahhhh, that felt good, too. This time the principal, bless him, was a new guy gleaned fresh from the teaching fields. He had just suspended my son for yet another infraction of school code. Yes, I only allowed Emperor to stay in school a few hours a day for kindergarten, yet in that week and a half, he had managed to get himself suspended... twice? Three times? Well, no matter. Emperor has yet to "serve his time." Bwa ha ha haaaa... Ok, I'll admit I was a bit adversarial to start with that school year, and my kids knew it. But I don't think Emperor took advantage of that specifically... it was just difficult to sit still and not touch everybody and everything, or flood the bathroom and dance on the water... or... well...

If I had to do it all over again, I think I'd have appreciated this principal more. He was taking over a very overcrowded school and making some positive changes. Plus his predecessor did some very bad things... well, you read the post already. But in the end, it really wasn't about him... it was about my son, Emperor. I think for the time being that this is where he belongs.

HSLDA just popped a little article into my inbox about parents who had difficulty withdrawing their children from public school. I guess when you're in hiding from the school, you make sure the school never knows about your children to start with. But it would sure fulfill whatever stereotype about "unsocialized homeschoolers" there are out there. These poor kids living Anne Frank style in their own homes, unable to do the grocery shopping or play at the park... well, I suppose they were pioneers, and pioneer life isn't supposed to be comfy.

I know there have to be plenty of people who surprised their school principals with a letter of withdrawal, but I don't know of any personally. And as much trouble as we had when my middle sons were IN school, we got zero problems from the district or the staff about withdrawing the children.