Pre-Kindergarden Pains and Parental Panic
The time to send my baby Punk off to his first day of school is rapidly approaching, and I am freaking right out.
There are several things yet that we need to get taken care of before the day arrives, first and foremost is getting the Punk caught up on his immunizations. I spent several hours yesterday hunting around for somewhere that was doing back to school shots in our area with no success, until one of the hubby’s coworkers pointed me to the Visit Houston website, where they have information up about the Children’s Museum giving free shots and free admission afterwards every Thursday from July 31st to August 28th. You can read more about it if you’re in the area, it wasn’t easy to find.
Once his shots are up to date, we have to attend preregistration day at the school itself, and find out if they’re going to accept him at all. There are only two classes available, one morning and one afternoon, and they are available first come first serve only. This will be his first look at school, so I hope it goes well.
If they decide to give him a spot in one of the pre-kindergarden classes then we’ll need to get him a whole new wardrobe just for wearing to school. Pasadena’s school district has put in a new dress code this year, and it’s quite over the top, I think. He’ll only be allowed to wear polo or oxford style shirts in solid white, blue or red, which must remain tucked in at all times (what 4 year old keeps his shirt tucked in?) and must be free of decoration; for pants hes required to have either khakis type pants in their normal color or navy blue, or jeans that are completely unmarred, which means they must be the original indigo color, no sandblasting or manufacturer fading. He can also wear navy blue or khaki shorts (until 5th grade, after that shorts are no longer allowed). His pants can’t have hammer loops or pockets besides those at the waistband, and shorts have to be 2″ above the knee or longer. There are even fitting requirements on all of the clothes, they have to be “perfect”, not too tight or too lose, and pants can’t touch the floor. There are other crazy requirements on the list too, for example he cannot wear sandals or “skate” shoes, only shoes with full backs, which means wearing socks in 110 degree weather while walking to school and back every day.
Once he has a few school outfits, which have to be kept in pristine condition of course, he’ll be needing a hair cut, as the school district has also put in a “grooming code”, which stipulates that his hair must be “neat, clean, well groomed and free of shaved designs”. If anyone could manage to tame his hair, I would honestly be stunned stiff. I’ve been trying for 4 years to get it to look “neat”, but all I ever manage to get is “scarecrow”, or “recently electrocuted”.
The district hasn’t posted a pre-kindergarden supply list, so I don’t know if he needs any supplies or not. I suppose we’ll find out on preregistration day, but we may get him a few things anyways since this is his first year of school and he may want to have the things the bigger kids have. I looked through the supply lists for other grades, and was somewhat shocked. They even go so far as to require specific brands of pencils, scissors and glue, and specific colors for notebooks and folders, depending on the grade the student is in. Along with the supplies, we’ll see about finding him a clear, transparent or mesh backpack/book bag, as district regulations prohibit opaque bags.
You’d never know we’re sending him to a public school, would you? And to think, I haven’t even mentioned the students Code of Conduct, which is enough to strike terror into the hearts of even the most cool headed of parents, with its dozens of sections with such frightening titles as “Students Required to Register as Sex Offenders”, “Police Questioning of Students”, “Interrogation and Searches”, and the lovely “Corporal Punishment”, yes, thats right, corporal punishment. You have to actually fill in a form yearly and give it to your schools principal saying that you don’t want them to beat your child on the ass with a ruler if they commit a “minor offense” of the Code of Conduct.
Terrifying, hey?
