Things are not currently going well with me.  Last week I wrote in my diary at home, how well and smooth everything is going, and now, not one week later, I want to crawl under a bed and stay there for a day .  Okay, its not that bad, but I am annoyed and irritated.

Last week I fell down the steps in one of my classes, and I tore a ligament.  Now I have to hobble on crutches and  this campus is big.  I cannot cook – cannot stand behind the stove. I have difficulty combing my little girls hair, since I cannot stand behind her in front of the mirror.  I realise there are many people who have more difficult things to cope with, but really, I am not used to being so incompetent!! And hobbling along on crutches surely work all kind of muscles you forgot you had!!

But that is not all that is currently annoying me.  I am starting to think that attending real school is very uncool!!!  My grade 2 child decided that she want to take part in the school’s debating competition.  She told her classteacher about this intention, and then we had to write a “speech” on why her dog is her best friend.  So we wrote a speech, something I think is quite age appropriate and that my little girl can relate to.  She used to be the shyest little thing I knew, but during the last two years her self confidence grew and she really enjoyed practicing her little speech and giving it in her class.  Her voice is strong and clear and I did not even worry if she would be able to make herself heard in the school hall.

And then, last night, we had the actual competition!!  And to my amazement…. the competition was not about the second graders ability to speak in public, oh no, it was all about the parents ability to write scientific reports with at least three references and numbered arguments.  It was incredible, small children using words that they can in no way understand the meaning of, unless they are all in the geniusly gifted category!!  Very little innocence, nearly no spontaneity.  So, now I come to the conclusion, I have no knowledge of debating, because I am not willing to admit that I have no knowledge of 8 year old children.  Maybe I just do not understand the rules.  Maybe I just want to keep my little girl an innocent child for too long, maybe we would just never be able to compete in such a competitive world.  I have no idea, I only know that in no way will I force my child to be ripe before her time.  She will remain an innocent, spontaneous little girl, dramatising normal childlike stories, for as long as she needs to.  But I must also admit, it really did upset me.