You HAVE to choose?

Oh, NO I don't and neither should they! HAVE to, that is.

It's just not necesary to be that dumb. Mystery's school "ECI" (Emergency Contact Information) sheet came home and there are some things that these people just have never gotten right! That and I knew that we were adding TW to the mail list this year so that she doesn't 'borrow' our copy of progress reports and report cards and then never return them. This is something that she has always been completely with her rights to do, but for whatever reason has not asserted herself. Well Boo! If she doesn't want it then she can call the school and tell them! How's that going to look/sound?!

But this wasn't even the 'fun' of yesterday. On Jabber's form they had him checked off for Black and for White. I told the lady at Mystery's school office that they had apparently switched her status because it has NEVER been simply one of the other. (I think I would know!) She stood there and showed me the computer screen and said that she can't change that.

I love when I have a clue about how to work a computer and other people don't! Hold down the control key to select more than one from the list ya dummy! Ok, not everyone knows that stuff but when you have a job which requires some computer skills you'd think that this might be one of the basic ones? Shoot, to me that's like not knowing how to copy & paste! I mentioned along the way here that the folks at Jabber's school in town are capable of doing that with his information and that I really thought that since they use the same system that they would be able to do so as well. I asked if I needed to call the superintendent's office to make sure that this is a function that the schools were capable of and then I ended up leaving the office with her and the young gal beside her talking about me. You can tell when that happens because you turn around and their mouths are in a freeze frame, right?

I went home and called the data people at the school department. I figure that I can ask them if the system is capable of making this choice before I go over everyone's heads. After waiting on hold for a minute she told me to talk to the VP at Mystery's school and that she had consulted with another worker in her office who confirmed that this IS something that the system is capable of. I got voicemail when I got through the VP's line and I haven't gotten the call back that I asked for, but it's very interesting to see that the online system now reflects the change that I requested in the first place!

Time to get the old biddy behind the counter to drop the attitude. Maybe she doesn't think people should be both, or able to choose more than one? Maybe she doesn't care? White privilege isn't always in your face stuff, you know? I think it is important for the statistics for the school as well as the more important point of not making a child choose. Heck, if your mother is french and your father is greek then which one are you supposed to choose on a form? How do you make the choice? Choose which family customs you are most familiar with and practice more? What if one isn't more than the other? I remember looking at one of these graphs back when we were looking to buy our home in this city. Wondering how much of the statistics are actually true? My preschooler isn't in the public school system yet but please know that I'm prepared to start out with her from the very beginning of Kindergarten and work my way through bugging the snot out of people that could care less because it doesn't affect them!

Let me get off my pedestal now and go do something that isn't going to nag at my brain! I just had to say that these people that work for us really ought to be checked on their own biases and how what they do and say affects other people. Whether they care or not.

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