"I am not sending her back to school

next year," I heard someone say.

She was talking on her phone as we waited in the queue in the supermarket. Anyone could hear the conversation - whether we wanted to or not.

I admit I was interested. Was she planning on "home-schooling" her child? It seems she was.

I wondered if the child was being bullied. Apparently not. Over the next minute I discovered that the child was "bored", "not getting enough to do", "fed up with all the woke garbage" and more. It was interesting. I wondered how the parent planned to handle all this.

She went on her way. I paid for Middle Cat's shopping and was on my way out when I was hailed by a couple I know.  They were talking to the parent who was not sending her child back to school.

I stopped out of curiosity as well as politeness. I was introduced and the subject of school attendance was brought up. Did I know the school "somewhere near the tram line" which took in students on ability rather than age? 

They did not know much more. All they had was a vague memory of someone knowing someone who had a child who went to the school. I do know of the school. I have never been there but I researched it when it seemed a possible choice for the granddaughter of former neighbours. Was this what the mother wanted to know about? 

She looked at me in amazement and immediately looked at the school's website on her phone. How much did I know about the place? I really know very little.  

"Would you like to tell me something about your daughter?" I asked. I know all too well that some parents think their child is a genius when they are really simply intelligent. Why would someone pull their child out of school unless there really was evidence of very high intelligence...and why do it even then?

I did not have as much time as I would have liked to spend with this woman. It was an all too familiar story of a child who obviously is intelligent, very intelligent. She began school this year with excitement and now "hates" going. Her psychological test results indicate she really is at or near the top of the scale. If what her mother told me is correct (and I sensed restraint rather than exaggeration) then yes, she needs much more stimulation than she is getting at school. 

I left the mother saying she would be talking to her partner and, if he agreed, they would be contacting the school we had talked about. I also left wondering what I would have done to stimulate the child if she had been in my classroom. Would I have been able to give her the extra she so obviously seems to need? I hope so...but I also know how difficult it is for a teacher to find that time. Hopefully things might be different for this child next year.