8/12/2011

Is communication a lost art?

A few weeks ago, Otterboy bounded home with a paper from his 10th year French class. He was excited about it because it was a form to house an exchange student from New Caledonia, an island north of New Zealand, for a week.

Seeing his eagerness to be a part of the yearly exchange of students, we gladly filled out the paperwork and he was the first one to turn his in the next day.

Last week we got an email with the details of the exchange students' itinerary and were happy to be one step closer to being a part of this project. We just assumed that everything was on course.

This week, Otterboy came home to say that the French teacher had put us on the 'reserve' list for the kids. He didn't really know what that meant, so I advised that he go to school the next day and ask the French teacher to explain.  He didn't get to see her the next day but was going to be sure to find her the next day.

Before he could go the next day, the French teacher called. And after the conversation she had with Hubby, I was not a happy camper. It seems that they pair the students up by age, which seems fair enough. The bad news was that most of the students are almost always from year 12 and 13.

Since Otterboy is only in year 10, there was no one his age to come to our house. But, they don't tell the students this because then 'they would have no homes for any younger students' who, by some strange quirk, got to come. Needless to say, Otterboy was shattered and Hubby and I were disappointed.

But it seems that it's about par for Stratford High School and their utter lack of communication and compassion and just plain good manners.

I mean, I don't think I would have really minded so much if the teacher had explained this to Otterboy when he turned in his form. That would have been understandable and would have softened the blow a little, I think.

I don't think it's asking too much to actually know what's going on at the school, but they just don't seem to care.

I do hope that we get to move to anywhere else before the next school year starts. If not, then I will just have to vent here, but I will warn you and you can just skip those posts :)

Stratford High School is not impressive.

4 comments:

Heather said...

Firstly, I didn't realize that you had a ten year old otter ;) I have a ten year old woodchuck.

No, really, though...that would have irked me quite well, too, Betty. Yes, I agree that the respectful thing to do would have been to tell him when he turned in his papers. What would that have hurt? At least the understanding would have been there, right?!

School systems are so hush-hush and can cause too many problems because of such. It's difficult to trust them sometimes.

Shelly said...

It's too bad the communication wasn't good. It does sound like a neat exchange program, though. Hopefully things will come together and you will get to host one at one point-

merinz said...

Sometimes they just. dont. think!!

Anonymous said...

Student exchange is a good program but some times it happens.
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