We had a meeting with Pea’s principal Monday. The upshot is we have determined her school goes beyond a bad fit.

(Remember in torts when you learn the difference between negligence and intentional torts? And if you have a professor who likes to go off into the world of public policy, he or she will like to discuss the sort of sliding scale of mental state between the two? And how annoying that is, especially if you have gunners or Riddlers in your class? All of my 1L eye-rolling aside, I’m pretty much sure there IS a middle ground, and Pea’s teacher’s level of teaching is somewhere between negligently bad and intentionally bad. Also, if I hear that anyone else has hit Pea or called Pea “dumb,” there will be the mythical hot place to pay. Last night, Pea’s internal dam broke and she laid just about everything out there — who said what to her and when, who hit her and when, and so forth. Hitherto, I’ve had to drag this stuff out of her. But she has an amazing memory, this kid. Oh, and that she’d told the teacher, who’d no doubt had one of her “effective” discussion circles, like she did after the racism incident. But it’s still going on. Part of me wants to file a tort claims notice just for the hell of it. To keep in practice.)

So, after weighing our options, we have decided that if we cannot get her into a better (charter/magnet) school in the next lottery cycle — and yes, I filled out the first application already with more to come, and no, I doubt we will get in anywhere — we will move back to the old (expensive) neighborhood before school starts next year. It gets her into a good neighborhood school (transferring into good neighborhood schools is a near impossibility). We can’t afford private school. We considered converting to a religion to get a tuition break, but…no. Can’t do it. And the consensus is she’s too young to be assessed for G/T.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a working plan.

In other news, my 23andme data is partially processed and woo! I’m 2.8% Neanderthal. Even M is only 2.5%. If that doesn’t explain my forehead, nothing does.

In even other other news, I’m reading a really interesting book about the history of Parliament. I think M is already tired of me interrupting him and saying, “Hey, listen to this…”