RE: First meeting with "the officials"
Oh my word, this post took my breath away. What a fantastically open mind you have. It sounds like your calmness has seen this episode through and yes these test are the norm, as sad as that fact is. My niece was recently tested and found to be "below" and we knew that wasn't right, the girl is really bright. My sister questioned it and the nursery said for her to do the test herself!! My sister had a second test done(coincidentally and by a different agency) The test score came up fine. The problem here is that this "test" gets used as a marker and if the kindergarden put your marker in a false negative, they then look super-efficient when your child leaves and the test shows a marked improvement(on paper). I also feel that this is an indoctrination process to get you in the mind-frame that you are a 2nd authority to them and the child is ultimately their property. It is probably best to just let them get on with it and question ant mistakes. On your point about benefits, in the UK we are a "welfare state" which means we calculate our economy to cover for a lower wage. A bit like a pension, where you and the employer put in, except in this instance it is your employer and the gov who "put in". You are bang on about the gov's money too, it is our money and we have agrred to share that portion of it. It is what comes with having the wealth of being a developed country and we should not be made to feel guilty for having to accept it. No point in starving yourself, to prove a point.
Finally, I adore you final comment about not turning our backs on the system. You really are on the ball, in my opinion, and their are too many folk who are trapped in this aweful system for us to just say "hey come and live off the land, like me". It just isn't possible for some people(me included) We need to strip out the system and reinstall the corrupted drivers. Then who knows, we may be able to organise a better way after this.
Wow thank you for this elaborate reply!
Yes I think you are right about the tests as a "show off" of the authority of the government and the "improvement" thereafter made by the institutions.
I think one of my biggest issues with tests are the way "good" is measured by the same standard for every being - moving us towards a mono cultured people, not valuing different skills and ways to be. Like that quote about judging a fish by it's ability to fly. That someone below standard in that exact measurement is seen as less valuable, less good, even though they would never use those words, the feeling will be there.
So the goal for being good becomes a certain way of being, thinking and knowing, making us all the same kind of people, but separating us by how good we are to be exactly that way.
I have literally paraphrased what you just said at the last parents evening, as they were praising at the start and then said "she needs to bring her other subjects up to the same level". What a crock! And they looked at me as if I was an alien to think such things. Schools are just indoctrination camps, but a retired teacher told me that kids are very resilient and still come through as individuals. Suppose that can't be said for everyone though. It will be a good day when some form of president is set with home-schooling and people will know where they stand. In cases like yours and many others it seems like it is kept in the back of your minds.