Ugh. It shouldn't be surprising that some organizations that offer to teach children don't do it well. I've just been very picky/lucky. Not this time.

The lessons are expensive.

There is strong peer pressure to spend lots more money on skates and outfits.

They don't deliver what they promise on the website. They list five different classes for kids who are level one, all broken down by age group. In fact, they have one class for level one and sometimes break it into two, kind of randomly.

They are not safety conscious enough. They let the kids get on the rink without adult supervision. I let David and Rose go on the rink 2 minutes early thinking there was a teacher around. There wasn't and there wasn't and there wasn't. At 3 minutes after the class was supposed to start, I went to ask if we had a teacher today. (No, the people at the rink don't like me much.)

The teachers have been late twice. In my twenty years of teaching, I was late to class twice. I was almost always early. It's professional.

We've had FOUR different teachers in four weeks. How can they get to know their students? How can they form trusting bonds which are the basis of learning? How can they discipline and manage when they don't even know the kids' names? They can't.

Oh yeah, twice those teachers have been tweens. Do you think a thirteen year old can develop a curriculum and manage a class ranging from 3 year olds to eight year olds? Nope again.

At a basic level, they don't care about the group lessons. It's obvious, just from hanging for a few weeks, that the important kids are the ones in the center of the big rink, the ones getting home schooled so they can devote their lives to ice skating, the ones getting private lessons. Anyone doing less than this is not on the agenda.

They did teach falling well, a crucial ice skating skill. And David is now shuffling across the ice without yanking my arm out. I'm not sure what Rose has learned. She's squatting and getting up, so I guess there are some balance issues happening, but I think it would take years to get to the skills she really wants. If I thought this was a good program, I might invest those years. But now I have to break it to her that her dream of being an ice skating princess is ending in four more weeks.

Let's try gymnastics.