Countdown
- 9 hours and counting. As of early tomorrow, when we leave for the airport, I need to have my school choice made, insofar as I have to hold or lose my daughter's place at Private School C. I just visited choices A and B, and feel, if anything, less able to make a decision.School A: I loved the teachers I met tonight. They were energetic, enthusiastic, and experienced (th three Es!). Their classrooms had lots of books, tons of child-produced art, and different "stations." Kids rotate through 3 arts-focused programs in a year: music, dance, and visual arts. There are hands-on science projects. I liked the other parents in attendance at this information session; they seemed funky and interesting and committed but not pushy. The buidling is old, but has a great "loft" space for the supplemental arts program. The most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse of my current options.
The downsides: 24 students to each teacher, although under-enrollment may bring that number down to 19:1 or so. No budget for regular aides. All those great dance, art, and music programs get only 30-60 minutes per week, although there are additional after-school programs on site. Teachers can/do integrate arts into their class activities, but a lot of the work is worksheets like my daughter is already doing: put an "X" on the object; trace the letter; trace the number; copy the word; color in the maps. Oh, and some guy informed us that there are 61 registered sex offenders within a .5 mile radius: "at least a third of those are level III." (Thanks, buddy. What a happy guy.)
School B: instead of an "open house," this was a methodical presentation. I like the principal--he's very informed and obviously loves his job. The kindergarten teachers were there, and were enthusiastic and informative. There's a great community feel at the school, although these parents were whiter and more...well, uptight. Several spoke up about being denied entry into the "best" (i.e., whitest, highest test-scores and income bracket) school--this appears to be second choice for the achiever families; it's in a "better" neighborhood than A.
The downsides: 24:1 ratio unlikely to get better. She might not even be accepted since we are not in one of the priority groups for this school. Same curriculum as above, but without the artistic elements. Minimal music, recess, art, etc. Parents seem a bit more status-conscious and competitive; the room was packed, and many of the questions had to do with test scores and with ways to "work the system" to ensure a place.
School C update: no new information, per se, but the newsletter this month talks about how the kindergartners are working on writing paragraphs with topic sentences, how they have finished their unit on geology, and how they are now working on the various systems of the human body. Spanish, music, art multiple times per week. An actual PE teacher.
It's still too white, too expensive, and too far away.
We leave tomorrow for a week-long trip to someplace warm. When I get back, I'll end the suspense of school roulette; in the meantime, feel free to guess which choice you think I made....
Labels: ethical dilemmas, progressive education
posted by Unknown @ 8:23 PM
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