Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I HATE SCHOOL!! Ok...not really, but....

Who ever heard of "CHOOSING" a kindergarten? You buy a house in a decent neighborhood and you send your kid to the local school, right? NOT!!! I can't believe how much time I have invested into searching the schools, reading School Report Cards (SaRC's) and talking to other parents over KINDERGARTEN!! But, still...I have. I visited my school of choice this morning. I am still pleased with the general program of the school, the people, the report card, the approachability, and most of all the location. This school, while not my home school, is significantly closer to my house than my home school. It is 2 blocks from here. When the kids are older, I might even let them walk to school (or ride their bikes) if they went here.

My home school is so far away that they would need to leave home 45 minutes early just to walk there AND they would have to cross several side streets without a crossing guard before getting to a crosswalk with a guard to cross the main street. Walking there is clearly NOT an option. Additionally, my home school has lower test scores in EVERY area than my school of choice. While that alone is not really a deciding factor for me, the higher numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English Language Learners is a huge factor. It changes the way classroom teaching is done and generally can lower the level of mastery of all students in the classroom. I feel Jayden and Ellie are going to need to be challenged academically in order to keep their interest. (I hope I am not sounding like I think my kids are smarter than the average bear, but aren't they?)

Never more than now, do I wish I had considered all of this before we bought this house let alone remodeled it to the point that Dave will never leave it! I guess it's time to suck it up and assume that I will have to let Jayden go to a lesser school for kindergarten and hope that he gets into the better school for at least his upper elementary grades.

Let me know you are out there! Tell me if I am being stupid over this and they will be fine no matter where they go...or that it does matter and I am at least doing the right thing by hunting kindergartens. BTW, did I mention that the district site spells kindergarten with a d instead of a t? Kindergarden...yep...we are growing a garden of kinders! :)

1 comment:

Julie said...

No. I'm with you 100%. I think that Kindergarten and 1st grade will be a deciding factor if they like school or not. Peggy T. and I have had a long conversation about this. I want Rebecca to go to a school that is going to challenge her because if she gets bored and things come easily, what kind of education is that. I've personally decided that if the public school doesn't fit into my way of thinking, private school it is...even if I have to go back to work. Rebecca is reading and doing arithmatic right now and I think we're going to pass us kindergarten and move right to the 1st grade. Remember, a lot if kids when they go to Kdgtn. still don't know their ABC's and those kids have to be caught up. Where does that leave our kids who have been worked with adn know all ofthat? In the back of the class acting up because they're board. I could go on all day but won't. I'm with you sister!!!