This is a blogging experiment. My friend has just started a blog, inspired from a writing workshop we both took a few weeks ago, and I figure I might as well step into the fire as well. I actually created this blog site a year ago, but only went so far as to post some poems and fiddle with the layout. And fiddle again. Now I am actually going to write something, so put on your seatbelts (said by someone who lately is seeking to create optimism.) I shall leave you for a moment to go check out how this looks on the layout, and maybe do a little fiddling.
Looks like I'll have to fiddle some more, because this post doesn't show up.
Okay, here we are in business. I have spent approximately three hours this evening scouring the internet for information on elementary schools in the Austin area. Mainly I have been reading parent reviews and sometimes checking out the school's website. I am not an education expert nor am I the product of parents who did their darndest to get me into the best schools. I think when and where I was growing up, the local school was what you got and that was fine. Things have changed (and to further quote Bobby Dylan, I'm a worried man with a worried mind. 'Cept I'm a woman.) For starters, is the school safe. Next, how do they rate academically? Does the school have a high rate of turnover and is the principal good? How are the teachers? Next comes the programs offered. Does this school include foreign language lessons and if not, why? Several schools in town do, so why should the children of this school not get the same? Turns out this has to do with the PTA and what parents are willing and able to implement. I'm learning more every day. Next, what about after school programs? Is the school a good size, are the classrooms crowded? How much homework is assigned and how much is too much or too little? How is the playground, is there nature around? If you have the luxury, you can then contemplate the homogenized v. diverse aspect. Mon Dieu, must each and every family that enters a child into public school worry so much that his or her child won't be getting the same education as someone on the other side of the tracks (usually the western side?) Nevermind the private school advantages! Welcome to the world, I suppose, except that I just spoke with a friend from Toronto, Canada who said his child will go to an excellent French school for free throughout his primary and secondary years. Pre-K is paid for by the parents and all else is paid for by the state. No, I think it is rather "Welcome to the U.S.A."
I won't rant about this any longer right now, but how can we fix a system like this, where there are lines waiting overnight to transfer children into schools a few blocks away because they are smaller or have better teachers or have better programs. All public, just different. What happens to the children left in the other schools? How important are these things in the long run, does it just boil down to the parent's level of involvement in their children's lives and education?
About
5 years ago
2 comments:
Thank you for writing in your blog! I love it! Isn't it fun?
So we just moved from Radnor, PA to Los Angeles, and we were looking at schools for my 6 year old kids. Radnor public schools were spectacular -- incredibly well-funded schools in a uniformly affluent area with high property values and a farily high percentage of private school families. When looking at public schools on the west side of Los Angeles (read: rich side of town) I was stunned at the disparity between the offerings at the various schools. Some didn't have gym, incredibly to me based on my experience in Fairfax County and Radnor. Some didn't have art. All had drama, which was funny in and of itself. But the reason there is such a difference is that all of these "extras" are paid by the parents. On the very first day of school my kids came home with a request for money -- $1,200 per child was the suggested contribution. I have no problem paying it -- it's certainly cheaper than the $28,000 per child tuition charged by most of the private schools, and Prop 13 made real estate taxes in California among the lowest in the country. But the idea that we actually "shopped" public schools was incredible to me, coming from the same world -- and schools, frankly -- as you did. And most of our friends ended up at the top tier of colleges and grad schools.
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