2003-07-17
We met some neighbors over the weekend and learned that (probably--have to double check) the public elementary school Clay is slated for is a different one than we originally thought.
I took a look at the school's Web site. Aside from being VERY slow to load and having a number of grammatical errors, it showcases a small amount of student work, which strikes me as the only meaningful glimpse into the school. As opposed to the rhetoric they spew all over the place, I mean.
And it disturbed me a little because there were examples of kids' work where every kid made something identical--felt like the lesson was more following directions than thinking for oneself or solving any kind of problem or engaging in any creativity. B thinks I'm nuts, looking for things not to like.
I asked a friend who's studied elementary education and who's spent time in schools more recently than I have to take a look and tell me what he thought. He said,
"The place seems fine based on what I did see but it's not really enough to judge... I like the character education emphasis and think it tends to be missing from most public schools. Nothing terrible [other than the webmaster!] jumped out at me..."
And I replied to him:
I'm glad to hear you got a good (or not too bad) impression. Interesting what you said about the character stuff. I tend to think there's so much hollow rhetoric with these initiatives and wonder whether there is really substance, but maybe even giving lip service is worth something if it gets the teachers thinking even a little. They also say their program incorporates Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.
I have a bit of a bias against the school because I met the principal at a school fair six or so months ago and when I asked whether the kindergarten was play based he said, "Oh no! We start them on academics early!" It seemed clear that he believed that was the answer I wanted.
One thing I saw was homework guidelines and they seemed quite reasonable to me (not too excessive). When B and I were in PA visiting his friends, I was talking to the wife about the schools and my general desire to have Clay be somewhere that's not focussed on "academics" at the expense of everything else and she said, Oh like a Montessori school. Then she said she had taught middle school and whenever they had kids who couldn't read they usually came from Montessori schools (she didn't say this in a nasty or argumentative way). She is currently a social worker, works with refugees, and she said that she meets kids from the most fucked up places in the world, like Iraq, and they start school here they need to work with language but with math, they say, "We already know all this, we learned this years ago."
So, who really knows? I think I'd be okay with Clay going to an academically rigorous private school (though the one I know of around here is very expensive and probably snobby). Or a more groovy-type school like a Friends or Waldorf/Steiner school. I think my main fear in his going to public school is that his teachers won't be especially bright, that school will be dull and uninspiring and Clay will be bored as I was. How well-founded is this fear? I really don't know. And what's the worst that would happen considering that he'd certainly get supplementary learning from us at home.
I think my anxieties about this are probably kind of disproportionate, especially considering he's only one and a half. But this is the kind of stuff I think about. I almost wish I didn't know anything about education and could just think everything was fine.
Lately there are all kinds of things I just wish I didn't know. I have this information that just seems to make me anxious and I don't know how useful it is. So much stuff that Americans kind of take for granted disturbs me, especially when it comes to Clay. Eating crappy food, watching crappy TV, doing stupid busy work in school. (Thankfully B agrees with me that Clay is better off without TV.)
Sometimes I fear that there's this powerful tide of mediocrity that--unless we're very vigilant--will sweep Clay away. Here are some things I know:
- That statement, which is only slightly hyperbolic, makes me sound like an insufferable elitist.
- I need to have some faith. Clay is a little boy with an enormous amount in his favor and will in all likelihood do wonderfully wherever he goes to school.
- There is, presumably, more to life than brains.
One argument in favor of two parents per child is that the parents can balance each other out. B has told me his primary desire for Clay is that he turns out happy and kind. To which I said, "Talk about aiming low!"
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