Education is on the Brain

What kind of crazy people intentionally put their high-performing, spirited child in an under-performing, Title 1 school with very traditional teaching methods and very few resources?

We do!

Yes, it's our neighborhood school so getting there is very convenient for us.  But we know that we have other options.  Thanks to the internet, we can easily find out which schools in our area have higher API scores or better ratings on GreatSchools.org.  We even know which schools in Sacramento would be a better fit for his gifts and temperament.  And yet, we've chosen to put our son in our neighborhood school (at least, for now).  

Why on earth would we do that?  Shouldn't we find the "best" school around and make sure he has access to every opportunity available to him?  (In fact, one of his teachers last year hinted that's just what we should do.) 

Well, for whatever reason, I sometimes go against the flow.  (Good thing I married an against-the-flow kind of guy!)  While I know that conventional wisdom tells me to put him in the charter school on the other side of town, I can't help but wonder what's to become of the other 600 students at his school.  Who is going to stay and fight for them?  Who is going to help bring resources from where they are in excess to where they are lacking? 

Idealism?  Dreaming?  Faith?  Calling?  Maybe a little bit of each. 

For the most part it's been a really positive experience. 

• I love that Jonah goes to school with our neighbors and we can't walk up or down any of the halls without seeing one of them and saying hello. 
• I love that he is a minority at the school (only 8% of the students are White).  This gives him an amazing opportunity to make friends with children from different cultures and backgrounds.  (Also...really good for me to be a minority and to experience some of what that feels like).  
• And I love the teachers at the school who are completely heroic in my book.

But, there are also things that have caused me a whole lot of angst over the past two years. 

• I really don't like the lack of strong leadership.  How can we be an excellent school without a strong vision and a plan to carry it out?  
• I really don't like the lack of parent empowerment.  Part of this is because I know too much. I've been trained in Asset-Based Community Development and I've seen it work in powerful ways.  So it kills my soul to see many talented and gifted parents who, I believe, want to be involved, but don't feel empowered to offer their gifts, skills, and talents to the school.  (For example, at the "Parent-Admin Chats," why is the principal leading the meeting and doing all of the talking?).  
• Finally, I really don't like that the kids do a whole lot of boring worksheets, which are taught to the "middle" of the class, rather than creative writing, art, and science.    

So, where does that leave us?  Most days, it's fine.  The truth is, Jonah loves school and is happy as a clam.  He has a terrific teacher and a bunch of friends and he loves the last part of the day when his teacher reads them the Junie B. Jones series.  So, as long as he's happy, I'm happy.

But as I mentioned in my last post, last week was a really hard week - and frustrations with the school were a big part of that.  I felt utterly powerless and that led me to want to control things.  My mind started reeling, attempting to "fix" the entire broken system - in my own strength.  That didn't go over so well.   When I finally realized that I could not physically handle the pressure of "saving the world," it was too late and I'd already become a big stress ball with a leaky eye.  Thankfully, God reminded me of who He is and who I am not.  

In the midst of all of this thinking about education and school this past week, I saw this video on another blog.  Please take a minute to watch it - and then let me know what you think!

 

My favorite line from the video: "We should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves."  Amen!  I couldn't agree more. 

Also, I don't think I've mentioned here that Steve is doing an (unpaid) internship at StudentsFirst.  It's been a really positive experience and we are so grateful that he has a stimulating place to go everyday to work on meaningful projects and meet new people (while he continues to look for a job).  It's so interesting to have him on the front lines of education reform, something that's been a passion of mine for so long.  We've been having lots of interesting discussions lately.  Education has definitely been on our brains.