Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sigh.....
So, the decision has been made. McGaughey Elementary (currently K-3) where Parker goes now, will become a preschool, oops, I mean Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade. Mt. Zion Grade (currently preK-3) will become 2nd and 3rd grade. Then on to Mt. Zion Intermediate for 4th, 5th and 6th. Next comes Junior High for 7th and 8th. Finally, high school for the last 4 years. Whew....are you exhausted because I sure am. In my head I see a big pinball machine where my children are bounced around from school to school for the next 10-12 years. They will not be in the same building until Parker is in 6th and Jack is in 4th. While I certainly don't like the inconvenience that will cause me, that isn't what has me upset. It just doesn't feel "right" to me. This just isn't what an elementary school looks like. I believe that schools are about so much more than curriculum and vertical articulation. School is more than test performance and technology. A successful school is a sum of all it's parts. By limiting children's exposure to only two grade levels at a time, I believe you limit their possibilities. Anything that puts limits on my child's educational opportunities doesn't feel like an improvement to me. I will be the first to admit that there are benefits to this change. The biggest will be that all the kids in their grade will be in the same building. Obviously, with 200 kids in each grade, there is no way in the world they will get to know everyone--or even half--of their classmates, but they will meet kids they might not have met otherwise. It will be nice to put an end to the "competition" between the schools but that has always been a parent-fueled problem and didn't have anything to do with the kids or the teachers. It will be good that families will not have to choose which school their child should go to. Everyone has always agreed that our lack of school boundaries was just nuts. So, I am going to give myself a few more days to be angry and sad and then I will move on for now. I want to see this concept work because it is my children who will pay the price if it doesn't. I'm sure that most of us who have children who are being forced to leave the school they love will adjust and do everything in our power to make it work. Here's to hoping.....
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4 comments:
I am really sad too. My son moved from school to school because of job requirements and it was really hard on him. We had no control over that and it is hard for me to believe that there are people who believe intentionally moving children over and over again is a good thing. I am going to be sad that my daughter is not going to have older friends or younger friends in school but is instead trapped in some cookie cutter idea of what school should be. I love mt. zion grade that is where my son went and that is where I wanted my daughter to go but it is sad because it won't be the school I had hoped it would be. It makes me wish our community had three or four elementery shcools because then this would have never become an issue.
Peoria is now doing the opposite. They are shutting down 3 of the pre-K through 5th grade schools and plan on creating pre-K through 8th grade learning communities. I will miss my Kingman!
YIKES and YUK... I have so many reasons to NOT go for this. I loved having a gifted third grader who could mentor a first grader who was having reading issues. I know my son made an impact on that little guys life and vise versa. As a sub...no thanks...I will not sub in a music room and do the same exact thing for an entire day over and over and over with 9 kindergartens. As a Spec. Ed teacher...YIKES...it will be tough serving that many kids of the same age level in one LD room. I hope we see benfits someday, but our little ones are the guinea pigs for now.Kids have so little stability in many of their homes and school needs to provide it when homes can't. With this, I just don't see stability. I knew this day was coming...I just hoped it would be farther into the future! I will miss the little ones being able to model after the big kids. And the lunch room sounds like it could be even more chaotic!
I really thought I might be ready for part time Spec Ed position someday, but this has me really rethinking.
Since we are house hunting, at least it won't matter what neighborhood we look in. There is a positive! Anna will at least know the kids her age in the school.
You should just move to Forsyth!! ;)
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