Private School Drama To Be Continued.

We are going to tour another (snotty) private school tomorrow - and this one COSTS MORE!

Won't you all stay tune for the nonsense in store?

Excellent.

As Promised: Private School Drama Part 2

Sooooo...

I really appreciate all your comments on the post On Being Judged. I did, however, notice a lack of posts from people FROM Montgomery, and I find that very interesting seeing as Montgomery has my second largest readership by city according to Google Analytics. With that said, I'd love to hear from you guys (even if you've never commented before, ESPECIALLY if you've never commented before, or email me: agzaremba {at} gmail {dot} com ). I realize that many of you don't comment, especially when I'm talking smack about your home city, but everyone is entitled to an opinion - this blog being mine. I am very open to listening to other's thoughts/concerns/comments and even their judgements of me. In other words: Bring it.

One of the more interesting points brought to our attention by the Lady Who Judged was that we could hold Conner back. Oh, but let me use her words verbatim "For academic, social or ATHLETIC reasons" we can choose to hold our son back.

Oh, yes. You read that correctly.

She admitted that this concept was "unique" to Montgomery... see... SHE SAID IT, NOT ME! And she laughed! She giggled about how it wouldn't be even remotely acceptable to do this in other school systems, but how since this was private school and a small town, they allowed it as a common practice. COMMON PRACTICE.

COMMON! PRACTICE! to hold children back although they pass a mandatory academic evaluation and are cleared (by the administration and teacher) to be socially ready to take on Big Kid School, BOYS are held back if they are smaller. 

Now, I won't say that Michael wasn't BEAMING when he heard this: the opportunity for his boys to be bigger, faster and stronger in their athletic field of choice (read: chess?) simply because they were older after being held back. I must note that he did have his reservations about it though. He said he'd never consider it if both academic and social evaluations cleared him to advance grade levels.

In some defense to the shear Craziness of this idea, Conner is, and will probably always be, the youngest and therefore smallest in his class. I don't care to disclose Conner's "issues" on The Internets (at least not yet), but for the most part  it's this: 6 months younger than many of his classmates makes a huge difference. He is "less mature" and it takes time to learn "people skills" (i.e. - sitting in a chair, standing in line, raising your hand, asking to pee, etc). He didn't speak a single word aloud to his teacher till January, and continues to lack in the "being able to talk to anyone other than his family" arena. Conner's caught up a bit now, but he is still "behind" compared to his other classmates. 

This learning curve will shorten, but he'd still graduate as a 17-year-old and enter college barely 18.

So, for  social reasons we might just do 2 years of Kindergarten (1 at Frazer and 1 at Overly Priced Private Institution of Our Choosing) - although, academically he shines at school.

But back to my previous point - I emailed a friend in the Jefferson County School District and, without overstating it, she was APPALLED. This would never be acceptable. Being held back because they are clearly not to a certain academic level, are not socially ready to take on certain aspects of school, or even simply - the parents and educators feel the child is unable to handle the emotional strain - all reasons to hold back a child between Pre3 and 1st/2nd grade. 

But ATHLETIC?

Wow.

For my out-of-state/other school districts/those with opinions and no children readers... do you find this bizarre? They hold BOYS back for this, not girls. Did I mention that? If it's the "norm", would you consider it? Can you EVEN BELIEVE IT'S THE NORM?

I want opinions people, comment!

On Being Judged *

*I went on a bit of a rant in the comments section, if I were you I'd already be there... Well, you do need to read the post first, but after that... I'D GO THERE.

We arrived a whole 20 minutes early for The Judging, too bad they won't take off a percentage of the $10,000 per year for every minute early... 

Overall, it wasn't too bad. As a matter of fact, I kinda enjoyed myself. 

There's just something about school that makes me all sparkles and rainbows and glitter on the inside. The lockers - you remember how OVER THE MOON you were about lockers? The science lab - how frickin awesome was it to reproduce fake rain clouds or watch a penny get eaten by stomach acid? LUNCH - I know this sounds crazy, but my high school had THE BEST FOOD. The stromboli, the cinnamon toast, the FRIES with GOOEY CHEESE... just the sheer selection of it all, man I wish I could have that many options everyday for lunch now, but alas, we are broke.

At this school, the lunches are catered by a company called Sage, which looks way too yummy.

Well, let's not make this post about food.

The very first thing the admittance counselor spoke of was the curriculum, which is a good place to start, right? And... she started with Bible. Don't get me wrong, I do like the fact that because it's a private Christian school, Bible will be a part of the curriculum and prayer and worship is not only encouraged, but group led with weekly Chapel. However, she was on a 10 minute rant about how Bible was part of the daily lesson structure throughout the 12 years, and that they wouldn't test till after 3rd grade, and once they started testing it would initially only be on the Books of the Bible, the Kings of the OT, the major stories, etc... and then they would move on to memorization of Psalms and key scripture and versus ... and then finally Michael spoke up....

"We fully support Conner's education being in a Christian environment, and we agree that teaching the Word of God is very important, but the bottom line is this: knowing scripture instead of how to write an essay isn't going to get you into a good college..."

THANK YOU MICHAEL!

I mean, I'm not shelling out The Big Monies for my child[ren] to learn about God and Jesus and Noah but be unable to write an advanced, well-researched and well-constructed essay or not know how to solve a logarithmic differentiation. (totally remembered hating on logarithms but did google the correct term...)

She seemed unfazed and almost relieved that Michael wanted to know about the core curriculum required for college admissions.... almost like it was a test...

So we spoke of class size (small.... check), curriculum for each year, academic standards, athletic opportunities (3A... boooo...), foreign language class requirements (must have 3 years in high school of the same language, yay! They also begin Spanish in 1st grade.), and various other aspects of the school's identity.

We toured the "campus", asked a few more questions and overall, were very pleased with the facility, it's staff and the curriculum opportunities. In case I haven't mentioned it already (please don't roll your eyes), Michael and I both determined that this is, unfortunately, still nothing more than everything the boys would have access to in Birmingham without the price tag (Jefferson/Shelby County school systems, Hoover, Mountain Brook, Trussville, etc).  The only thing we've found different is that lunch is included in the price. How nice of them...

Our biggest areas of concern:

1. It's located directly across the street from an apartment complex. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with an apartment complex or it's occupants, but they do typically attract single men, young crazy college kids and others. This is me trying to be sensitive to those who currently live in an apartment... is it working?
2. For a price tag of aforementioned CRAZY MONIES, one would assume that this facility would be sparkly and flashy, right? Eh. No. On the outside, it appears that it was built circa 1960 and never updated. The kindergarten uses a 4 teacher and 1 floating teacher set-up (which I love because the students become accustomed to the "sub" and ergo don't have a "day off" because the "cat's away"), but they are housed in TRAILERS! When I was in 5th grade (circa 1995), Jefferson County school systems ABOLISHED trailers (ok, so they ended having to bring back a few, but that's not the point - THAT was "free"). I can't believe they are even allowed these days and I find it completely unacceptable for a school shoveling in 10 grand per year per child to be unable to nix portable trailers!!
3. On the note of totally unacceptable for an institution that will be raping my bank account: there are only 2-3 computers per classroom. Does this bother anyone else? My son can work Mickeymouse.com better than I can, and then there's that commercial where the 7-year-old girl takes pictures, uploads and emails them - yet this school is unable to allow access to a personal computer for my child for some sort of allotment each day? WHAT?!
   

On the note of the totally adorable: 3rd graders and under are allowed the option of no shoes while indoors. Isn't that adorable? It apparently makes them more comfortable (which I can totally see). I was also thinking this - wouldn't that cut down on tracked-in germs?

For sho'.

And now, this post is foreva' long, so there shall be a Part Deux.