My hamper floweth over
The Keith Family News
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Your "private" views can be a "public" disgrace
I'll admit it, I am a small town girl who was scared of many "big city" things when we decided to raise our family here. One of those things was the dreaded PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
We sent Jordan to a private Montessori preschool and were sure we would sell all of our organs to keep our children from these huge impersonal institutions full of kindergarteners with mustaches who smoked cigarettes and said horrible curse words that I myself had not heard and hot wired cars for fun. On her 2nd year at the Montessorri school, we returned after summer break to find the school under new management. Not only had they raised their rates, but made it a mandatory 5 day program as well---we had only been sending her 3 days a week.
Shockingly, I found I was quite fond of my kidneys, and started to look into other options. Someone told me Oklahoma City Public schools had a free pre-k program and I should at least go check it out. I was amazed to find a wonderful program with low ratios and normal children! Not a moustache or a cigarette in the bunch! (Although there was a four year old with a "binky" YUCK!)
Anyway, further examination of the school caused further amazement--It was an arts integration school where the students receive 6 hours of instruction in the arts a week, consisting of vocal music, drama, fine art, strings (every child learns to play the violin), rhythm and movement (this year, Jordan has learned ballroom dancing). Not only this, but it is also a core knowledge school, which has a fairly rigorous curriculum in all academic areas of study, and the teachers attend additional training in integrating the arts into academic lessons.
We have since moved into the neighbor that this school is in, and this is our sixth year at the school. Is it perfect? No. Have we had any problems? Yes. Is it fantastic? ABSOLUTELY!
One year the PTA paid for 2 teachers' salaries to avoid having split grade classes. There are many fantastic parents who helped make the school what it is today, who took a leap of faith and had their children be some of the first to attend the restructured school. Since then, more and more parents from the neighborhood are choosing to send their children to public school.
By the way, there are several schools in OKC with equally great programs.
I am NOT anti-private schools. There are a few private schools in OKC that I think are great, and one in particular that I would be torn between if we had the means to send our children there.
WHAT I AM AGAINST: Morons who think that any private school is better than any public school. I have the privilege of working with several of these insensitive oafs who say things to me like "I would love to have another baby, but we couldn't afford to send two to private school, and I would NEVER send my kids to public schools! TO ME, when THEY KNOW I send my kids to public schools! THE KICKER: Their private school sucks! We had 3 teachers whose children attended first grade at this school and could barely make it through a Dr. Suess book by the end of the year, they don't know how to read sheet music in sixth grade, they allowed a child with a severe speech problem to go without help until he was 11 years old, and then he went to the PUBLIC SCHOOLS to get help because they don't offer any!!!! Also, we have had several students transfer to our school from this private school who find they are way behind in math.
One more HUGE gripe: my boss sends her children to this private school, but decided to send her child to a public high school, largely because of financial reasons, even though all of her friends were going to a private high school. They had recently moved to Guthrie which is BARELY a suburb of OKC. So, do they send her to a Guthrie High school? NOOOO! They LIE about their address to send her to an OKC school!
Hope I don't offend anyone, hope I might educate someone!!!!!
We sent Jordan to a private Montessori preschool and were sure we would sell all of our organs to keep our children from these huge impersonal institutions full of kindergarteners with mustaches who smoked cigarettes and said horrible curse words that I myself had not heard and hot wired cars for fun. On her 2nd year at the Montessorri school, we returned after summer break to find the school under new management. Not only had they raised their rates, but made it a mandatory 5 day program as well---we had only been sending her 3 days a week.
Shockingly, I found I was quite fond of my kidneys, and started to look into other options. Someone told me Oklahoma City Public schools had a free pre-k program and I should at least go check it out. I was amazed to find a wonderful program with low ratios and normal children! Not a moustache or a cigarette in the bunch! (Although there was a four year old with a "binky" YUCK!)
Anyway, further examination of the school caused further amazement--It was an arts integration school where the students receive 6 hours of instruction in the arts a week, consisting of vocal music, drama, fine art, strings (every child learns to play the violin), rhythm and movement (this year, Jordan has learned ballroom dancing). Not only this, but it is also a core knowledge school, which has a fairly rigorous curriculum in all academic areas of study, and the teachers attend additional training in integrating the arts into academic lessons.
We have since moved into the neighbor that this school is in, and this is our sixth year at the school. Is it perfect? No. Have we had any problems? Yes. Is it fantastic? ABSOLUTELY!
One year the PTA paid for 2 teachers' salaries to avoid having split grade classes. There are many fantastic parents who helped make the school what it is today, who took a leap of faith and had their children be some of the first to attend the restructured school. Since then, more and more parents from the neighborhood are choosing to send their children to public school.
By the way, there are several schools in OKC with equally great programs.
I am NOT anti-private schools. There are a few private schools in OKC that I think are great, and one in particular that I would be torn between if we had the means to send our children there.
WHAT I AM AGAINST: Morons who think that any private school is better than any public school. I have the privilege of working with several of these insensitive oafs who say things to me like "I would love to have another baby, but we couldn't afford to send two to private school, and I would NEVER send my kids to public schools! TO ME, when THEY KNOW I send my kids to public schools! THE KICKER: Their private school sucks! We had 3 teachers whose children attended first grade at this school and could barely make it through a Dr. Suess book by the end of the year, they don't know how to read sheet music in sixth grade, they allowed a child with a severe speech problem to go without help until he was 11 years old, and then he went to the PUBLIC SCHOOLS to get help because they don't offer any!!!! Also, we have had several students transfer to our school from this private school who find they are way behind in math.
One more HUGE gripe: my boss sends her children to this private school, but decided to send her child to a public high school, largely because of financial reasons, even though all of her friends were going to a private high school. They had recently moved to Guthrie which is BARELY a suburb of OKC. So, do they send her to a Guthrie High school? NOOOO! They LIE about their address to send her to an OKC school!
Hope I don't offend anyone, hope I might educate someone!!!!!
Keithclan, 7:31 PM
1 Comments:
ok, commented on sat, but blogger ate it. dont' remember what i said, but the gist of it was Preach it Sista. something to that effect. sorry about the naughty words. i forget about your chillens knowin how to read. duh.
