Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Some Decision-Making

We can't go on like this. School is worse than nothing for kindergarten, barely okay but still mostly useless for 3rd grade, and pretty mediocre for 6th grade. This is exactly what every expert predicted! In addition, our formerly excellent school district is flailing. They have no ability to teach any student who's ahead now, so two of my children will learn no math, one will maybe learn some math next semester, and reading is a near-complete loss for the kindergartner.


Might it get better? It's only been there weeks, after all.  Well, sure, but when you're starting at worse than no school, I'm not optimistic that it will get to actually good.


Might school open? It might, but our superintendent still refuses to make an actual plan. You know, the kind with numbers. 


Might online K actually be better than nothing? Well, my kid is an intolerable, weepy, needy pill, which was not the case three weeks ago, so I'm going to go with no.

 I'm pulling the third grader out of math and maybe science, and we will teach him at home. For the first time, I'm seriously considering whether we should send them to a private high school. I never in my wildest dreams thought our school district would choose to fail every single child in this unconscionable way.

And as of today, we're re-enrolling the kindergartener in her private school where she did preschool (they are also a licensed primary school). This is the definition of an elitist solution: buying our way out of a problem.





13 comments:

  1. It's unconscionable. But I have no words of wisdom :(

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    1. I am filled with rage every time I think about it.

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  2. Socal dendrite6:51 PM

    Are the private schools open for in-person learning, or are they just doing a better job of online teaching? Do you get to immediately re-enroll in your public schools if they do reopen? The *only* reason I am keeping our youngest in online K is because we got in via a ballot and she would lose her spot if we unenrolled. But today I told the teacher we would only be coming to the first part of the day and will complete the rest offline. (In reality it will take us 5 minutes to complete the work that takes 1 hr in class... I am planning to spend the rest of the time doing more fun stuff like reading or cooking together. If I have to spend time with my 5 yr old, I'd rather be doing something more fun!). If it looks like it will be online past January, then I will probably just unenroll anyway.

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    1. This private school, which is tiny, is open in person. (There are only 5 kindergartners there!) The next school district over, whose school is one mile away, is open for K-2. It's just our public school (which is normally the best one in the area, which people pay to attend from outside the catchment area!). They can't prevent us from re-enrolling next year!

      Until the private school director emailed me this morning, I was planning to pull the kindergartener out and home school her because seriously, screw this. Your plan sounds entirely reasonable! Except for the part where parents have to also be school.....

      I feel bad about buying our way out of this but I am continuing to advocate for schools opening. There are literally two cows for every person in this county; we're never going to manage a truly dangerous outbreak like NYC because there just aren't enough people here.

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    2. I guess also I've given up on the public school for this whole year and am just gonna try again next year. The kindergartner is so far ahead in math and reading that even if they go in person she's gonna be super bored, so, might as well do a whole year of private school! The private school is also way more reasonable about 'so your kid coughed twice, it's probably not covid.'

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    3. I mean, I've never felt guilty about throwing money doing what's best for my kids. It helps that DC1 could be extremely disruptive when bored, which has negative spillovers to everyone else. (Everyone always thought he was an angel because we went to such lengths to make sure he was challenged!)

      If you feel bad about the kids still in public schools, donate some money to them too. That will probably have more of a positive effect than you leaving your kindergartner in the system.

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    4. I think after this is *over* I will donate but right now I want them to feel the pinch from kids withdrawing! (It's also a very wealthy school district.)

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    5. Then I absolve you of any feelings of guilt at all! (In case my absolution was what you were waiting for...)

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  3. Socal dendrite6:51 PM

    Oh, and around here it is absolutely the case that the haves are solving this with money (pods! private school! tutors!) and the have nots are getting left behind.

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  4. I am so sorry. We have been really lucky that right now JB's actually enjoying the lack of learning and the "fun" of the "half songs and half barely educational" experience but, otherwise this sounds a lot like how I feel about our kindergarten. I am rapidly getting to "gnashing teeth" frustration with their teacher.

    We are supplementing outside of class to make sure that they are still learning because I don't want them to get bored and disruptive and it all sort of sucks. But we most definitely can't afford private school here, I just don't have the brainspace to figure out a homeschool situation, and so this compromise will have to be good enough for now. Their attitude has mostly been manageable (just barely some days) so we can only hope to maintain this equilibrium for a good while.

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    1. The private school is only (!) $6000 for the year, and there are 5 kindergarteners right now; mine makes 6.

      This particular public school K teacher is wonderful in person- my middle kid had her! - but online K is inherently terrible. This whole year is the pits.

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    2. $6000??? Holy mackeral, you'd just about see my dust trail with prices like that. It's about $35-50k a year here **sobs**

      TOTALLY THE PITS.

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    3. It's... only until 3:15, does that make you feel better? It is definitely reasonable enough that I wrote a large check with a quickness. (It's basically the same price as her preschool was, i.e. childcare. We live in the middle of nowhere and prices are proportional!)

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