First Day of School, Again

 We're seven weeks into the school year and yanking Sam and Michael out of their kindergarten class to start them at a charter school.

Last October I began researching elementary school options.  The local school where we lived was not an option.  When I first saw it I thought it was a juvenile detention center, no joke.  The class sizes were huge, the test scores low, and discipline difficult to maintain.  I was interested in two charter schools, public schools operating within their local school districts, tuition free, but focused on one set-mission or curriculum.  There were two which looked wonderful, but they were 30 miles away.

I visited both schools, read their charters, read the books their charters are based on, and talked to everyone I met who had children in them.  And so we applied to the schools and moved close to them hoping the boys would get accepted through their lottery systems.  There are so many more people applying to the schools than can get in that there is a huge waiting list.

We were placed on the waiting lists at both schools and so I looked in to our new local school.  I was so disappointed in what I found!  The local school in our new neighborhood also had an agenda, a specific program above and beyond the state requirements which teaches a political and world view I disagree with.  I had felt it was the right neighborhood to move into so I told myself to trust the Lord and sent the boys to the school.  Last week we got a call that they had moved up enough one of the charter school's waiting lists to be admitted!

It is a Conservative charter school.  I don't mind political agendas in school if they are in line with my beliefs and if they are my choice, not a default.  It's based on a book which explains a classical alternative to the assembly-line education system developed in America as a result of the need to train literate workers during the Industrial Revolution.  It focuses on reading classical literature, then writing about it and discussing it.   This study is guided by mentors who recommend and focus the students, or "scholars" as the school calls them, in their course of study.  It is heavy on the founding and Constitution of America, which fits our family with degrees in Political Science and American History. 

Here are the boys at the flag raising ceremony.  The whole school lines up by class and says the Pledge of Allegiance and sings the National Anthem before going into the school for the day. 

So, I spent last week gathering school uniforms and we are facing a second - first day of school.  The boys are being good about the change.  Sam was upset about leaving the familiar but Michael said, "How else are we going to meet new people?"  And since they get to be together, it's easier.

I think I am more nervous than they are, imagining them walking into a new classroom full of kids who already know the routine.  They were just getting things down at their last school and will have so many things to confuse them about how their new classroom operates.  But, I am thankful they were admitted and think it's better to move them now than to wait until next fall to change schools.  They would not hold our spots until then even if I wanted to do that.  It's start now or reapply next year and go to the bottom of the waiting list so here we go!

I am excited about Sam wearing the uniform instead of his athletic stripe shorts and t-shirts everyday!  Let's hope they enjoy it.  Parents are required to volunteer a total of 40 hours per school year so we will all be spending a lot of time there and will become part of the community.  Josh is very excited and may even become a mentor.

I will be happy when a few weeks have passed and we are into our new routine.  I think I know where Sam got his resistance to change!

P.S. After school verdicts are in:  they like it!  Michael asked me why it was so short.  Actually, it was 30 minutes longer than his last school so the day must have gone by quickly for him.  Sam said someone taught him to jump rope at recess and he likes that there are no student group-leaders in their reading groups - no one is bossing each other around.  They made apple people and candy corn people and had time to eat their snack AND play at recess on the playground that is more fun than the last one.  Praise indeed from a five year old.