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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George S. Montgomery who wrote (24722)	9/5/1998 6:26:00 PM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

<<Are we talking in the same room?>> George, sometimes I think I misunderstand you, especially when the discussion is somewhat abstract. Why don't we talk about real things for a change? Did you ever get your house all cleaned up? How is the idea of a Chinese bride coming along? School is starting everywhere--are you still teaching? Is it second grade? My daughter was in high school a week when we all realized it was just a huge mistake, even though it is a very highly respected school with children fighting to get into it. It was like jail!! It started at 7:30 in the morning, and ended at 4:30, with six or seven hours of homework a night. It is so large, geographically, that there is no way that you can get to some classes in five minutes from the other side of the campus, and yet if you don't, you are disciplined. My daughter was horribly stressed, and running from class to class with fifty pounds of books in her backpack. Just getting excused for a doctor's appointment was a logistical nightmare because every teacher had to sign a permission slip in advance. The children walking to school looked sad and dejected. When my husband visited to help my daughter escape, he thought it felt very bleak when the children were at lunch, exactly like a real prison yard. So she applied at a brand new charter high school with only about a hundred students, 17-20 children in a class, and was accepted. It is a rigorous academic prep school, with a headmaster who came from a prominent boarding school because he thought it was the most exciting educational opportunity in America today. They are funded by foundation grants, so the per pupil spending is $2500 more than for other students in the school district. But what I like most about it is that the whole thing is based on the different learning styles that students have, with a lot of diagnostic tests to determine what is right for each child. Although all the students are college bound, one fifth have some kind of learning disability, typically attention deficit disorder or dyslexia. There is a learning lab where all the children spend part of the day. The curriculum and the teaching style is based on current studies of respected learning theorists, and some principles of the Waldorf schools, like integrating the literature being taught in English class with the history being taught down the hall, so that learning is exponential. It is a small, warm, intimate place that feels supportive and happy, like a nice family. So after a very weird couple of weeks where I did not know exactly where my daughter would be going to school, everything worked out very well. Anyway, George, did you manage to keep your kitchen clean all summer?