Fair and Equal Classes

It's hard to believe that Brenna will be five this August, and start Kindergarten. You might remember that Cameron missed the state cut-off by about 18 hours and had to attend a private K and first grade. Brenna makes the cut-off by 48 hours so we won't have to go through the same troubles.

We went up to the school and waited around until the tour began in the cafeteria about 9 a.m. Brenna must have been pretty anxious, because she alternated between hyper-energy to extremely shy and clingy. I said hello and asked names around our table. We met Noah and T.J. and Teagan. The princpal started with a powerpoint showing what to expect in Kindergarten. The assistant principal, when speaking about standardized dress, had the gall to say that his son goes to a private school. (WHERE IS MY VOUCHER SO I CAN SEND THEM BACK TO ST. CLAIRE?)

One mother, whose child is going into first grade, asked how they select students for classes. The principal was very proud to say that it is completely "fair and equal". They have an equal number of boys vs. girls (11 of each per class) and have an equal mix of GT (gifted/talented), regular, and needs help students per class. Now, I'm not a professional educator, but it seems a bit backward to me. Why not take the advanced kids and place them together to be challenged appropriately. (In high school it's called "honors classes".) All of the regular kids can be together to teach to them effectively, and all of the kids who need a little more help can be together so they can be taught the state objectives with the extra attention they require. Instead, our children will be either completely bored and disrupting the class OR completely lost and taking all of the teacher's attention.

We toured the classrooms (they all look the same) and Brenna hung back and would not go in and speak with the teacher. The scary thing is that by Christmas, she will most likely be little Miss Queen Bee of the classroom. About halfway through the tour, all of a sudden, we hear, "Hi Brenna!" She turns and it's Kavin, a little boy from her current PreK class. Talk about a mood swing! Now she's perfectly content to walk around, go into the gym and watch 4th graders scoot on their behinds on little wheeled squares, go into the science lab and be amazed with the plastic skeleton, and run down the halls.

We go back to meet her teachers Friday, Aug. 24 and school begins Monday, Aug 27. I can't believe I'll be able to drop them both off at the same place at the same time!! Maybe I'll actually make it to work *gasp* on time?