P365 - 2013 - Day 290 - Best decision we ever made
This week was National School Lunch week and today we were able to go in and have lunch with the kids. Luckily, it happened to be a Thursday so My Wonderful Husband could come as well. It was another opportunity to go in to the kids' new school and once again we left with smiles.
It is no secret to anyone that I was unhappy, frustrated, and down right fed up with the school the children attended in PA. Among a host of ridiculous, closed minded, and questionably legal decisions made by the school district and the administration of their school, there was a pervasive attitude of hostility in the building. Overall, parents were unwelcome and viewed by the principal and several teachers as a threat. Instead of embracing the community of parents and realizing that together we could have moved mountains, they kept parents at arms' length and discouraged any involvement whatsoever. I felt like a criminal when I walked in the building. With the exception of a few good teachers we were lucky enough to have, I felt that teachers were encouraged by the administration to build a wall that parents could not scale. Asking questions was frowned upon - you were made to feel like a trouble maker if you questioned anything that went on in the school. As I said, it is no secret - I was disgusted and ultimately unwilling to let my children's education continue to be held hostage by a school and district that did not feel that it takes a village to raise a child and who viewed parents as an inconvenient part of the educational process.
Since our first experiences with our new school, I have breathed a sigh of relief. This is what is normal to me. This is what I expect from a school. For the years we spent in school in PA I kept trying to convince myself that every school is different, all the while knowing in my heart, that something was wrong. That feeling has been confirmed over and over in our positive experiences in this school... something was wrong before. But, finally, something is right. Today we felt welcome and we were greeted warmly by teachers and staff alike. At conferences this week - along with all of the glowing and positive things the teachers had to say about our bright, friendly, well behaved children - they said that they have seamlessly fit right in to the school community as if they had been here their whole lives. That is exactly how I feel. We are finally home. Best decision we ever made.
*When parents are involved in their children's education at home, they do better in school. And when parents are involved in school, children go farther in school and the schools they go to are better. - Henderson and Berla*
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