Is anyone thrilled with their child's school? (magnet school, living)

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

That is a good question, psr13. I spend time in the classroom and I marvel at how the teacher is able to handle to extremely disruptive behavior of several boys in the class who all happen to be bussed in to the school. There are four boys who are cousins and they are completely out of control, but her methods keep their disruptions to a minimum and most days they end up in a time out at the principals office. None of their parents are involved. I have never seen any of them in person which means they skip all school functions including parent/teacher conferences. And not one of them would provide contact information so they would be included in the class list. I can't say whether there are more of these kids in schools today than in the past.

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

That is exactly right, Derek. We figure that even a so called conservative place like Walnut Creek is still probably more liberal than the most liberal town in Chicagoland where we live now. People steered me away from Walnut Creek before and toward Lamorinda, but that was because they were trying to match our political requirements. Unfortunately, Lamorinda is too pricey and we are not impressed with the kind of house we could get there verses Walnut Creek. Not to mention the fact that most of the lots in Lamorinda are not level. So now we are open to any area with great schools where we can afford a nice home. We were trying to have our cake and eat it too.

Sounds like you'd probably be happier in a more segregated red state metro area like Dallas or Atlanta. Just loved the thinly veiled reference to kids "who all happen to be bussed in to the school". I doubt you'll find anywhere in the Bay Area to your liking and I'm certain the feeling would be mutual.

[Heyygirl]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

That is a good question, psr13. I spend time in the classroom and I marvel at how the teacher is able to handle to extremely disruptive behavior of several boys in the class who all happen to be bussed in to the school. There are four boys who are cousins and they are completely out of control, but her methods keep their disruptions to a minimum and most days they end up in a time out at the principals office. None of their parents are involved. I have never seen any of them in person which means they skip all school functions including parent/teacher conferences. And not one of them would provide contact information so they would be included in the class list. I can't say whether there are more of these kids in schools today than in the past.

I think the statement "In the 90's, we had around 30 kids in a kindergarten class with no issues" doesn't hold much weight unless you personally checked in with every kindergarten class in the 90's with 30 kids.

Did you know that in the "90s" kindergarten consisted of learning colors, numbers, letter sounds? NOW they are learning nouns, verbs, and even auditory word problems! Education has never "held hands" with child development and these kids are required to use more abstract thinking than they are capable of as the "stage of concrete operations" isn't left until age 7-9.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Heyygirl

Did you know that in the "90s" kindergarten consisted of learning colors, numbers, letter sounds? NOW they are learning nouns, verbs, and even auditory word problems! Education has never "held hands" with child development and these kids are required to use more abstract thinking than they are capable of as the "stage of concrete operations" isn't left until age 7-9.

Yes, I fully agree with you. And the funny thing is trying to make a 6 y/o a genius or ahead (my little wonder) actually ends up backfiring for many parents/schools. Common trends and practices in public education are not always best as we have seen recently. While intentions might be good, as is the case with NCLB, the actual execution is terrible.

In homeschool circles, which we are heavily involved in, there is a strong preference to taylor the education to each child's development as this tends to happen in spurts - its not a straight line on a graph. And those spurts occur differently for each child. We have found with our children that there is no need to 'rush them' into advanced topics before their time. That's why I find it funny to see all this hype about preschool lately. While its the latest trend, the majority of that can easily be done in the home or with less intensity/panic/paranoia by the parents and schools.

On the other hand we have found that as the child develops naturally and they are ready cognitively they can accelerate through material much quicker, even beyond their grade level.

But this idea that so much has to happen in kindergarten or they will be forever limited or miss out on college opportunties later is rediculous.

My 2c,

Derek

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Yes, I fully agree with you. And the funny thing is trying to make a 6 y/o a genius or ahead (my little wonder) actually ends up backfiring for many parents/schools. Common trends and practices in public education are not always best as we have seen recently. While intentions might be good, as is the case with NCLB, the actual execution is terrible.

In homeschool circles, which we are heavily involved in, there is a strong preference to taylor the education to each child's development as this tends to happen in spurts - its not a straight line on a graph. And those spurts occur differently for each child. We have found with our children that there is no need to 'rush them' into advanced topics before their time. That's why I find it funny to see all this hype about preschool lately. While its the latest trend, the majority of that can easily be done in the home or with less intensity/panic/paranoia by the parents and schools.

On the other hand we have found that as the child develops naturally and they are ready they can accelerate through material much quicker, even beyond their grade level.

But this idea that so much has to happen in kindergarten or they will be forever limited or miss out on college opportunties later is rediculous.

My 2c,

Derek

Tailor and Ridiculous. Just trying to help.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Twinkle Toes

Tailor and Ridiculous. Just trying to help.

Thanks Twinkle Toes, my sister-in-law normally catches my typos on facebook. Sometimes I type fast and don't use the spell check on forums, etc...

Derek

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Sounds like you'd probably be happier in a more segregated red state metro area like Dallas or Atlanta. Just loved the thinly veiled reference to kids "who all happen to be bussed in to the school". I doubt you'll find anywhere in the Bay Area to your liking and I'm certain the feeling would be mutual.

We are not interested in being in a segregated area at all. That is why my husband commutes over an hour by train and bus from an all white area, Lake Forest to very diverse and liberal (by Chicago standards) Evanston every day for work. It was extremely important that we live near other like minded people and that there was diversity in our school. Out of the four kindergarten teachers, we requested that our daughter be put into the class of the only African American teacher because she has the best reputation. We could not be happier with our choice. I am her room mother so we spend a lot of time together. My daughter loves her teacher and her classmates. There is nothing thinly veiled about my comment at all. I have compassion for these kids and I have come to know each of them well as I spend time in the classroom. I do my best to help them, but the problem starts at home, where it seems these kids have not been given very good direction. And we can get into why that might be, but it isn't relevant to our conversation. I was answering a question about why it might be that a kindergarten teacher might have trouble handling 24 students with an aide. The answer was that she has she real challenges in her classroom.

Oh and by the way, we used to live in Santa Cruz and while we loved it, the schools left much to be desired and our mortgage was eating us alive because I am a stay at home mom and we are a single income family. But I just love how people will post on here and claim to know so much about other posters. Mention any affiliation with liberalism and prepare to be attacked for it.

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Heyygirl

Did you know that in the "90s" kindergarten consisted of learning colors, numbers, letter sounds? NOW they are learning nouns, verbs, and even auditory word problems! Education has never "held hands" with child development and these kids are required to use more abstract thinking than they are capable of as the "stage of concrete operations" isn't left until age 7-9.

I agree wholeheartedly. When my daughter was born, I read the book "Magical Child" by Joseph Chilton Pearce and his research concluded that children should not be introduced to linear learning until the age of 7.

[jaynetarzana]

Could it be that the lack of responses from people who love their child's school means is indicative of the state of education in California? If I had posted this same thread on the North Shore of Chicago (and many, many other places in the country for that matter), people would be falling all over themselves to tell me about their great schools.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

We are not interested in being in a segregated area at all. That is why my husband commutes over an hour by train and bus from an all white area [where you live], Lake Forest to very diverse and liberal (by Chicago standards) Evanston every day for work. It was extremely important that we live near other like minded people and that there was diversity in our school [You wrote you lived in an all white area]. Out of the four kindergarten teachers, we requested that our daughter be put into the class of the only African American teacher because she has the best reputation [Did you make this request because she's black or because she's a good teacher? Given the choice between an average black teacher and a very good white teacher, which would you choose?]. We could not be happier with our choice. I am her room mother so we spend a lot of time together. My daughter loves her teacher and her classmates. There is nothing thinly veiled about my comment at all. I have compassion for these kids and I have come to know each of them well as I spend time in the classroom. I do my best to help them, but the problem [What Problem?] starts at home, where it seems these kids have not been given very good direction.

I'm confused. You wrote you live in an all white area but your husband commutes to a diverse area because you don't want to live in a segregated area?

Also, since you live in an all white area, I assume all the students are white. And you wrote some of "these kids" have not been given good direction?

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Charles

I'm confused. You wrote you live in an all white area but your husband commutes to a diverse area because you don't want to live in a segregated area?

Also, since you live in an all white area, I assume all the students are white. And you wrote some of "these kids" have not been given good direction?

I realized it was confusing after it was too late to edit. He commutes from his job in Lake Forest (all white) to our home in Evanston (diverse). No one in his office understands why he would spend so much time commuting to Evanston when we could live near his work.