Choices and Cold Sweat
Last week was a topsy-turvy insane kind of week. Besides all the normal stuff, it was parent-teacher conference week. Fitting that into my schedule is always fun. The conferences were pretty straight forward. My kids are all doing just fine, either right on track or ahead of what's expected of them. No behavior issues, though J has started wandering again (saw that firsthand when I was in his classroom this week) but his teacher says it's not distracting or occurring very often. M's conferences were the most interesting. Unlike the previous three junior high conferences I've had for her where I've just met with one of her teachers who has pulled up her grades for all her classes, I got to meet with each of her core class teachers. In short, the most common theme was "Your daughter is brilliant!" followed by "but she seems very tired in class." That about sums it up-- there's a limit to how alert a 14 year old can be on four hours of sleep! I was a little taken aback by the comments about her brilliance though. I know she's a smart girl. She's organized and detail oriented too, which often is better than being "smart." But when her math teacher told me that we may want to consider finding her a combination geometry/algebra II class for her freshman year, I was a little bit dumbfounded. (He says she is getting 100's in her Algebra I class, which he doesn't like (!!!) because that means she's not being challenged enough.) Anyway, they all wanted to know what high school we are sending her too so we can make sure we get her in the right classes so she's not bored.
The million dollar question.
What high school do we send M to?
I've been stressing about this question for two years now. People kept telling me to quit worrying about it, that it wasn't even here yet, that it was still in the future. But now it's here, and coming to a decision has been so agonizing that now that we're pretty sure where we want her to go, I may have missed our window for getting her in.
I've been losing sleep over this decision. There's been fasting and prayer involved too, but I'm almost so agitated that I can't feel what answer I may be getting. Terence thinks this is a case of making our own best decision and letting the Lord bless it (like the brother of J and the stones for light in the Book of Mormon), and I'm sure he's right but . . . it just feels like a lot is riding on this decision, not just for M but also for the rest of the kids who will follow in her footsteps.
School choice is both a blessing and a challenge. Back when I was in high school, you just went to the school where you were assigned to, no question. Only in a rare case (like severe bullying or your parents moved mid-year) were you likely to end up in a high school that wasn't "yours," the same one all your friends and neighbors went to. It could mean that, like me, you ended up in the kind of school that was sometimes referred to as an "inner city suburban school." (Hint: a lot a fights, gangs, racial tensions, and mediocre sports and academics. On the other hand, it was light years better than my junior high because the worst of the hooligans had dropped out of school by then.) But for my kids now, there are options everywhere. Pretty much every school out where we live is competing for kids. They try to come up with different focuses, something special that they're known for. They post big banners proclaiming the "grade" the school has gotten and that they are enrolling for the next year. Many of the charters do heavy advertising, pushing their current students to recruit their friends and holding open hours and campus tours. Sounds great, right? Pick the school we like best and then send M there, for heaven's sake! But it's not so simple because-- unlike choosing to go to your official "school"-- if we choose another option we've got to come up with how to get her there. And considering that I already have a commute to the school for the younger kids, this could get downright messy.
Then there's the whole problem of this being a new situation. It involves phone calls, after all, and talking to strangers and going into uncomfortably new situations to get a kid registered for school. I know, I'm silly, but this does add a significant amount of mental distress. I'm crazy that way, but it's a real problem.
Well, this is the week to tackle it. I have a campus tour on Tuesday, and Terence has agreed to make phone calls for me also (I wrote down a list of questions I need answered). I don't know if we'll get what we want-- at this point she may end up on a waiting list-- but one way or the other this is going to be resolved soon.
I cannot believe I am old enough to have a child registering for high school. Where has the time gone???
The million dollar question.
What high school do we send M to?
I've been stressing about this question for two years now. People kept telling me to quit worrying about it, that it wasn't even here yet, that it was still in the future. But now it's here, and coming to a decision has been so agonizing that now that we're pretty sure where we want her to go, I may have missed our window for getting her in.
I've been losing sleep over this decision. There's been fasting and prayer involved too, but I'm almost so agitated that I can't feel what answer I may be getting. Terence thinks this is a case of making our own best decision and letting the Lord bless it (like the brother of J and the stones for light in the Book of Mormon), and I'm sure he's right but . . . it just feels like a lot is riding on this decision, not just for M but also for the rest of the kids who will follow in her footsteps.
School choice is both a blessing and a challenge. Back when I was in high school, you just went to the school where you were assigned to, no question. Only in a rare case (like severe bullying or your parents moved mid-year) were you likely to end up in a high school that wasn't "yours," the same one all your friends and neighbors went to. It could mean that, like me, you ended up in the kind of school that was sometimes referred to as an "inner city suburban school." (Hint: a lot a fights, gangs, racial tensions, and mediocre sports and academics. On the other hand, it was light years better than my junior high because the worst of the hooligans had dropped out of school by then.) But for my kids now, there are options everywhere. Pretty much every school out where we live is competing for kids. They try to come up with different focuses, something special that they're known for. They post big banners proclaiming the "grade" the school has gotten and that they are enrolling for the next year. Many of the charters do heavy advertising, pushing their current students to recruit their friends and holding open hours and campus tours. Sounds great, right? Pick the school we like best and then send M there, for heaven's sake! But it's not so simple because-- unlike choosing to go to your official "school"-- if we choose another option we've got to come up with how to get her there. And considering that I already have a commute to the school for the younger kids, this could get downright messy.
Then there's the whole problem of this being a new situation. It involves phone calls, after all, and talking to strangers and going into uncomfortably new situations to get a kid registered for school. I know, I'm silly, but this does add a significant amount of mental distress. I'm crazy that way, but it's a real problem.
Well, this is the week to tackle it. I have a campus tour on Tuesday, and Terence has agreed to make phone calls for me also (I wrote down a list of questions I need answered). I don't know if we'll get what we want-- at this point she may end up on a waiting list-- but one way or the other this is going to be resolved soon.
I cannot believe I am old enough to have a child registering for high school. Where has the time gone???
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