A local charter school had a "Bring a Friend to School" day. My oldest daughter was invited and I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out, at 13 years old, what public school was all about. I then managed to find a buddy for my 7 year old who had been begging to go to school. I figured this was a much easier try-out than getting him registered just so he could go and change his mind. And then I realized my middle daughter, 10 years old, would feel left out, so I found a buddy for her too. Here is our report.
Everyone had fun. And especially grandparents wanted to know what the kids thought. My 13yo said she thought it seemed kids in school were learning answers compared to her library homeschool class which she said seemed to be more focused on learning how to THINK.
My VERY social 10yo said she liked "grammar" best because it was easiest. I'm not sure what that means because I don't teach "grammar." Felt behind in math (all the kids did) and how much she needed to write, and write quickly. Said lunch was way too fast. Was bugged by having to stand up when the teacher rang a bell, only to have to sit back down when she rang the bell again. Would only consider going back if she could go once a week. Dream on, dear!
My little guy DOES want to go back. He did have an easier go of it as they only allowed kids his age to stay for one hour. During which time we did 30 minutes of gym and 15 minutes of recess. I asked to stay an extra 15 minutes just so he could be there for something academic - he got to sit while the other kids took a math test. So I was surprised at his interest, but loved his reason he wants to return. When I pressed him he just said, "If I could catch up to what the other kids know, I think going to school would be an interesting challenge." It's the best reason I've ever heard.
I was NOT interested, and left NOT interested in having my kids in an institution. First, I will clarify that this school seemed well run, supportive of kids, and had a positive atmosphere. Furthermore, there are necessities in mass management I understand. I just don't want my kids to be mass managed. I witnessed a kid getting in trouble for going the bathroom probably 5 times while I was with my little guy in class. Clearly, he either has a bladder issue or is disengaged - neither problem being addressed by the aid threatening to not let him go next time. Didn't like that after 30 minutes of gym time, the kids had to the count of "3 banana split" to get a drink. What if they were more thirsty than that? So they lined up for drinks, to go inside, to go outside, to leave the bathroom, to go to gym, to leave gym. My 10yo said, "they spent a lot of time getting into lines." In fact, in the 30 min of the academic time I observed, the same academic learning and instruction could have taken about 5 min at home.
Oh! And gym time was following the teachers instructions: "Now jump rope! Now do slides! Now hop on one foot! Now do push ups! Now skip!" It was varied, but meaningless cardio. Not even instruction on HOW to do push-ups, or skip, etc to build a skill set, let alone allow the kids to play or come up with their own physical challenges. I was just there for one day, granted. But considering it seemed that all the other kids knew the drill, I don't think this day was out of the ordinary. I had to smile every time the kids were stopped by a whistle from doing one movement and moved on to the next at the confusion of my little guy whom I could tell didn't feel he'd had his fill of skipping yet, and then not enough jumping rope, and then not enough walking backwards, etc.
Finally, most interesting to me was math. This school prides itself on being one grade level ahead in math. But when it was time for the math test, the teacher went through the test on an overhead projector, question by question explaining the test. Which may seem like a wise thing, but when you are telling the kids what equation to execute to solve the story problem it really smacked of teaching to the test and seemed to echo my 13yo's observation that it was all about answers and less about thinking. I guess that is what parents expect: "Help the kids do well on tests." It may seem like a worthy goal, except it isn't very often in life that someone hands you a page of meaningless numbers and asks you to do sums.
So I think we are going back, at least me and my little guy, for another bring a friend day. Because I like that he likes interesting challenges. And now I'm curious how long he would find school to be an interesting challenge!
