Yesterday I got a call from the school district telling me what school Liam will be going to. I've been wanting this information for a while, but haven't been able to get it because they closed an elementary school and needed to redistrict. I have been blissfully unaware of the issues surrounding this. I was just frustrated about not being able to find out if Liam would be in morning or afternoon kindergarten and whether he would take the bus or need to be driven to school.
The call was confusing. I'm not sure if the person calling identified herself, but then she said something about "Liam's home school" and the name of one of the elementary schools. By the time I processed this and thanked her for the information she was hanging up. I was frustrated about this because it didn't really answer any of my questions. I reported the event on Facebook and soon got some helpful information from other local mom - including the fact that there was a school district meeting that night where they would actually vote to finalize the redistricting plan. So I'm really not sure what the point of the call was.
It turns out that they did not vote on the plan because some parents in town are very upset about it. Their children are being moved to a school with a (somewhat) lower rating. They protested so enthusiastically that the board tabled the vote and scheduled another meeting. From what I've heard it's not a real friendly situation.
In the midst of all this I am realizing (again) that I have issues when it comes to school. Specifically the anxiety of starting a new school or leaving an old one. I encountered this somewhat at the end of the previous year of preschool when I found myself very emotional over the idea that some kids would be leaving and Liam's class would be changing. But I was able to give myself a pep talk about the fact that the friends who were aging out of preschool would still be here in town and that he would still have the same teacher and some of the same classmates the following year.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it wasn't for me. I did not have that experience growing up. I changed schools every year until I was in fourth grade. Most times I changed cities too. And even when I did go to the same school for more than one year in a row my classmates came and went at a dizzying rate. The beginning of each school year was full of unknowns and the end filled with painful and often final separations.
Plus, I am just worried about sending my little boy into this setting. The local teachers I know are wonderful caring people who do their best to help the kids they teach. I have no reason to suspect that the others are different. But the system seems...well...politicized....at the moment and it seems to me like it could be distracting. Also, I know that Liam will not be a "typical" kid (if there really is one) and I know there are limits to what free public education can offer him at this point in American history.
So I guess it's not too surprising that I got pretty emotional about all this yesterday afternoon. And had a conversation with Liam about why he always feels that he needs to cry when other people, especially Mommy, cry. We didn't really come up with any reason beyond empathy (not actually how he put it). It's good that he cares about how other people feel, but it turns out that when one is having a pity-party another person in distress is not actually that satisfying. But we got through it. All those tears on his part probably contributed to his late-afternoon nap which wasn't a bad thing considering how he's been feeling lately.
So I guess the lesson is that politics and education are not a good mix. Or that I still need to learn that the experiences of my past are not going to dictate those of my child. Or that sometimes loving someone can be a tearful experience. Or something.
Quick Editorial Comment: Clearly there are lots of factors in the redistricting arguments and I haven't looked into any of them that closely. Although the school ranking stats may be factually accurate there are, of course lots of other ways to measure schools. I'm not worried about which of these school Liam ends up going to. I just feel frustrated by the delays.
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