So Where To?

Walking the kids into their fab private school with the usual skip in our step I glance across the street to a construction project underway. Looks like a neat home or something going up there but it's a school I come to discover. A public school. A new free one. I stand on the corner dreading my fate - shoelaces and cafeteria trays.

Not that I'm cynical about the change. I am dedicated. And I didn't pay the tuition so I am stuck. I'm a positive person it's just that being surrounded by so many people who would never dream in their REMest of sleep of attending a public school has a way of making you wonder who's right.

Have you ever noticed that the more a person loves a culture or place or way of life or, say, a school, the more convinced that person becomes that this is the only "RIGHT" there is. It is absolute. The feeling of comfort permeates so completely that the other answers start to look less "different" and more "wrong". I don't think I got quite to that point with this certain dream-of-a school that I had the privilege to bring my kids to everyday for 3 years but I'm not sure I was far from that either.

Well, the point is, it's really hard to break out of your cultural assumptions and try something new especially when it's for your kids. But I let the adventurous spirit take over and began the investigation of this "new school".

Turns out it sounds pretty good. An award winning superintendent, an incredible sounding principal, a PTO that has seemingly been involved before the school was a gleam in its Daddy's eye. A LEED Certified green school built with recycled good-for-the-earth stuff. A rooftop garden. Ooooo. Shiny. I am distracted from my first love momentarily to eyeball the promising new structure.

And so it will be. This loving glance has read the future and the future is green. It is public school for a groovy little community in Atlanta, Georgia that together seems pretty dedicated to making it a very classy establishment.

Will there be hugs? Will there be smiling kids? Maybe even a little saunter out of a straight military line formation? Maybe just a "croc Friday"?

The loving glance becomes a glimmer of hope.

The Indecision

The bill was big. It was very big. I think I'm too embarrassed to tell you how big it was because I may know you or I may meet you someday and you'll laugh at me. Maybe later once we know each other better.

It was private school tuition for 3 kids. And there's a 4th beauty too - staring up at me with a giant price tag hanging off of her chubby little 6 month old arm, learning to sit and grab at things just in time to stuff the tuition bill in her mouth, elated. Easy for her to decide, but this bill isn't just a private school bill, it's a lifestyle bill. It's the ticket to an incredible and I do mean incredible community of families and educators who love and respect every one of the 900 kids that attend the Atlanta school.

The school sits on multiple city blocks with its unique historical homes marking it's different grade levels. My daughter's kindergarten (and first grade - yes, multiaged classes, a dream!) was on the first floor of such a historic home. The kitchen was the art room and they did cooking in there, the middle room was the meeting area and work room and the third room (yep, for only 24 kids) was a block room full of games and toys and all of the latest and greatest materials. Oh - and there were Macs all over the darn place. And 2 fabulous teachers at all times who go by their first names. Fun and fabulous - kids learning experientially, individually - blossoming in ways impossible to describe. I'm pretty excited to go there. Well, if I'm too old at least I can send my kids.

But the bill, oh the bill. The economy is no good, have you heard? 4 sweet joyful kiddos who'd like to take music (pottery, camp, art, karate, tennis, anything lessons really). Home value underwater. Not enough money to pay. Bummer. Well, if we skipped all of the lessons, consumed exclusively freeze dried food, kept the baby at work with one of us instead of daycare or a nanny, maybe then? Maybe. But it's no fun to feel like the only ones struggling among an affluent group.

But the community, oh the community - cool parents, cool kids, cool teachers. Just cool. I fell in love with this school before we moved to Atlanta. Lookin' for a special place for some special kids and there it was - individuality, environmental stewardship, a place that partners with parents to grow and nurture good, smart, critically thinking people.

Well, the debate raged and ebbed and flowed. Rejected for financial aid and 2 weeks past the deadline (bill now covered in drool and wrinkled not quite beyond recognition), we decided it had to be public school. Millions of very special kids attend public school and take standardized tests and have no recess and only one art class every biweek. Millions of kids have teachers who are prohibited from hugging them, who ban the wearing of crocs (the only shoes in the house) and who get good behavior through elaborate systems of bribery. And those kids grow up just great. Just great indeed.

Well, let's join the millions and find out. Let the games begin.