In the News......Schools

Well it is no secret.  I homeschooled two of my sons for quite a few years.  I tried it all, public, private, parochial with the five of them and ultimately after years as a PTO President, I pulled the last two out of the system and taught them at home.  Now it is time for grandchild #3 to go to school.  Well ultimately I put her in Parochial Kindergarten, at St. Joseph's School in this city.  They have an AWESOME Kindergarten program.  They have three rooms designated for their use, two teachers fulltime, and about 25 kids at this time.  The head teacher is a mega veteran teacher having taught kindergarten since at least my fourth son was in Kindergarten.  Before that she taught second grade for several years.  I know she has been doing kindergarten at least 21 plus years based on when my little "Chrissy" had her and loved her as a teacher.  She did a great job then, Mrs. Adams, and now with her veteran assistant Mrs. Christenson(?), I am sure they have done nothing but improve on perfection!  :) 

Reading articles from the last few days in the local newspaper (The Norwich Bulletin), my decision to place her there was reinforced in triplicate...  The failure rate of meeting state requirements in this city's schools is horrific.  Sorry to sound dramatic but there are no other words.  Out of 11 elementary and Middle schools, eight of them failed.  How badly they failed I don't know but the information states that they did not meet adequate "progress" even.  Reading was noted as particularly "bad".  This among other reasons is why Iris is not in public school.  Yes; I could have homeschooled her but the Princess needs other children.  And I know this is a good Kindergarten program. 

So all that said, my extra boy will be here any minute.  Ms. Iris and her Dad will be here at any time too.  So we will leave you with these thoughts and impressions for now.  BTW:  Another thought I have to make schools more accountable is set up a system where the state pays each school per child registered and let parents choose where to enroll them.  Maybe if the schools have to be accountable to the parents to get paid (ie:  parents CHOOSE them) then perhaps the standards would come up.  Something has to be done.  The little boy I take care of is going into second grade in Public School and can't read and do math as well as four-year-old Iris.  Just the facts.

Later!  Hugs!
Melody