private schools

Thankful That I Have Options

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Today is one of those days where it just hits me: how lucky I am to have found the school I have for my kids.  The amazing things they get to do make me wish I was in elementary school again.

On a walking field trip last week, Zoë’s class picked up pumpkins and other gourds to observe and study in class.  Yesterday, the kids decided they wanted to bake one of the pumpkins.  Then today, the class decided to use the cooked pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie.  So, one of the teachers made a quick trip to the store for supplies and they make a fresh pumpkin pie.

This all happened while Noah’s first grade class was on a field trip to the schools 28 (or so) acre extended class to help plot out the future orchard and find the sugar maple trees the class will be tapping for fresh maple syrup later this winter.

All of this is led by the interest of the students.  All of their learning is ground in experience.  I could not be happier that my kids get to learn in this type of environment.  That they not only learn but they do.  They don’t only learn how maple syrup comes from trees, they get to tap trees and collect it.

I think about this amazing education (that we are able to pay for) and I think why aren’t more schools like this?  Why don’t more schools valuing doing and experience?  Why aren’t more schools harnessing the interest of kids to deliver curriculum?

I am thankful that I can afford this type of education.  But I think everyone should get an education this good–it doesn’t have to be exactly like the one my kids get–but the quality should be the same.   Every kids should have not just access to–but should have a quality education experience.  Every kid should be taught to think and to create and to experience learning.  So, while my kids are lucky, I will continue to work to ensure all kids have access to a quality education.  Because education is a fundamental right. I can’t be happy just because my kids are getting a first class education.  My kids and their school as a whole are a small piece of the population.  Just because I know my kids are being served well doesn’t mean I can just sit back and not worry about the 10s of thousands in my own city not being served.

We are all in this together.  We have to ensure that every kids is being educated.  We have to pull together and not stand for a system that doesn’t education a huge % of the future work force.

I don’t exactly know how we do this, but I do know that I am lucky to work in education and get to see the potential in the new options that are being created for kids who are being served the least.

It’s easy to turn our back when we are fine.  But until everyone is “fine,” we have a lot of work to do.

 

 

 

Pitfalls of Private School #2543

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 9 Comments

Tooth Fairy Generosity (aka–insanity)

So, Noah has his first loose tooth.  He has been waiting, not-so-patiently I might add, for this day.  The look on his face when he came and told me he thought his tooth was loose we priceless.  Most of the girls in his class have already lost lots of teeth.  They have one boy in their class who is on the older side (that’s a nice way of saying it right?) who has lost like 7 or 8 teeth, but none of the other boys Noah’s age have.  So, it’s very exciting.

The tooth is just wiggly–and probably 3 or so weeks away from being ready to really fall out–but this didn’t stop conversations about the tooth fairy.  I am in no real way stingy.  So when we were all talking on family vacation about the Tooth Fairy and what she brings, I thought $3 for your first tooth and $1 for each tooth after.  That seemed reasonable, right?  Okay, so now I know that it isn’t.

The day after vacation I got the following text from my brother informing me that the going rate for a tooth is $3.00.

So, I thought $3 isn’t so bad.  It seems a bit crazy, but you certainly can’t buy anything with a $1 like you used to.  I still remember penny candy and going to the local Ben Franklin and being able to get a bag of candy for $1 and it was a lot–now?  Not so much.

I resigned myself that I’d be shelling out about $60 over the next few years for teeth that have fallen out of my son’s mouth.

At dinner the other night, Noah happily declared, “I know how much the tooth fairy leaves!!”

“How much?”

“TEN DOLLARS”

Oh pardon me as I spit out my wine all over the table.  “What?”

“Ten Dollars, Mom.  The tooth fairy brings TEN DOLLARS.”

Are you kidding me?  These aren’t the first kids in the world to lose teeth.  Ten bucks for a tooth.  So, now.  I have to leave Ten Dollars for my kids first tooth.  Then who the hell knows.  I am still flabbergasted that $10 is actually what the going rate seems to be in the world of private school.  I know I shouldn’t be surprised.  For one of Noah’s classmates birthday’s-the parents of said child had an ice cream truck come to school.

So, what does the tooth fairy leave in your house?