1. It was a neighborhood school. It was 3 blocks from our house. It extended our already wonderful community.
My son had been in a local daycare/Pre-K in our housing complex previously, and 7 students from there joined him in Kindergarten at the local public elementary school! Additionally, he started Hebrew School in the neighborhood, one afternoon a week. That is now 2 afternoons a week and there are 7 kids from his grade there as well!
2. Kindergarten “Read To Your Kids” Time.
For the first 6 months of Kindergarten all parents were asked to stay 20 minutes into the first period to read to their children. As a SAHD this was no problem. The benefit of this for me was that I got to meet the other 20 amazing parents/families in my son’s class. 6 years later these are my best friends at school. That time, somehow while we were completely focused on our kids, helped the parents to bond!
3. Extracurricular Classes.
I have a niece in Staten Island who is the same age as my son. Because we are both in one of the five boroughs of New York City, we all partake of the exact same curriculum. I question my sister-in-law all the time to find out what differences exist between the education of her daughter and my son. One major thing are the extra subjects my son gets included in his school week. We have full time gym, art, music, literacy media (computers) , and science teachers. They do not have most of these subjects, let alone full time teachers for the instruction.
4. Nurturing teachers.
My son had 2 EVIL teachers. So bad that there are complaints on file. The others teachers were superb!
My son loved his art teacher so much that one year he told me he wanted to stay in the building for middle school (there is one upstairs) and then go to college and come back to his elementary school as the art teacher. I told the art teacher that I felt there was no bigger compliment than letting a teacher know he was so admired that his student wanted to be him. Needless to say, my son cried himself to sleep the night of graduation at the thought of not having another 6 years with this amazing teacher. It was heartbreaking!
The other favorite teacher was his music teacher. The guy is a tough one but told great jokes. My son is artistic and musical so he loved these teachers.
And all the others! I had to take the 4th grade teacher to the Principal to get him on track with my son, almost had to do that with the 5th grade teacher as well after the first report card, and these two ending up being wonderful, nurturing, respected teachers. I am grateful for all that they taught my son, and not just from books.
Paul did not love the gym teacher, but he loved gym. Paul loves science and loved his science teacher. His 4th grade teacher became the media literacy teacher (computers) so that relationship continued and we were thrilled.
5. The School.
It reminds me of a strong sense of nationalism the way my son felt about his public school. It was his school, his sense of loyalty to it was fierce. He loves his friends, and he is friends with most of the 73 students that were in his 5th grade. He loved his teachers. And he loved the building and all that it represented to him. He loved it all so much that he cried himself to sleep after graduation, I will be forever grateful to the Universe for giving that to him.
And as your local gay dad reporter, I have to shout it out to the world that my friends come from this school, not from the gay world! My friends are the parents I spent 6 years with in the playground , the parents who were with me as we read to our kids, and the parents who we cheered with at all the student events, art shows, and various auditorium spectaculars! And for that I am forever grateful!
Sounds like he will be gettinga good education.Too bad some schools are dropping arts music .
Being involved is the most important thing- my son told me a story about a mean teacher-I tried to brush it off-telling him to listen better- while shopping and meeting another mom she asked me about this same teacher- her son also had commented on- next day I got permission to sit in hallway /taking turns with a few moms to audit what was going on /teacher was very abusive and was removed that same day. I realize kids can make up stories but to always check out what they are telling you! . Enjoy your son’s schooling- meet the other parents-know his friends- all the things you have been doing-tougher when they are older but don’t let that stop you!
You read terrible stories about NYC public schools so were lucky in that we had a very Type A parent community and PTA who stepped to get those extras. I will miss the school terribly and you of course.
What a great list of things to make sure our educators strive for! Speaking from the education/arts sector, this is such an inspiring post! Agree with the other posts, too! Parent involvement is so important!
So well put..it made me realize how much I am also going to miss the parents and the social times we had together. I don’t think it will be replicated at MS!
I like to hear this about the countries schools.
It’s good to see a parent this involved with their child and his school environment. I know at times it was difficult for you, but you & your son seem to be doing well. I hope all continues to go well for both of you. Thank you for sharing!
I think all schools have their good and bad and we all have to go through some things. God uses these difficult times to make us stronger. Thank you so much for sharing
I want to believe in public education – my husband and I are both teachers – thankful for the nurturers and so deeply sad about the evil ones – they do exist all over tragically – and having them as coworkers is one reason I’m changing fields…
So glad your son had that wonderful art teacher!!