Aaaahh! Kindergarten

Freaking about kindergarten is something of a rite of passage for parents in Los Angeles.  Unless you happen to be blessed with a top performing neighborhood school or the contacts and cash to get into a private school you will probably spend the year before kindergarten frantically touring schools, applying to lotteries and calculating how to get more points on your Choices applications.

Since M has an October birthday I had the additional chance to agonize over whether or not to send him to kindergarten in the fall, when he'll still be 4 or to wait another year and send him when he's 5.  California's cut-off for kindergarten is moving over the next few years from December 2 to September 1, and this year M just makes the cut-off.   M is bright, socially well adapted, tall for his age.  These are not just my impressions, I've had conversations with his preschool teachers, piano teacher, other educational professionals and they all agree that he is an exceptional 4 year old who would probably do just fine in kindergarten. On the other hand, he still would be younger than most kids, doesn't have much interest in worksheets and asks A LOT of questions.  Perhaps too many questions for the average, overburdened public school teacher.

I thought I had come up with a fool-proof kindergarten plan.  I would apply to our top magnet and charter school choices, as well as schools that have 2 year or transitional kindergarten classes.  If we didn't get in anywhere we would just do a 3rd year of preschool and we'd have a chance to re-apply for kindergarten next year.  As expected, we didn't get in to any of the schools we applied to and our wait list positions were pretty dismal (at one school we were simply told that we're on page 5).  I was a bit depressed, but fine with M doing a third year of preschool.  Then the older class at M's small preschool disintegrated-- some kids got into TK, some decided they wanted a full day program, some moved, the end effect being that instead of being one of several 4-5 year olds at the school he would be the oldest kid by 8 months.  Even the preschool director agreed that this situation wasn't best for M and she would prefer to see him move on to kindergarten rather than be in an environment where he wouldn't be challenged.

This development completely blew my semi-zen attitude about schools.  No longer was I calmly saying "there are lots of good choices out there".  I was in panic mode.  I revisited our decision to delay kindergarten a year.  Although deadlines for most magnets and charters were long since passed there were a few nearby language immersion schools (Mandarin or Spanish) that we might still be able to get in.  But if I questioned whether a traditional school was going to be too much for M this year, was he really ready for a traditional school in a foreign language? We are guaranteed a spot at our neighborhood school which a few years ago seemed fine, but a new principal, a testing scandal and some grumbling by local parents has me second guessing it.  I could apply to another preschool, but I hadn't researched preschools for 3 years and had no idea which schools might be a good fit and have openings.

Thankfully, my distraught facebook post led to a few leads and we found a preschool with a 4 and 5 year old class, not too far away, with open spots.  So now M has a place to go to school and, for those of you who saw my Costa Rica post, I do not have a parasite.  All is right in again in the world.

A Good School

Now that Baby M and most of his friends are safely ensconced in suitable preschools, the hot topic is "where are you sending him for kindergarten?"  Parents are on a never-ending quest for a "good school."  I have heard the words "good school" thrown around so much in the past months that they have lost all meaning.  Is a good school the one with high test scores?  Involved parents?  An arts focussed curriculum?  A lawn?  Mostly white kids?  Any school that is not part of LAUSD?  Depending on who you talk to it could be any of these.

So when I saw Diane Ravitch on the Daily Show talking about the state of public education, I decided to pick up her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System.   Diane Ravitch is a historian of school reform and served in the Education Department under the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.  Her book provides an in depth look at the last 20 years or so of school reform. Interestingly, many of the policies she once advocated for-- testing, accountability, choice and markets--  she has now reversed position on.  As she explains in the book, her views changed as she "saw how these ideas were working out in reality."

The main point of the book is that market based and data driven reforms will not help, and quite possibly are hurting the quality of our public schools.  She uses several case studies and, somewhat ironically, test scores to illustrate her point.  Indeed, one problem with data is that depending on how you slice it, it can be used to show schools are or are not improving.  Ravitch convincingly makes the case that by obsessing over scores on standardized tests of the most basic math and reading skills, we are leaving our students unable to do much more than fill in a bubble on a multiple choice test.  They are "unprepared to lead fulfilling lives, to be responsible citizens and to make good choices."  And by using those scores exclusively to evaluate schools, teachers and administrators will teach only the test material, will manipulate who takes the test or will cheat in order to keep their jobs.  She argues that by creating a market for schools, we create winners and losers as the most motivated students and families flock to charter schools and neighborhood schools are left with unmotivated or problem students.  Instead of citizens linked together by a school, we are consumers, each looking out only for our own interests.  She writes, "The market, with its great strengths, is not the appropriate mechanism to supply services that should be distributed equally to people in every neighborhood in every city and town in the nation without regard to their ability to pay or their political power."  She does see a role for religious, private and even charter schools, but one that does not drain away the best students from public education.  Her prescription for fixing schools includes a well-defined comprehensive liberal arts based curriculum, an inspection based assessment method for schools and teachers, well-educated teachers and extra help for disadvantaged families.  This was a fascinating book and if you are at all interested in education policy I highly recommend it.

So what does this all mean for me and my search for a "good school"?  Well, I've always felt strongly about the importance of neighborhood schools.  And I was all set to attend my local school with its pretty good API score (but very good based on demographics), diverse student body, involved parents and new playground equipment.  But then I thought I should do some due diligence and learn about my other options-- charters, magnets, open enrollment.  I toured a nearby charter school and found they include foreign language, arts and music in their regular school day, things my neighborhood school only offers in after school enrichment classes.  The charter school also has a pretty good API score, but it is well below average based on demographics.   So, what to think?  Is my neighborhood school teaching to the test at the expense of other subjects? Are the charter school students lagging behind on basic skills? I'd love for Baby M to learn a second language and be well-versed in the arts.  At the same time, I want to support my neighborhood school and allow Baby M to make friends who live nearby.  After reading this book, I will spend a little more time researching the curriculum used by the schools and observe some classes in each.  I still have least a year before Baby M starts kindergarten and plenty of time to find that all elusive "good school."

Feeling Lazy

So yesterday while aimlessly surfing the web and wondering why I wasn't doing something more productive I came across this interview with Mayim Bialik. You probably remember her as Blossom from the early 90's TV of the same name or maybe you saw her as the young Bette Midler in Beaches. Anyway, Blossom has ditched her pal Six and the floppy hats and is now a baby-wearing, home-birthing, granola-making mother of two. Just reading about her life tires me out.

Not only does she cook vegan and kosher meals for her family. She nurses her children until they self wean (the older one weaned around age 2), makes her own shampoo and practices elimination communication. If you're not familiar, EC is a technique where you watch your infant for signs that he needs to go the bathroom. Then you hold him over the toilet. She has been holding her son over the toilet 10 times a day since he was 2 days old! Oh and she also auditions and does some grant review work in her spare time.

Mothers like Mayim Bialik are amazing, and I admire them, but I'm starting to feel a bit like Peg Bundy. When Baby M was an infant, opening a can of soup was about all I could manage and even now we eat a little too frequently from Trader Joe's freezer aisle. I took a stab at potty training, but am too impatient, or selfish or lazy to sit next to him on the potty 3 times a day. Other moms in the neighborhood seem to have vaccination schedules memorized, their kids in multiple toddler programs and are already calculating their LAUSD "points" for getting into the kindergarten of their choice.

Not only do I find the logistics of managing all these tasks unwieldy, I also find them kind of unnecessary. My doctor knows the vaccination schedule and I trust her judgement. Baby M is happy going to the park and the occasional Moo Moo Musica class, does he really need a structured program at 20 months old? Why should I spend hours figuring out the labyrinthine LA Unified system when my local school is perfectly fine and within walking distance? Besides, if I was cooking and researching and sitting next to the potty all day how would I ever find time to keep up to date on the cast of Blossom?