I love my kids’ school.
I could just stop there, but I won’t.
My kids attend a private Christian school, and I love it. It’s not perfect, as no place is, but I feel good when I send my children there every day. It’s in walking distance from our house; I can actually see it from my porch. It has small class sizes and plenty of recess. It doesn’t have grades, and it doesn’t administer standardized tests. It’s like my educational nirvana. Yet I’m consistently surprised that we send our children to a private Christian school.
I always imagined that my children would attend a neighborhood public school, just like I did when I was a kid. And they did, for a while. But it didn’t work, for a variety of reasons. So we tried something different. And no matter how much I like my kids’ school, I’m still plagued by the allure of public school.
I desperately believe that every kid deserves to have the chance to attend a high quality, free, public neighborhood school. And I believe I’m called to help that be a reality for more children than currently enjoy that right. I guess that’s where I stand. Having access to such an education is a right, not a privilege. Whether or not families choose to send their children to those schools is their choice, but the schools need to be available. To everyone. Everywhere. Not just in the swanky suburbs.
My parents went out of their way to live in places that afforded me just the type of education that I tout. I am grateful. I am so grateful, in fact, that I want everyone to have the same sort of education available to them.
This leads me back to where I began. I love my kids’ school, but it seems insufficient that everyone doesn’t get the chance to go to their school or one like it. And at this point in my rant, I’m not talking about finances. My children’s school has scholarships and other programs that make attendance there as affordable as it can be, but that’s not entirely my point. I’m talking about accessibility in all its forms.
Why can’t every neighborhood have a great school? Why can’t kids walk or bike to school every day? Why can’t kids of all kinds of socio economic statuses expect to receive a phenomenal education without worrying about how much it costs? Why can’t kids have all of the recess their little bodies need so their big minds can work better? Why can’t art and music education be part of every curriculum?
Why don’t we demand more?
As much as I’ve ranted, my goal isn’t to complain, because, to be perfectly honest, I’ve not done my best to be part of the solution.
So I’ve got to stop being part of the problem. This mini manifesto was step one.
Roshaunda D. Cade 
You know, private school wasn’t really an option for us because (in our opinion) the local Christian school doesn’t provide any better an education than the public one. Add to that that we didn’t like the motivations of many for choosing that school (avoidance of non-whites), nor the prevalent brand of Christianity found there, nor paying extra for something our taxes were already paying for, and there really was no decision to make.
It’s an interesting and important topic though. I had a friend who moved to Dallas awhile back. She had grown/teenaged daughters and then had started over with a new baby about 6-7 years ago. She talked about the local school. She commented that even though the neighborhood she lived in was mostly white, the school was almost entirely minority because all the local white kids went to private schools. The school struggled because many of the minority kids were lower income and didn’t perform as well, whereas many of the kids heading off to the private schools were higher-performing with engaged parents. She fully intended to send her kid to the public school because she was such a strong proponent of public education. I wish I could remember exactly what she said but it was something like: “What makes my kid so much better than all the others? I have to stay involved to make it work. My kid has to be there. If he gets a lesser education, that’s just part of it.” It was a novel selfless idea. The greater good vs. what was best for her kid. We lost touch so I don’t know if she followed through.
Similarly, another friend started teaching at the charter school in my town. She lived in an adjacent town whose school system was arguably not as good as the charter school. She wanted to transfer her daughter to the school she was teaching at (entirely reasonable) for convenience’s sake. Her husband refused, stating that if they moved their daughter, they lost their ability to influence change in their local school district.
Complicated stuff and difficult decisions, to be sure. I think it will be difficult for you to advocate for better public schools while your kids are in a private school. Your school sounds awesome though so I’m not sure I can fault you for your decision. Since I don’t have a choice, I honestly can’t say what I’d do if I did have one. It’s reasonable for a parent to take what’s best for their kid.
The problem, as I see it around here, is that the children who would most benefit from a better school have parents that don’t care. My kids will go to museums and travel the world and be asked difficult questions at home and be rewarded for their curiosity by their parents. If they are traveling through an inferior school system, they’ll still come out on top. It’s those kids whose parents aren’t advocating for them that need it. Unfortunately, since they don’t have an advocate, they aren’t getting it. I’m honestly not sure what the answer is. Without engaged parents, I’m not sure that much the school does will have an impact.
Sorry for writing my own post here in your comment section… 🙂
I agree.
We didn’t leave their public school because the quality of education was poor, although it wasn’t what we wanted. We felt exactly like your friend – that the only way to improve it is by being in it. After we lived with ongoing bullying to both kids, and harassment by a teacher to one of them, and dreadful communication, and the list goes on and on, we decided we were doing our own children a disservice by staying there. Leaving their school was a heart-wrenching decision.
And our plan was to send them to a different public school – so we moved. But by the time we had our permanent address, we were too late for all of our preferred public school options. Then God pointed us to the school that is literally 3 houses down from ours, and we’ve been happy there.
But I still, daily, consider public school options. Now that TG is about to be in middle school, we see now as good a time as any. And there are things that public schools offer that we aren’t getting at their current school. Our recent searching and thinking and praying prompted this post, I’m sure.
To your friend’s point about lack of SES and racial diversity, we experience the exact same things in the public schools here, and then of course the attendant loss of funding and parental participation that seem to go along with that.
I honestly find it very vexing. And I believe that if God allows me to see a need, He has allowed me to see it because He has a plan for me to fill it, even if in some small way. So I’m trying.