Parentella

My eldest son just started middle school, and I chose a Charter. I will admit I was apprehensive about it. I spent a lot of time last year (his last year in elementary school) finding a middle school that was going to be a good fit for him.

I hadn’t given it much thought before that time, unlike many of my peers. (Just as now I am not going to spend any time thinking about his high school – it’s too soon!) But ultimately, the search for a school did end up taking a lot of my time last year.

I was worried that a large school would cause a lot of stress for my son, who tends to be a worrier. Even now, on this tiny little campus he’s on, he’s worried about getting from class to class on time. I can’t imagine how he would feel if he were at the large school I considered sending him to.

Not only is the campus small in the charter he attends, but the class size is small–a huge plus. Most middle schools here in Los Angeles can have up to 35 kids in a class, but this school caps class size at 25. It makes a big difference when kids are in middle school.

I knew all this when I applied for my son to get in last Spring. And this Fall I really knew we had made the right choice.

At Back-To-School night, when I met all the teachers – and the new Principal – my gut instincts were confirmed: the teachers make the school. Each one of them is excited about the place, about teaching middle-schoolers, and about going the extra mile.

The teachers each stay after school until 4pm, four days a week, to run a club (like Yearbook), or coach a team (like volleyball), and they each also offer a tutoring session and a homework session.  Just that one hour makes a huge difference.

That kind of thing was not a normal occurrence at my kids’ elementary school. Some teachers worked long hours, to be sure, but they were busy prepping for the next day’s work and not running after-school programs. And let’s face it, most of the teachers left the campus as soon as the bell rang.

This Charter school is run like a cohesive unit; everyone is on the same team. I never got that feeling from the elementary school. It was very often teachers against administrators, parents against teachers, and (mostly) students left out in the cold.

After 6 years with my kids in a regular public school, I was ready to move to an alternative school. Dealing with the mentality of the elementary school’s bureaucracy day in and day out is incredibly draining,. Even at the level of the school site, the prevailing attitude is to play to the lowest common denominator.

There’s a sign on the front of every school noting the illegality of loitering. Not a Welcome sign; a Keep Away sign. It starts there and goes downhill most of the time. And although I have tried to work around it and most times am able to, it has ultimately worn me down.

So I chose a Charter school.

Sarah Auerswald is the blogger behind Mar Vista Mom and Sarah’s Blog. Other Parentella articles on charter schools are: What, Exactly, Is A Charter School?, Is A Charter School The Right School For Your Child?, The Best and Worst of Our Charter School Experience, and Charter Schools from a Business Perspective.

Related posts:

1. The Best and Worst of Our Charter School Experience
2. What, Exactly, Is A Charter School?
3. Is A Charter School The Right School For Your Child?
4. Charter Schools From a Business Perspective
5. Middle School: are we done yet?!?

Tags: Charter Schools, educationa reform, Sarah Auerswald

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Charter Schools, Parent Perspectives, Sarah Auerswald. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.