Pay no attention to the inequity
This week the hubby & I attended an open house at a public school with a gifted program. It's not just all gifted kids, but also 'regular' kids too. There were a NUMBER of problems with this school. Since I'm low on time, I'm going to list them and hopefully I can expand on them. I'm also still too hot to really be 100% rational. Here we go:
1. There was no formal welcome by anyone. The Vice principal walked past the crowd of parents a number of times and didn't address us until we were in the conference room.
2. The parent volunteer in charge of taking us to the conference room didn't say "HI, come this way please." No, she said, "This way."
3. No materials were handed out except the application. DESPITE a number of references to other material we can get from the front office.
4. The classroom tour was heart breaking. And I'm sure my teacher friends will tell me that it's typical. The neighborhood classroom was HALF the size of the gifted classroom. The gifted classroom had desks & chairs and was very orderly (the other classroom was so small that all the materials were packed against the walls up to the ceiling).
The ethnic diversity of the student population was similar in both classes. But since parents often fundraise and can direct their donations to certain programs & classes, I have to wonder what the hell is going on with economic diversity.
I think I'm going to call the Principal next week to voice my concern for the rudeness & the funding. Of course, my complaints will go on deaf ears as I know that they will have more applications than slots. It's not like they NEED Ella to be in their program.
So what is worse? Sending her to a school where we see the inequities day after day or sending her to a school where there are none because most of the parents are at the same economic status? Or at least, we're the poor family...
*sigh*
