I got in eventually. Good article.
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I regularly dream of escaping to Ventura! Thanks for sharing, I think many of us feel this way but with a miriad of unique “rich poor” circumstances.
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Most hopeful thing I’ve read about USA politics this week.
There’s an explainer for Aussie terms at the bottom
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I really liked this practical response to the public education article.
The author specifically mentions private school parents and that its OK to make a difficult decision, and that you can still pick something from the list to support your local public schools! Or even if you have no children of school age, or no children at all!
They also mention Ms Frazzled who is a great advocate for and explains a lot of the USA education system. I’ve followed her on IG for a few years and she was instrumental in getting a bad democratic nominee off the list.
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Thanks for sharing, this has been making the rounds in our daycare moms chat.
I think the author putting her 5 yo kid on a magazine cover is where the vibes first felt off. And then doubling down on their choices year after year, even when things were dysfunctionally bad (like skipping 3 years in reading because they didn’t bother to actually test her?). And then not even informing her 7th grade daughter about her options for more academic/competitive places, even if they disagreed with them. It feels like they were so rigid about their philosophy, they withheld agency from a preteen and teenager who deserved more say.
We have already made some privileged choices with daycare and aftercare, choosing to pay full price instead of going for the subsidized options. I’m not sure why public elementary feels different and important to me somehow though?
I think part of it is that we have more options than the author and none of them are quite so extreme. I’ve heard from neighbors that the interest and involvement of K-2 families is a lot higher than when her kid (5th grade) was starting out; it seems like we get to ride the coattails of parents who did take a leap of faith.
In our city there are pretty standard points at which changes happen: K, 5th grade, 7th grade, and 9th. I have friends with older kids (HS-college) who have done a mix of public, magnet, private, and charter. For middle & high school I think I’ll want my kids to weigh in more, and find an environment where their peer group will have similar interests whether it’s academic, arts, etc.
It’ll be interesting to see how our perspective changes once we have more than a month’s experience in the public system.
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Our deepest commitment as engaged caregivers and citizens must be to know ourselves more honestly all the time–to move away from performance and fear, and towards integrity and courage–and nurture our relationships, with our children and the schools and neighborhoods we are part of and those we have driven past, avoided, neglected to consider. This is the only way to strengthen the public layer of our potentially beautiful, ailing democracy.
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Loved this
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The Cut finally added gift links! IDK if only one person can use or multiple