When my son was just a wee babe, I made the decision that I wanted him to go to private school. I'm from the East Coast and I have witnessed first hand that a private school education gives a kid more options. I want my son to be able to be whatever he wants to be, to study whatever he wants to study, and have the ability to get into whatever school he wants to get into and hopefully, attain an academic scholarship. We live in Oregon and I have seen the schools just sink lower and lower every year - it has been alarming and sad. Loss of extracurricular programs, gym, art, languages, quality teachers... Even moms who are teachers are pulling their kids out of public schools and placing them in charter, montessori, waldorf, or private schools.
After a lot of research, I made the decision that Montessori Preschool could provide him with critical building blocks for literacy, math and social skills because of the materials and philosophy of Montessori. I believed that with a strong foundation, he'd be better equipped to excel in Elementary School. So, I enrolled him in a local Montessori program at 3 yrs old. He seemed to do pretty well in Montessori, though he did face some bullying issues and I never felt his teacher really connected with him. Nonetheless, he had the opportunity to experience some wonderful materials and make his first real friends.
In the midst of his second year in Montessori, many parents with children at the same level were pondering the next step - take their child out and have them miss the critical 3rd year of Montessori for a public or charter school kindergarten program or leave the child in Montessori to finish the foundation years (the 3rd year would be equivalent to a Kindergarten year). I had imagined for my son to continue with the Montessori program, go to public school for a few years and apply for our local private school in 4th or 5th grade in hopes of attaining a full ride academic scholarship.
But then, I began to rethink my plan...I wondered how he would do joining our local country school in the first grade. Would it provide enough stimulus for him to eventually be able to attain an academic scholarship? How would he like school as one of 35 kids in a class? Would he fall between the cracks? I wondered if maybe he should stay in Montessori until he was ready to earn a private school scholarship.
With all of these questions floating in my head, the school system in the next largest city opened up "out of district transfers" for charter schools and some of the regular public schools. I decided to put our names in the lottery and see what happened.
In the meantime, I started to see more problems at our Montessori school. The guides didn't have a particular connection to my son, he was facing more issues with another child in the class who was acting aggressively to him and I began to wonder if the Montessori really was a good fit. Suffice to say, my commitment to the Montessori program began to dwindle. Eventually, I decided to apply for financial assistance at the local private school for Kindergarten as well. After all, it was better odds to apply for one of the 12 Kindergarten spots than to apply for one or two open 1st, 2nd, 5th or whatever grade spots . All of the sudden I realized that if I could attain some financial assistance, the private school tuition could be comparable to what I'd pay if I just stayed at our Montessori (wherein a child can stay until about 5th grade age), perhaps even less. We filled out the paper work and did the tour and I was sold. The academic program at the private school far surpasses any public or charter school and our Montessori. AND they have art, PE, music, public speaking, 3 languages, 72 acres, bee keeping, a garden, organic hot lunches... it is every parent's dream.
By some act of divinity, we got in with a good financial grant from the school. My in-laws offered a solid donation to our tuition, and there was suddenly no other choice.
My son began Kindergarten at a wonderful private school on September 5th and we couldn't be more pleased! He is really thriving at school and he's being recognized for his successes! He has learned something new every day - and he is excited to wake up and go to school. Life is good.
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