Tina, Talking.

Opinions on Grade Acceleration?

I'm getting a lot of visitors lately, and some positive emails too, mainly from people I don't know, or whose opinions I otherwise don't have access to. That's great -- I love it. And I'm struggling with a decision we have to make soon about Solana and school. So I'm going to briefly describe the issue here, and if anyone has any experience with this or something similar, I'd be very interested in hearing it.

(Just as possibly useful background, I started school early, and so did Sage. Neither of us (has) had a problem. I went to Kdg. at 4 (birthday in Dec., so within the school guidelines for 'early entrance'), Sage started 1st grade at 5 (birthday in June, so she basically tested out of Kdg. without having gone).)

Solana is in a nursery school class for three year olds, and she's hating it. At first, she had a little nervousness, but it faded. She had a couple of months (Oct. and most of Nov.) where she liked it, talked about the other kids, looked forward to it. The past few weeks have been awful. First she started crying when we got there, then it progressed to crying on the way in, and this morning -- even though Mike and I were coming in to school for a little caroling thing -- she started crying when it was time to get dressed.

At first she said it was because the other kids don't like her. Now, she's trying to fake sick. Today she said she must've had too many sweets last night (at her Christmas program, which she tried to avoid participating in). It's not a very academic program, it's more like a big playgroup where they get stories read to them and do crafts. And the other kids seem nice enough, they just really don't like the same things she does.

At home, she works with me on crafts, and she picked out some flashcards for herself (phonics). She calls it 'little school', and she likes it a lot. She's starting to read a few things here and there, and she can identify her numbers up to the thirties (Sage's teacher told me she saw her do this one day). When she plays, it's a lot of imaginary play, dancing, running stuff, climbing. She's really a well rounded kid, so the other kids do like some similar things, it's just that the other kids don't do the stuff in the same way, or for the length of time she does.

Few of her classmates even talk much; I don't think they're all that shy, I just think they don't do it so much. And while I think they may 'like' her, for some reason they're not really interested in playing with her, either in or out of school.

Anyway, I got so sad today when I was in the classroom. She really is trying, and the other kids mostly ignore her. I watched her invite about six kids (each separately, while they were putting on their coats) to have a playdate, saying "Would you like to come over and play at my house?" and they all either ignored her or said "No.".

Her teachers seem to think this (the crying, fighting us and lying about why she can't go) is a behavioral issue, and they also seem to think she needs more of the same to snap her out of it, and to become more socialized. I think she needs more of a challenge, and then she'll be able to show how well she is socialized. [I leave her there crying if she starts -- they tell me she stops after a little while. Mike will stay with her until she calms down (which can be up to an hour) if he drops her off.] She doesn't have separation issues anywhere else -- I took her in to lunch at Sage's school last week, and so that I could talk to the principal alone, I left her in the lunchroom with the kids; Sage was sitting with 3 boys from her class and three 5th graders. Solana sat right with them, she didn't even sit next to Sage, and I left with no problem. When I got back, she'd finished her lunch and was holding a dustpan, helping one of the older girls sweep up a mess. No tears. But she screams bloody murder if I try to leave her in a classroom of 3 year olds.

I did speak with Sage's principal about this all (she knows both kids pretty well), and she also thinks Solana needs an additional challenge, and that the problem is academic, not behavioral. I was planning on putting her in a Pre-K program next year, and then seeing what happened for Kdg.. I've recently found out that her pre-school believes she should be in a program for 4 year olds next year instead, which would put her in Pre-K at 5, Kdg. at 6, which I think is too old (for this particular kid -- everyone's different). Not to mention that she'd be 4 years behind her sister, who's 2 years older than her -- what kind of impression would that give either/both of them?!

In any case -- I need to sign her up for whatever she's going to do next year, this week, probably (I might be able to push the issue with one school or another depending on the weather -- if there are any closings). I really don't know what to do.

I'm thinking of calling our pediatrician and getting a referral to a Developmental Psychologist -- on the off chance that her teachers are right and this is a behavior problem only, I'd better know as soon as possible. I also might call a couple of schools and see how young they're willing to allow someone to test into Kdg. If she's anything like Sage and me, she'll be reading by the time school starts this coming Fall, and Kdg. might be the place for her. But she'd be so young. But (on the other, other hand!), in my research when deciding whether to skip Sage a grade, it really seemed like it made sense to allow kids to be around their intellectual peers rather than basing everything on age (research and anecdotally).

So -- anyone have any stories or thoughts? Did you skip a grade, early in life, and how did it work out? Feel like you should've skipped, but didn't? Had kids in this situation? What did you do?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Charter Schools

OK -- so, this is a letter I wrote to the editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week, responding to a rude article they had about how much money local school systems were 'losing' to Charter Schools in the area. I'm going to write something a little more comprehensive about schools in general later tonight, and I hope some people who are interested in this issue will join in the 'debate'. (It's certainly one way to get some more traffic! I've seen it happen!) Traffic is actually really good here, from my point of view and I'm loving the comments and emails I'm getting. I'll get back to everyone really soon.

They totally should've printed this.

To The Editor:

I am writing to express my extreme dismay regarding the obvious bias shown by the Plain Dealer and reporter (edited out by me) in the article about Charter Schools on page B1, Wednesday, November 17th. This article repeatedly states that schools are ‘losing’ money to charter schools, which is a blatant mischaracterization, and with a small amount of thought, can be shown to be untrue.

Your article states: “Nearly half of the state’s 613 school districts ... will lose $100,000. or more to charter schools this academic year...”. Do you sincerely believe that this money is ‘lost’, when in fact the school systems in question will not be educating the students for whom the state provides these specific funds?

Your article states: “In Cuyahoga County alone, traditional public schools stand to lose nearly $71 million -- including nearly $59 million in the Cleveland city schools.” It’s been my understanding that the per pupil funds provided by the state and federal governments (the portion of the funds that are provided to the charter school) are to be just that, ‘per pupil’. How is it a ‘loss’ when a school that is not providing education for a specific pupil is not given funds to educate that specific pupil?

I am a resident of Lakewood, and my daughter recently started school at a charter school in Cleveland. My husband and I are proponents of public schools, and planned on sending our daughter to the local elementary school. It didn’t turn out to be the best fit for her, and we were lucky to discover this prior to her beginning school there, and also lucky that the school she now attends was an option for us. There really was no other choice, being concerned and involved parents who noticed that she has needs that would not be met at the local school. No school in Lakewood has taught my daughter, and I resent the implications in your article that could lead some people to believe that the per pupil funding from the state and federal government is somehow lowered or ‘lost’ when individual families decide to utilize another option.

Per pupil means per pupil. There is no monetary loss inherent in the existence of or utilization of charter schools. The local public school that would normally educate the pupil has one fewer student, and is funded for one fewer student. It seems to make perfect sense to me. The money given to charter schools is specific to one child at a time.

I understand that there are some companies running charter schools that may be unethical, or starting schools for the sole purpose of earning money. These are issues that must be resolved. (One aspect that definitely must be fixed as soon as possible is that of students moving from one school to another, more than once, when the school that untimately educates that student is not the school receiving the funds to do so properly.) However, these are not issues of financial ‘loss’ to the public schools. They are issues of educational loss to some students, certainly, and losses to the parents who believe in these schools, but there is no financial ‘loss’ for the public school that is not educating the charter school student in question.

Your facts are based on an ‘analysis’ by a public education coalition, whose bias is apparent, of course. It’s important that these issues are reported on, to continue assisting parents in making informed decisions about their children’s educations. I used multiple resources in evaluating my daughter’s educational options, among them newspapers. If I had read this article prior to knowing the actual facts, I’d have had a very different impression of the many, varied and wonderful options available in this area. I’d have thought that there was some financial loss to public schools through a choice to attend a charter school. I know now that this is not the case, and I think the Plain Dealer should try harder in the future to avoid such misleading bias.