Education in America

My son's dad and I got a divorce when my son was about one and a half. At that point in time we did not have to take school arrangements into consideration concerning our placement arrangements. However, I always had that in the back of my mind.

A few years later we both had significant others in our lives who would play a role in our decision making process. My ex husband had someone in his life who was very involved in education, and who would ultimately work in the education system. She had very strong opinions about which schools would be best for T. As his "step-parent" one might think that her opinions might be selfish one's, but that definitely was not the case. Her opinions seemed to be based around class sizes, and programs offered at that school.

I also had very strong opinions about which school would be best for T. My opinions were based on research I had done on the three school districts we were considering enrolling T in. (We lived in different cities so we were considering my city, their city, and the city in between.) My research included district and school "report cards", graduation rates, and I am a little bit embarrassed to admit, minority levels.

My ex-husband and his now wife grew up in Wisconsin in areas that had little to no minorities.I grew up in Southern California, so our concerns and visions were different.

Let me start by saying that I went to school with a lot of Asians, Mexicans, and African Americans. One might even be able to argue that Caucasians were more of a minority than the rest listed, but it was probably pretty equal. I have some great friends that are from each of the races above. They are compassionate, smart, amazing people ad I would not be the same person I am today having not had their friendships.

Looking back on my education, I feel that it was lacking. My observations were that so much time was spent with the ESL (English as a 2nd Language) kids that those of us who spoke English were often swept under the rug. So much attention was spent on getting ESL kids to the point they needed to be, that those of us who were at the correct level, or even gifted, were not being challenged.

Also, many minorities, statistically, live in the poorer areas of cities, which is definitely the case in the town that I currently live in. The percentage of Mexicans and African Americans in our district, I would guesstimate at 2% combined. However we have a very high Hmong population. (Hmong people, an ethnic group originally from China, Laos, Thailand.)

Completely separate from the minority factor, the poorer areas of the city also house people on welfare. I am stereo-typing a bit here, but the stereo-typical welfare parent doesn't seem to care as much about their children's social behaviors because they seem to have a lot of other worries on their minds. Therefore, schools in the poorer areas tend to have more children who are acting out in class.

The schools that I mentioned above tend to have more funding for programs like SAGE, which is a wonderful program, and they tend to have lower class sizes as well. While that is wonderful, it seems to me that the reason behind SAGE and lower class sizes is because 1) these schools tend to have more ESL students, and 2) these schools tend to have more children who are acting out.

So at the time of our decision making I fought for my son's educational future. I wanted him to have every opportunity, and I did not want him held back because his teachers couldn't focus entirely on education. I knew that once in middle school and high school he would be in school with all members of our community, but for his elementary school education, I wanted him to have a great start with little distractions.

Ultimately, my ex-husband and his now wife made the self-less decision to move to the same city as me so that T could have healthy relationships with both of his parents and could get a great education.

I am currently in the house hunting process, and one of the things I am taking into consideration before making any offers, is which elementary school my daughter B will go to. T is now 11, and B is 2, so I am starting this whole process all over again!