School is cool

This is the first year, for ten, that we drop off the children and don’t feel a gnawing unease, nor watch the clock, nervously, waiting for the minute when they are safely free from school. 

That speaks very much to the Utica Schools, where the administrations and teachers at least talk the talk and make attempts at the walk, certainly giving the kids the opportunity to excel and holding them to a far higher level of accountability and responsibility than we have generally experienced. 

The schools are far from perfect, but the issues are not worth mentioning:  The kids are happy, doing what they’re supposed to and the schools are run as we expected schools should be when we started this journey a decade back, and experienced, further decades, beyond.

Jared has embraced junior high’s less cloistered environment, and the increased freedom but also, responsibility, that come with it, doing well academically and socially – glad to have old friends in many of his classes and making new ones as well – so far unflappable to the waves of challenges from both, though, some of the young ladies are testing that calculated aplomb. 

Ari is more comfortable in her own skin than she has ever been, matching her stated independence to action, far less affected by social pressures and stresses – she would tell you we’re not allowed to talk about that!  She continues to sail through school, not challenging herself much, but her journalism teacher has recognized her gift for writing and assigned her to edit articles other than her own for the school paper.

Both are showing wonderful confidence, navigating their experiences swimmingly – my mom shakes her fist angrily, ruing I will never receive fair retribution for my own unfortunate bumbles, obviously a genetic gift from their mother.

By making these observations, undoubtedly, disastrous floods of ruin will flow – but it’s been a good month and a half, so let the rain pour!  I believe it has something to do with wave function collapse, but regardless, we really could not be more spoiled parents.

Other than – we are:  If ever a child needed to go to school…  Will needs to go to school!  The child craves stimulation, both from the activities of school and socially, embracing both with an un-reigned enthusiasm.  He experiences everything just a little more wholly than most, and while that’s true of his brother and sister as well, he revels in the sound and fury, though taking things hard, embracing the experiences.

Learning the phases of the moon

Making apple sauce

Working on the i-Pad

Where his school really excels is by encouraging the enthusiasm and channeling it into productive activities.  They teach respect and empathy and accountability.  The children know they need to make sure their teacher is happy, and they’re learning that they’re responsible for their behavior – feeding bananas to a gorilla when they err.

Nothing’s perfect, but the difference from what the other two experienced is tremendous.  The atmosphere is so much more positive – for all three – and we’re seeing that reflected in their attitudes and efforts in school.