Morningstar Kindergarten

Where do our children spend six hours a day, five days a week and 35 weeks a year between the ages of three or four and eleven – that’s about 8000 hours? At their primary school!

What happens in this school matters. The adults they meet play a significant role in their lives. If our children are in the wrong school, there is unhappiness, poor achievement, worry and even bad feeling. We blame the school, ourselves or our children. They are unhappy – not just in the school but also in the evening worrying about tomorrow and feeling wretched on the journey to school. This is not the recipe for the best learning and growing into a confident, healthy person. We waste precious time visiting the school in unhappy circumstances instead of feeling proud and pleased.

With a bit of care you can set the scene to avoid this and help to give your child a good school career.

Plan of action

Think: what do you want for your child? The more detailed you can be the better. Consider your own values. Yes you want the best – but what does that mean? There are three key areas you might consider:

1. you want your child to be happy

2. you want a good education for your child

3. you want to be able to trust the school

Happiness

Happy children learn quickly and grow confidently. They are happier to participate and get the most out of the educational and social opportunities in a school. Children are happy if they feel purposeful and appreciated; praised for their successes; encouraged through their mistakes; and treated fairly along with their school-mates.

Myth #1: “Public schools aren’t as good as private schools.”

First off, this is rather a meaningless assertion to begin with, since there’s no such thing as a “typical” public school. Because the American public school system is decentralized, quality varies tremendously. The fact is, however, that, depending on what indicator you choose to use, many public schools outperform private schools.

It is important to understand that knowledge has no address. Knowledge does not “reside” in one location or another. In fact, now that the internet has broken down nearly all the barriers that once limited information access, this reality is more true than ever. Your child can get a first class, quality education from your local public school.

Saying that private schools are “better” than public schools is a lot like saying that books you purchase from Barnes & Noble are “better” than those you obtain from your local public library. The knowledge, the access is the same. It’s what you (and your child) do with the books that matters. Likewise, it is what you and your child do with your public school that will determine his or her educational outcomes.

Frankly, we think that blaming your child’s public school if your child is not achieving academically is a lot like blaming your gym if you’re out of shape. It’s not the fault of the institution; it’s what you do there that makes the crucial difference.

Your child can absolutely still obtain an Ivy league-worthy education from the public school system. That’s assuming that he or she is willing to work hard in the top level classes, of course.

Myth #2: “Private schools have better teachers than public schools.”

Alternative schools have been established since about the late 1970s to meet the needs of children and adolescents who cannot learn effectively in a traditional school environment (i.e., conventional public or private schools) due to behavioral issues, certain medical conditions, learning challenges, and or psychological issues.

In general, alternative schools have more complete educational and developmental objectives than standard schools. They often have program fundamentals that focus on improving student self-esteem, fostering growth of individuality, and enhancing social skills. Alternative schools are more flexible in their administration and organization, which allows for more variety in educational programs.

Once available primarily for disruptive students and those at risk for dropping out of a traditional school environment, alternative schools have expanded significantly in purpose as educators, parents, and wider communities recognize that many adolescents may not learn successfully in a traditional school environment. For children and adolescents with behavioral and psychological issues, such as depression, personality disorders, substance use and abuse, and violence, alternative schools may provide a safer therapeutic environment and more individualized attention than traditional schools.

For children and adolescents with certain medical conditions and learning challenges such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Asperger’s syndrome, and dyslexia, alternative schools may provide combined clinical and education services in one place to ease learning. Alternative school structure and curriculum varies depending on the educational goals and desired student population. Alternative schools may not be accessible or available locally and may require additional daily travel or residential boarding by the student. Usually, local alternatives to public schools do not require a monthly tuition, while private schools do require parents to pay a monthly tuition for student attendance. A number of different types of alternative schools exist, including the following:

o emotional growth boarding schools

o independent private schools

Even if you’re just starting your boarding school research, there’s a good chance you already have an impression of what boarding school is like. This impression might come from books you’ve read, such as “Catcher in the Rye” or “A Separate Peace.” It also might come from movies you’ve watched like “Dead Poet’s Society,” or “School Ties.”

These stories, while entertaining, take place in boarding school settings that are different from what you’d find today. An excerpt from an article about college-preparatory boarding schools in The New York Times summarizes these differences well:

“To generations of students whose syllabuses include J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye,” boarding school represents the winter of their adolescent discontent; a cold, distant place where parents threaten to send their children if they don’t measure up.Parents dropped their children off in September, picked them up again in June and let the schoolmasters worry about what went on in between.

If Holden Caulfield were to return to school for Alumni Day 2001, he would find that the world of proctors and prefects, dorm teas and Mr. Chips has undergone a millennial thaw. Most of the approximately 36,000 students at boarding schools packed their bags willingly and are in daily e-mail contact with mom and dad. The ivy is no longer one shade of green. Students are as likely to room with a real prince of Thailand as with the fresh prince of Bel Air, as the schools reach farther into the public high schools for the majority of their students, making admissions more competitive than ever. The monastic life of formal dinners, daily chapel and cold showers has given way to international theme meals, contemporary ecumenism and interdorm dances.” – Less Austerity, More Diversity at Prep School Today – By VICTORIA GOLDMAN and CATHERINE HAUSMAN, November 12, 2000, New York Times

You’ve no doubt heard all kinds of stories about Cyber High Schools – that it isn’t school, your child won’t learn, there’s no social interaction, etc. Cyber High Schools are growing in popularity but because all states are handling this virtual education differently, there isn’t a clear description of how cyber high school is handled and delivered. The commonalities in all the programs are that in most cases, the school district will give you a computer and pay for your internet connection for that school year and your curriculum is paid for by your home district. So, your child is going to school at home and online. Here’s where the questions come in because most can’t understand how a child can learn without a physical teacher at the blackboard. Here is a list of the most asked questions that may help you decide whether online school will work for your student.

1) If my child is really struggling in public school, can I move my son/daughter in the middle of the school year? Yes, in most cases, cyber charter schools have rolling enrollment. Some did that to attract enrollment in their first years and are now full with a waiting list. But don’t give up. Some may be able to take you anyway, as these schools understand that students and parents coming to them in the middle of the year are most likely in a bad situation at their home school district.