45%: The percentage of elementary schools in the Minneapolis district receiving a "1" rating from the impartial www.greatschools.net (which takes a number of factors into account but weighs test scores particularly high).. That is, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high. If you look at the North Side of Minneapolis, that percentage jumps dramatically. Like, to 90% (and 100% for those receiving a "1" or "2."
Not a good scene for anyone wanting a quality education for their children; but a particularly sticky wicket for those of us that have a particularly high expectation to meet. Of all the educators I know (and I know a lot), there is not one who will tell you that underachieving kids from dicey backgrounds do not divert enormous amounts of energy and resources and ultimately detract from the educational experience of kids who are at the high end of the learning curve. For all my general walk & talk of being a f(here goes a gross mischaracterization of myself) ree-spending liberal who believes in throwing money at social ills - I'm not willing to let me daughter be a part of that experiment. And I'm not alone. Peers of ours, when they do exist in my part of the city (and that is rare), are sending their kids out of the district, left and right. Minneapolis Schools are in a horrible Catch-22, for obvious reasons. High achieving kids leave, schools get worse, repeat. To make matters even more challenging, Minneapolis (and St. Paul) has to accomodate the vast majority of ESL students, as well as all those "transitional" kids; the ones teachers really dread (not the kids themselves, but the situation), where kids come in halfway through the year and require catching up, then drop out a few weeks later. What do you do when you have parents who don't have a culture of placing a high value on education? Show me a teacher who can answer that. Hand-in-hand with that, what do you do when you have parents who don't realize their child's quality education starts at home?
8 Sight * So we decided to give it a chance, anyway. Our earliest research involved checking out a Public Monessori School in the (really cool, but really small) neighborhood of Bryn Mawr. On the North Side, but barely. And a "magnet school" (with free bussing from my area). Lucy's wonderful experience at Brightwater Montessori Preschool has only raised the bar of our expectations as to what an education can be like. Personally, I have a wistful "how might my own learning experience have been better with this educational philosophy?" every time I walk through the door to pick her up. We thought that the special nature of the "Montessori education" might have kept the makeup of the families somewhat exclusive to people who subscribe to the philosophy personally, but no dice. What we saw what the remnants of what appears to be a once great school, now bursting at the gills with kids that are packed in arbitrarily as year after year, more Northside Schools close, and they have to find some place to stuff more kids (as an aside, five more Northside schools are slated to close in the next year).
Our answer is/cannot be in North Minneapolis. Which opens up a new quandry. The options we're left with is: us driving WAAY out of our way to get Lucy to South Minneapolis (where a few great schools remain in some of the better neighborhoods), or home-schooling. I'm in a place that I don't think 26-year old Dan could have possibly imagined. We're considering actually moving to locate ourselves in a different school district. It's crazy. I feel creepy sometimes, almost. Like these decisions I'm considering are bordering on some sort of - not racism - but socio-economic-ism; where the reality that is borne out in the face of all the best "ideal world" scenarios of multiculturalism and diversityis that - again - I'm not going to sacrifice my daughter to an delicate icing and elf-laden grand social theory.
Just realized how long this is getting. This will require a part two.
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4 comments:
Bummer! I wish I had parents that thought about their childs education for at least 1/100 of the time you and Sharon do. You are excellent parents!
This is a tough one and I can appreciate it to a point.
We've talked a bit about this, but if it helps - I do not think it is an "ism" on your end. It is human nature to seek out others of your own kind - this has plagued you - not only with regard to your daughter - you would truly be insane if you were seeking to place her where she would be different - there are those that would sacrifice the well-being of off-spring to satisfy some perception they desire of themselves. You have reached a point of honesty - you cannot and should not deny it. Hear "Z" call.
I agree with MT to the extent that your decisions are entirely based on justifiable and admirable goals for your offspring.
What we may all need to consider is whether we should judge others who make similar decisions not knowing the framework of those decisions. White flight, while real and probably partially pure racism, is probably not entirely so 'black and white'.
I watched a fascinating documentary on MLK that I may have blogged about. The gist of it was that by the time he was assassinated he had moved beyond racial issues and was concentrating on class issues. The fact that class affected blacks disproportionately negatively probably made it easier, but nonetheless, he was more inclusive.
While slavery forced African Americans below the bottom of the pile, the rest of the history of America is a continuous stream of changing roles of being the bottom feeders. Sadly, it almost always had some element of skin color to it. In 1900 southern Europeans weren't considered 'White' in the census. Italians (and the Irish) were considered the worst of the worst, and principally because they were the poorest, and therefore the most desperate.
This is pretty much rambling at this point...
I eagerly await installment #2.
Indeed, I hit upon the "socio-economic" thing, rather than race some time ago. I remember coming to the realization that my neighborhood wasn't as "diverse" as I was giving it credit for. Diversity is more than skin color. In my neighborhood, white, black, and hmoung families all pretty much let their kids roam the neighborhood while pull their curtains shut and watch TV all night. It's about as homogeneous as you can get. (I'm exaggerating, of course, but you get the idea)
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