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1% Problems

I just got an email that reads:

This is friendly update to let you know that Alexander’s application for grade 06 is complete at this time and ready for review. Decision letters for Middle School will be sent on Friday, March 23rd. Please continue to check our website for [redacted] happenings!

Alexander blew his ISEE tests, but if they look at his grades and see the A’s or at his ERB scores and see the 95th percentiles they’ll see a kid with strong academic successes. If they don’t, then I guess he’ll reapply next year or maybe look at other schools.

Of course I’m worried that he will get in and Mr. G won’t want him, but I think that was an abstract and now that he’s seen the school he’s head over heels as well.

What I do is trick myself and worry about the 1% problem, which would be the problem of Alexander getting in. What I don’t do is worry about the 99% problem which is the absolute absurdity of it all and the fact that in my lifetime California schools have gone from the top in the nation to some of the worst. The 99% problem is that our kids are failed in every way, from funding to academia to safety.

I really resent that I’m on pins and needles waiting to make a decision about the next six years of my son’s life when I live in one of the most affluent cities on the planet. I should be walking him down the street to the local school. I don’t even know who to blame, it’s like a well run team and everyone who touches a tax dollar has some part in wasting it on things other than education.

So I’m going to continue my life as an ostrich, put my head in the sand and focus on the 1% problem. You may begin judging me now.

10 thoughts on “1% Problems”

  1. No judgment here.  I live in Utah (home to overcrowded, underfunded public schools and suspect quality private schools). I’m scared shitless about my 8yo son’s educational opportunities. I supplement where I can and continue to push him to expand his areas of interest.  I also cross my fingers a LOT.

  2. Funny, I’m waiting on the same letter – to be mailed March 9th, apparently — so that I see if I get a choice for Leah. I, too, live in a fairly affluent area, but the school district policies that are focused more on money and less on how they affect the kids long-term (re-testing?! Are you kidding me?!) have forced me to look elsewhere – at great cost. And I am zoned to an “exemplary school”! 

    Exemplary only until you peel the first page back…

  3. I should be walking him down the street to the local school.
    Actually, you should be handing him his lunch box and kissing him on the cheek as he walks himself to school.

    I’m amazed that I grew up what I think of as normal, but now I would be called a free range kid.

  4. Private schools are very difficult for even the brightest kids to be accepted. Plus, these schools will check with the school your children are currently attending to see if you are helping the school with your  time, energy, and money.  They are almost as interested in what the parents can do for the school, as they are in the children.  Can you write a check and build them a new computer lab for the school?  And, then, when your kids get in to those schools, they will be surrounded by kids whose parents can write those large contributions.   A tough road all around.

  5. My son tested today for kinder at my daughter’s private school. I could only barrage him with questions on how he did for five minutes before he wanted to go back to playing with his trains. They told us that they will decide his next 8 years in 3 days and I thought that was absurd. Good luck on your wait.

    You will receive no judgement from me. We pass 4 public schools to take our daughter to where she goes and where we hope our son will go. I don’t have the answers either, but I do know my husband and I are doing the best thing we can for our children at this time. Best of luck to Alexander…and you.

  6. GreenInOC got it right – Prop 13. It was enacted just when we had moved to CA from NJ (late ’70s) and by the time my sister got to my high school five years after me, the school had gone in the toilet. So she got the private and boarding school education and ended up using her college money to do so. As a parent you do whatcha gotta do.

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