Education Archives - Christmas in Lapland

Changing Schools from Your Child’s Perspective

There is one thing that is a bit strange about the process we, go through to pick the right school for our children. Parents often develop a very systematic evaluation system for selecting a school which weighs the academic resources of the school, the abilities of the teachers, the school’s physical plant and how classes are organized. Often the schools “mission statement” is taken into account on the theory that if the school was founded on certain fundamental principles, you should see those principles in action at the school.

But even after we go through that systematic process, we have left out one big factor which how your child will feel about the prospect of going to this new school. After all, even if the new school looks great on paper and passes all of your requirements, you are not the one who will have to live at that school spending almost as much time there as at home. So if your child isn’t happy with the new school, no matter how high their computer lab is or how qualified the math teacher is, there is a chance of failure.

The Power of Free Choice

Probably the one thing you can do to help your child make the adjustment to the new school is to give her a vote in the choosing of the new school. The odds are that you are looking at changing schools for a reason, particularly if you are moving your child from public to private school. So if there are negatives at the old school, your child knows about them. Discuss the option of changing schools and weigh that significant change against staying in the current school system and putting up with the faults there.

But keep the door open to the possibility and make the search for a better school a family project. Let the student in the family who will be most concerned look at the checklist of questions and the selection criteria for the new school and make additions and changes. By giving the child ownership in the selection process, he or she will be much more excited about making a move when the time comes.

School Quality Test

You can go on the initial interview at the schools yourself so you can take your time and ask the “adult” questions before your child gets involved. But after you narrow down the choices by weeding out the schools that you say “no way” to, bring your son or daughter on the second visit. Your child can ask more questions and to visit classrooms and meet teachers which will give your child the chance to visualize life at that school. This engages the youth in the process so he or she is excited about the adventure of the significant change rather than feel that you are forcing that change without regard for his or her feelings.

One of the biggest concerns your son or daughter will have will be about leaving friends behind and going to a school where they don’t know anybody. By starting early and visiting the school often, your son or daughter can identify some people in the school that they do so they are not entirely isolated when they get there. And when they see that private schools have some very creative and often much better-funded clubs and special activity groups to get involved with outside of class, that excitement can really begin to grow.

Transition to a new school is hard. But by letting your kid be part of the process and even having him or her sit in on a day of classes, the anxiety of that change will go down. And when the excitement of the difference goes up, you will have made a big step forward in assuring this change of schools experiment will be a big success.

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Money and Children Education

We like to think of public education of our children as a pure science that is populated by people who are above the common worries of life and live only for the joy of filling young minds with truth. But like anything else, schools do well or poorly drive mainly by money. Now one of the justifications for government funding of schools is you take out of the educational process any graft or influence peddling by private interests. In theory, if corporate interests or even wealthy individuals can influence the schools because of wealth, they could also dictate the curriculum and the “slant” the lessons might take and as such put a spin on the truth because the schools become dependent on the funding source.

So, again, in theory, our public schools should be above funding issues because tax dollars should pay for everything so no one political or cultural influence can set the agenda of what is to be taught in school. But that concept only holds up in theory, of course. If you spend any time in association with public or private schools, you know that money and education are intimately intermingled, and there is plenty of influence going on all the time.

Sport is a Driving Force in Education

At the public level, sports is one of the big factors that drive public education, particularly at the high school level. In big cities, the high school sports teams are often feeder schools to colleges who have a vital financial interest in recruiting the best high school players. So money flows from professional sports to the colleges and even to high schools to influence schools to pour a lot of time and money into their sports programs. The intense rivalry and interest in high school sports in your town reflects that emphasis.

So what’s the problem with loving sports? Nothing except that very often large high schools will divert vast percentages of their budgets to the sports program that only serves a fraction of the students of the school and those funds are taken away from academic and arts programs which suffer as a result. So while a hundred boys might benefit from a well-run football program, thousands of students suffer from smaller classes, inferior classroom equipment, and underpaid teachers because the sports teams get all the attention and the money.

Money and Influence

At the private level, money buys influence even more blatantly. While your tuition and fees to pay the necessary bills of the school, private schools are entrepreneurial and ambitious.
Well, off wealthy parents who can put a lot of money into the school naturally find their way to the school board to make decisions about curriculum and the direction the school will take as an educational institution in the future.

This means that well-meaning parents who are not wealthy are not able to help the school stay focused on their primary calling which is to bring the highest level of education to the student body. The situation can also be aggravated at both the public and private school level when corporate interests get involved, and you see corporate sponsorships of school programs resulting in subtle advertising occurring all around the campus. It sends a message to the students that the school can and has been bought, and those corporate interests can have an influence over curriculum as well.

As parents, it’s your job to monitor the extent to which funding changes the quality of education of a school. At the public school level, you can voice your concern at school board meetings or in other public venues. But the ultimate proactive way to get an education for your child that is not tainted by financial influence is to leave the public school setting and seek a private school that has not to succumb to those temptations yet. If you fund such a school, get involved heavily and do all you can via fundraising to try to minimize the influence of wealthy individuals and corporations so the school that is there to serve your child can do so without the burden of power from the ones that pay the bills.

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