Alternative schools?

Oh wow! Glad he's excited -- that's important.

awesome - you know that picture you have on your profile is very fitting - I can just picture that scream along with "He's In!"

Congrats and I wish you both the best in the coming school year. So great when your child is excited about attending a new school.

Thanks all. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Mo's a little bummed that he won't be going to school with all his pals but I pointed out that he plays on sports teams with all of them and plays on x box with all of them and will still be living in the same neighborhood with all of them so he'll still be seeing them.

Speaking of sports -- he will still be able to play on our district's schools teams both school teams and district teams will count as PE credits towards graduation. So that's cool. (The school also offers snowboarding lessons on weekends that count towards PE!)

There will be 17 kids in his class and two teachers in each classroom, the kids get to work at their own pace, they have ping pong, pool, and foosball in the cafeteria -- AND fresh cooked meals from their own kitchen (breakfast and lunch).

It's really relaxed, with lots of places to sprawl, the teachers seem really engaged too. We got to talk to the science/math teacher today after she heard me asking a question about hands on labs -- she came out and gave me the lowdown. Very cool.

I really tried to keep myself in check because I wanted Mo to make the decision but I'm so glad he decided he wants to go there. I really think it will be a good fit for him.

Today was the first day of school and Mo pronounced his new school "AWESOME!"

He loved it. Okay, it was only the first day of school but he's totally hot for it and that is such a huge relief.

We had called my niece who started middle school in Texas on Monday and she wouldn't even discuss it. My mom said the only thing she'd said since leaving school that day was "Stressful" so I'm feeling really good about the "awesome" answer.

He came home with the phone numbers of three new friends and a major crush on a older girl who writes her own rap songs. He's excited to go back tomorrow.

So far, this is better than expected, and I expected it to be pretty good.

Oh, Boom, so good to read.

Of course, bumps will show up - but this is a delightful start.

Wonderful!

I love this place. All of our lives are so much better.

Mo is doing so much better at math and he's so proud of himself.

He's completely psyched about science.

He came home wanting to talk about the 7th Amendment and rolled his eyes at me when I couldn't remember what it was off the top of my head (the right to a jury trial).

It's all "Why do people ________?" and "What do you think about _____?" and "Did you hear ________?" and "What would you do if I _______?" and "Have you ever ______?"

I have never seen him so engaged with what he's learning.

We have had some of the most amazing conversations.

Mo loves it. It isn't a problem to get him up and out the door to school. He comes home happy and curious about more and more and more.

Wow. Just wow.

Fantastic!

Big yay. So good to hear.

That is fabulous.

Delighted for all of you, boomerang.
Especially Mo!

That's great - don't you just love to see a kid enjoying learning? I'm happy for all of you.

I would not send the kid to the school you're describing. Either home school or find some decent private school.

In the D.C. region there are numerous examples of public schools spending upwards of 10K/kid/year and doing nothing better than teaching kids to rape and pillage while some little Christian school a block down the road is spending a third that and doing a perfectly good job of educating the kids and religion is a minor issue, I know of one case in which the daughter of the chief rabbi in the area sends her kids to a Catholic school which is simply the best option.

Same school you described in the original post or something different? The original description sounded like a school for head cases.

I don't know why your post was marked down because that's a really good question.

Yes, it is the same school. I think it's important to note that the question about alternative schools was first posed by me over a year ago. I had preconceived notions about what kind of kids went to alternative schools, even though I knew some good kids that attended them. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions.

During my research I came across this:



About 4 minutes in he describes the two meanings for "alternative school". One is that it's a school for head cases, the other is that they do things differently, "that the program is an alternative to the traditional approach".

Mo's school is the second kind. Maybe they all really are the second kind. One thing is that the kids who are there really want to be there.

I do have to admit that some of the students there are a bit rougher around the edges than the kind that went to his elementary school (which was almost exclusively white, upper middle class kids, so really, just about anywhere else, including the local middle school, would be a bit rougher around the edges).