[One parent] said he sent his son to Conserve because he was gifted academically and “our public school in Whitefish Bay does not have a gifted and talented program for the high school.”Ummmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Whitefish Bay an extremely wealthy Milwaukee suburb? I find it hard to believe they do not have AP or TaG classes.
I also wonder about the conflict of interest in a school with an environmental focus being run by a steel corporation. I assumed it was started on a shoestring by tree-hugging Euell Gibbons worshipers.
Well, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. I just love it when the privileged fight among themselves.
6 comments:
I am sick and tired of the snobbery of talented and gifted, charter and home school parents (and sometimes kids). Some cynical and cheap judgemesnts have been made to create these educational programs....of course, I guess I'm just making a cynical judgement myself....
I'm with you! As I've probably expounded on before, I wonder how much Friends' schools in the Philadelphia area have contributed to the chaos that is Philadelphia's public schools. Same with so many urban areas. That's why, when people talk about the need for charter schools in Madison, I am bullishly against them.
All kids are gifted and talented. It's our jobs to find out what those gifts and talents are. Period.
Anything beyond that is window dressing to make the adults feel good about themselves.
QD, I agree.
Apart from the public policy and community considerations, the out-of-town prep school (whatever it may be) always struck me as strange from a household level. With the teen out of the house at age fourteen instead of eighteen, it seems to me like I'd be losing four years of getting to know and parent my children at a critical time.
Of course, I may just be socio-economically predisposed to think in those terms...
Pickerel Frog -- Absolutely! I would not want my children to leave home at 14. The time with them is short enough. I wonder if sometimes parents are just copping out, making the "difficult" teen years someone else's problem. I wouldn't trade any years with my children for anything.
But man, it does seem prevalent among a certain class.
Post a Comment