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After talking to her mentor and former 3rd grade teacher about her concerns and getting him to talk to her about it I made a deal with my daughter. I told her give it a year. If you absolutely hate everything about it after a year you can go back to your local middle school. She agreed to that. And so began the process of enrolling her in the school. And it also began the questions.
I have been asked by her teachers, her principal, and my own mom why I am sending her to this school. My answer was quite obvious to me as her mother of course. Because it offers her what our local middle school cannot, the arts. Something which she loves with so much passion and truly pushes her forward and makes her happy.
Is the long school day a draw back to this? Yes, that’s hard. Is the fact that she’s going to be half an hour away at best from me during the day going to be hard? Yes, it will be difficult. Is getting her to the bus before six in the morning and picking her up around 4 in the afternoon stressful? Yes, especially with only one vehicle and two other children on completely different school schedules. Is this a sacrifice we’re all willing to make? Absolutely! There’s not a doubt in my mind that this is perfect for her. And the fact that this is the right choice for her became that much more clear when the mail came today. Because in it had all of the choices for the arts she could take.
Art Choices
Last spring before school let out the rest of my 11 year old daughter’s classmates had to fill out their paper choosing the art classes they wanted to take. Their choices consisted of art, band, chorus, or band and chorus. They could choose one and one of those alone. That was it. And my daughter who plays the clarinet and loves art couldn’t ever have decided between those classes.
And she doesn’t have to. Not only can she take art and music in her school, but she’ll get 3 other class choices on top of that. She will get to pick them out on the first day of school with the school’s art teachers. And it’s not limited to just an art class or just a band class. She can choose to take music classes in brass, strings, woodwinds, percussion, music, concert choir, concert band, vocal ensemble, and band and beyond. In the arts her class choices include drawing, mask making, art gallery: working with the masters, introduction to media arts, blue dome television, ways of seeing: photography and drawing, 3D/collage, painting, and illustration. Then on top of these choices she gets to pick from these choices in movement classes: physical education, tap and American dance, moving through dance, dance company and fools & clowns. Oh but there’s more, she even has to pick a performance arts class and those consist of theater, theater design and production, theater company, dance company, and fools & clowns.
So far she wants to take the concert band, Blue Dome television (which I must admit sounds really cool, they get to make TV programs and put them on their own school TV channel) physical education, and theater design and production. She’s not sure what she wants to take for her bonus class. Maybe the woodwinds class and learn how to play the flute.
Best of all these classes are taught by professionals in their field.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think our local middle school is a good school. It worked well for my oldest daughter. I just didn’t believe it was a good fit for my middle daughter. She will spend four hours of her day in her core classes which is just about as much time as she would have gotten total in our local middle school, but she also gets the opportunity to try out things that otherwise she wouldn’t get to try, possibly not until she was in high school or college. This gives her a leg up and will help her decide what she wants to do with her life beyond high school.
So for those who wanted to know why I put my daughter in this school despite all of the hardships it might cause, now you know why. If she ends up hating it I will stay true to my word and let her go to our local middle school, but now that she has gotten a chance to see what her choices are for the arts she’s getting excited about this.
It’s going to be a difficult school year, but I truly believe it’s going to be a great one and she’s going to learn so much and experience some really wonderful things this year.
Getting up at 5 a.m. or possibly earlier every morning is going to be hard, but it’s all going to be so worth it for my daughter to get this opportunity.
What are some of the sacrifices you have made for the betterment of your children?
