A Parent's Perspective - Part 2

In 2016, I woke up to our education system. It was happening slowly but all of a sudden, I saw the problems blaring me in the face. My own child started school and there was no more illusion that the school system was fine. My children are the reason I have questioned traditional school systems and have found The Innovation School (TIS). Now, I get to be their mom but also one of their teachers. (A blessing most days!)

Both my husband and I attended public schools and turned out just fine. We are productive members of society and both hold master degrees. We had amazing teachers and awful ones. We did what we needed to and graduated with honors (or at least one of us did. 😉) When we began discussing private school, it was absurd to me to pay for something that is free. But when I realized I wasn’t fine and they weren’t either, the discussion continued to come up. By 2019, we found ourselves at TIS. 

The reality of school is that it looks the same as it has since we were there 20-30 years ago. The more I worked in this system, the more I could see I was not going to be able to change it for my kids or yours. If you think school is ‘just fine’ you are one of many. I understand I am the minority at this time but I would ask you to ponder these questions.…(These are assumptions based on what I know about the public and traditional system.)

• Is it just fine that your child is only allowed to be with people the exact same age as him or her? Do you see this practice anywhere else in society? Are you only allowed to take lunch with the other 30 year olds? 
• Is it just fine that recess is the lowest priority for your child? Each system is different but what I experienced as a parent was less than 30 minutes of play each day for my kindergartener (2016). Play should be the essential way of learning for a six year old. Teachers saw it as a chore and continued to try and limit recess and unstructured play. 
• Is it just fine that you have no idea what your child is actually learning or doing for seven hours of their day? As a parent, this one still makes me feel uncomfortable just asking and thinking about it. 
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I have three boys aged 11, 9, and 6. My older two are in class together this year (something I was anxious about but has gone surprisingly better than I expected), and my six year old is in the green band which is for 1st and 2nd graders. He is technically a kindergartner but is a unique guy so needed to jump up to this group of kids to find his fit. (This has also gone really well.)

If you are still thinking school is "just fine", let me show you what it’s like at TIS. The Innovation School offers these benefits to my boys:

• Active inquiry and questioning.
  • How much does your child actually talk at school? I’m not referring to socializing with their friends. I’m referring to actual discussions where they get to state their opinion and wonderings out loud. They then get validation and feedback from an adult to explore their wonderings. My kids are asking questions and thinking deeply about topics that interest them and impact their current world. They do this through the inquiry process and their Friday meeting protocol. The Friday meeting is my personal favorite to watch  because they get to participate in a true democracy in which each person gets a voice and a vote. Students bring up topics like dodgeball rules, cleanliness of our school, and create committees or offer solutions to solve problems. 
• Small class sizes.
  • We currently have 25 students in the 1st-8th program with three adults. We have a maximum of 10 students in one class. All 25 students get to interact with whomever they wish during their three recesses and any other morning meetings or social times. My six year old chooses to play with the middle school-aged kids daily as he is super physical and almost as big as some of them. My nine year old likes to play with his best friend who is younger than him. They will play with the large group of kids or be off by themselves imagining different games. My oldest goes with the flow. Someone asks him to play dodgeball, okay! Another boy says let’s play football, okay! No matter the age, he’s in for fun. 

• Play, socialization, and recess.
  • My boys are active during the day. They get to take a 15 minute walk in the morning, and three recesses: morning, lunch, and afternoon. All of this time equals 80 minutes. This does not include their lunch social time. TIS’s mission is Peers. Projects. Passions. Play. The importance of play is evident in the schedule.
• Documentation of learning.
  • Finally, I know what my kids are doing. Granted, I am there so I probably know more than other TIS parents. But, the teachers take pictures and write narratives on what each child is doing with their time during the school day. I get to see the thinking and projects in action. It helps for deeper conversations of the age-old question ‘what did you do at school today?’ Three times throughout the year, we formally meet with their teachers at Roundtables. The teacher and my child have reflected on important learning standards and share my sons’ progress. 

I will leave you with these final thoughts. I did not write this to make you feel comfortable. I wrote it to make you think. Maybe you have never thought about school. That was me once upon a time. When I was working in the public school system, my wise boss used to say these statements to get teachers to change their thinking. Maybe it's time you heard them to help with yours. 

• Would you trust a doctor who only practiced things from 20 years ago? How about 120 years ago? (That’s how old our traditional school system is.)  What if she was resistant to wanting to use new technologies and only used what she knew? Would you still want her as your doctor?
• Would you keep a car that is now 30 years old if it needed fixing and more money every week? Or would you look to invest in a new model? 
• Is ‘fine’ and ‘okay’ good enough for your own child? 

I became super uncomfortable with the way education was going in 2016. It’s seven years later and I can finally say I did something to change. I removed myself and my family from the system. 

So if you have been considering something different, now’s the time. TIS does shadow days for anyone who just wants to see it in action. I have had many students come and check out the school to see if it is a fit for their family. Make the decision for yourself. TIS offers something different to our community. It might be time you take advantage of it.

Meagan Sharp

Grey Band (middle school) educator and Art instructor