Outrage and lashings

In a previous blog I had mentioned that Gabriella was outraged that Asher’s pre-school had not discussed the election in class. Well, I got a lashing from the director of the pre-school who is also my friend and loyal reader of the blog. Hi S! “What if people decide not to send their children to our pre-school because they think we didn’t talk about the election?”

Ok, sometimes I exaggerate. A lot. Gabriella was not outraged. And, S did not give me a lashing. But doesn’t it sound better than “Gabriella asked Asher if they talked about the election in school, and he shrugged his shoulders and responded with an unconvincing ‘no’.” or “The director of the pre-school did mention to me after I asked about the protocol surrounding election-teaching that, in fact, the class learned about voting . All of the children voted for the snack they would have that morning. Graham crackers won over pretzels.” YAWN! Outrage and lashings-much better.

I was recruited to help represent our pre-school at a local pre-school open house the other night. One of the teachers was there to provide the facts, and I gave a parent’s perspective to anyone who cared. It was actually a lot of fun to do. I had never experienced a pre-school open house. We moved here in August 2006 and had little time to research schools for September enrolment. I knew of a few, and I sent Asher to the pre-school that had a space for us. I’m going to get in trouble for saying that. I should say that I was very selective in my decision-making process and that after spending weeks researching and interviewing staff, I got Asher into one of the more highly rated pre-schools in the area. Like I said, it was August. I was 7 months pregnant. And, we had just moved into our fixer-upper house with no functioning kitchen in an unfamiliar town. I did not have the luxury of attending pre-school open houses.

I missed open-house season when we moved, and maybe it was a good thing. I did not envy the parents walking around the room tucking brochures and flyers under their arms while they scribbled notes about each school trying to distinguish one from the next. So overwhelming and for what? All those displays on the tables showed photographs of lots of happy kids playing together and creating beautiful artwork and hugging teachers. It’s unlikely you’ll make a bad decision. What’s important is that the parent feels like the school is a good fit. The parents I met defined “good fit” in a variety of ways. Their criteria for pre-schools ranged from teachers with advanced degrees in education who teach children to find their inner ivy-league genius to schools that were within walking distance from their houses.

We scoped out the other tables before show time to see what choices there are to make. There were some impressive posters clearly created by people who scrapbook. There were some multi-media presentations on laptops. There were bowls of candy for parents with low blood sugar. And of course, there was the Waldorf inspired pre-school that offered home-made bread in baskets and displayed hand-crafted, woollen dolls. I remember taking Asher to a Steiner school in London that had a playgroup for babies and toddlers. I figured that Asher, being the sensitive child that he was (and is), would feel most comfortable in this environment. He didn’t care for it. Perhaps I’m transferring. Asher couldn’t talk, so he was not able to say, “Mom, I can’t find a single toy I like because everything is a different shade of brown and I don’t want to make bread and I feel like if I sneeze someone is going to throw me out for disturbing the peace.” It was nice and quiet, alright, but that didn’t inspire Asher to play with wood chunks or engage with any of the teachers who looked like they walked off the set of Frontier House. OMG, I loved that series! I was pregnant with Levi and sick as a dog watching really bad daytime television because I couldn’t lift my head, and Frontier House got me through it. The perfect combination of reality tv and history. I digress.

There were a disproportionate number of Jewish pre-schools which could mean a host of things. A. There are lots of synagogues with pre-schools in the area. B. Administrators of Jewish pre-schools are more likely to show up at these open houses. C. Jews care more about offering a nurturing environment for the children of its community or D. There are more stay-at-home Jewish mothers who can’t wait to unload their kids in school. You can’t see me, but I’m raising my hand to D.

We love our pre-school. We made a great decision. We lucked out. It’s the right fit for our child. They’re all great. Jews are nice. Pick whichever one helps you sleep at night. And I’m so happy that I didn’t agonize about it. So much easier doing all this parenting stuff the 2nd time around. The longer I’m a parent, the more I realize that I’m here to make sure no one dies. Everything else seems to fall into place.