theschoolboards
02-15-2012, 09:16 PM
From Babble (http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/2012/02/09/my-preschool-horror-story/) by Cassandra Barry:
The first preschool we toured was our favorite. Montessori Shir Hashirim seemed perfect. I couldn’t believe that a friend of ours who toured with us hated it.
“There’s no joy in the kids. They’re not having fun,” she said.
NONSENSE, Joel and I thought. The kids at Montessori Shir Hashirim seemed happy. Sure, they weren’t laughing or running around. but they seemed… content. And they were learning Chinese! They were putting on Shakespeare plays! They had a yearbook! And it was shot by a professional photographer! And the kids were so well behaved. We wanted in.
Like many preschools in Los Angeles, the first step to getting into this school is 10 weekly “parent and me” sessions, which are actually auditions. Laszlo just barely made the cut-off age, so he was one of the youngest in the group. This was last January, 2011.
You’d think that my stress about going to the class would be a warning sign. Or the fact that Joel and I were afraid of the director (as is everyone else I’ve talked to who knows her, including parents at the school). Or the fact that we always felt like we were doing things the wrong way. (Both parents and toddlers were constantly being corrected.) But I thought that the director was some kind of brilliant education guru and maybe I just needed to get past my intimidation.
Besides, we had already endured the hell of many “parent and me” classes, so we didn’t want to quit now. We were invested and Laszlo was familiar with the school. The classes had been a war of attrition. Parents had been dropping out because they couldn’t deal with the pressure or the director. But I was learning how to deal with her and I wasn’t giving up now. I was going to win. And Laszlo was going to advance to bead-stringing level one of these days, if it killed me.
We got accepted. We enrolled and gave them a deposit.
We turned down the other two schools that accepted Laszlo.
We were to officially start school there that fall (last September). It was March, and the director told the parents of all the accepted children to sign up for another round of the “parent and me” classes.
When we got home from the first class of the accepted students group, the director called us at home and said that Laszlo couldn’t come to school there in the fall. I couldn’t believe she was saying this. She said it was because he didn’t seem “ready.” He was less than two years old! No **** he wasn’t ready. It was April and he wasn’t even supposed to start classes until September. Never mind that she had accepted him and we had signed a contract and given her a deposit.
(http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/2012/02/09/my-preschool-horror-story/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=babbleeditors&utm_content=post&utm_medium=referral&fb_source=message)read more>> (http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/2012/02/09/my-preschool-horror-story/)
The first preschool we toured was our favorite. Montessori Shir Hashirim seemed perfect. I couldn’t believe that a friend of ours who toured with us hated it.
“There’s no joy in the kids. They’re not having fun,” she said.
NONSENSE, Joel and I thought. The kids at Montessori Shir Hashirim seemed happy. Sure, they weren’t laughing or running around. but they seemed… content. And they were learning Chinese! They were putting on Shakespeare plays! They had a yearbook! And it was shot by a professional photographer! And the kids were so well behaved. We wanted in.
Like many preschools in Los Angeles, the first step to getting into this school is 10 weekly “parent and me” sessions, which are actually auditions. Laszlo just barely made the cut-off age, so he was one of the youngest in the group. This was last January, 2011.
You’d think that my stress about going to the class would be a warning sign. Or the fact that Joel and I were afraid of the director (as is everyone else I’ve talked to who knows her, including parents at the school). Or the fact that we always felt like we were doing things the wrong way. (Both parents and toddlers were constantly being corrected.) But I thought that the director was some kind of brilliant education guru and maybe I just needed to get past my intimidation.
Besides, we had already endured the hell of many “parent and me” classes, so we didn’t want to quit now. We were invested and Laszlo was familiar with the school. The classes had been a war of attrition. Parents had been dropping out because they couldn’t deal with the pressure or the director. But I was learning how to deal with her and I wasn’t giving up now. I was going to win. And Laszlo was going to advance to bead-stringing level one of these days, if it killed me.
We got accepted. We enrolled and gave them a deposit.
We turned down the other two schools that accepted Laszlo.
We were to officially start school there that fall (last September). It was March, and the director told the parents of all the accepted children to sign up for another round of the “parent and me” classes.
When we got home from the first class of the accepted students group, the director called us at home and said that Laszlo couldn’t come to school there in the fall. I couldn’t believe she was saying this. She said it was because he didn’t seem “ready.” He was less than two years old! No **** he wasn’t ready. It was April and he wasn’t even supposed to start classes until September. Never mind that she had accepted him and we had signed a contract and given her a deposit.
(http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/2012/02/09/my-preschool-horror-story/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=babbleeditors&utm_content=post&utm_medium=referral&fb_source=message)read more>> (http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/2012/02/09/my-preschool-horror-story/)