Open house at Skye's school

last night, after dinner, we went to Skye's school for open house. we knew it was open house for the whole school (K-2), but i had no idea what craziness open house was until we got there. there were SO many excited, hyper kids, running around, dragging bewildered parents and siblings all over the school. once, they made an announcement: "there is a little girl, who looks about 2 years old, called Abby, looking for her parents. please come to the office if you are her parents."

it was great for Skye to be able to show us where she spends most of her day now. she was so excited to show us all the different rooms too - the music room, the art room, the specials room and the gym. as well as her classroom. it was encouraging for Phil and me to see her feeling so at home and so happy with school. she was never this excited about preschool, but with kindergarten, Skye seems to have a sense of ownership about the place which she never had at preschool.

seeing all the excitement, Phil is now convinced public schools are the way to go. it's so great to run into our neighbours and people we see at the pool. there's just a feeling of community which we really appreciate.

one of my neighbours and i had a lengthy discussion about schools a couple of weeks ago. she has a daughter that is in 2nd Grade who is reading at the level of 5th Grade. she was voicing concern about whether her daughter was going to learn anything in 2nd Grade, whether she was going to be encouraged to progress, or will she be required to remain at the level of her peers. that's a tough one. i think about that often too because Skye is reading and writing already. actually, since she started kindergarten, her reading and writing have improved drastically. so, at this point, i'm not too concerned. and if the teacher is good, surely she will encourage progress for all her students, no matter what level they are at. my neighbour seems to find public schools, esp in Madison, a little too bent on democratization - meaning, they want to equalize all the children, keep them all at the same level. we have no magnet schools, no schools to pool the "smart and advanced" kids.

but last night, seeing how excited all the kids were about their school, i had to say to myself, this must be good.