rockyroller
Guru
- Location
- 20 miles northwest of Boston, MA
Took Beautiful Daughter to visit the local Gymnasium (Grammar School) to see if it is for her. She really likes it, so now we have two possibilities.
Local state schools are very different from the local schools I went to in Manchester and the West Midlands in the 90's. For one thing, they look pleasant: Architects seem to have been involved in the planning, and the building was light and airy and fitted into the hillside.
It also appeared to have been repainted in the current century.
What astonished me personally, apart from the amount of glass, and none of it boarded up, was the almost complete absence of graffiti: I couldn't find any anywhere, not even scratched into the tables or the oak (oak!) benches in the corridor. In my school there was hardly a desk where you could see the cheap melamine surface through "Cheryl 4 Barry"; and "SpursUnitedcity are tossers" or drawings of human anatomy. Here the only graffiti was in the art classroom.
In short, it looked like somewhere you might actually want to go to every day.
Also, the head teacher (who had a sense of humour, egads) actually seemed to grasp that there was a social part of being in school. The school had built a concept around the idea that some afternoons were there for students to socialise in a semi-formal environment.
What really threw me, was the teacher saying goodbye in the middle of the school; inviting us to "have a look around for yourselves" and leaving us there.
If you need me I'll be getting over the culture shock...
fwiw - we were lucky. our kids got "socialization" from other sources besides school. sports & their religious congregation's events. also had mentors besides Mom & Dad & Teachers. good on that school of yours for seeing the value
side note, I just remembered a near death experience for our Son. while at a gym or recess gym session, the kids were playing some game where they kicked a rubber ball, like the size of a soccer ball but not a soccer ball. anyway, 1 kid kicked the ball, it flew up & struck a big heavy lighting fixture directly above our Son. everyone looked up at it & then it dislodged immediately & came crashing to the floor. fortunately our Son jumped out of the way. it was enormous, surely would have killed him. someone has to double check those ceiling light attachments!!!