Mom/Dad are you a Superhero?

It will soon be time for me and my husband to choose a school for our 5-year-old son Alex. We hope to leave him in the school we choose until at least middle school. I know life happens, but I feel for those students who for some reason or another have been made to play academic “musical schools,” bouncing from one school to another.

We’ve taken our time and looked at all three charter schools and the designated public school for our area and decided that it would be easier to get one of those Harry Potter sorting hats. Oh and there is that fifth option, but I’ve declared that unreasonable. Homeschooling? Are you kidding? I already have the wine chilling for when he is gone.

The school that my husband and I both agree on has been well received by many parents in Maricopa. However if we choose to send Alex there we will have to pay for full-time kindergarten. And I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY! So although the school is not out of the question, it is just up for further review. 

Our second choice is also well received in the community but the look of the place is not that appealing. It’s got a lot of dirt and I just wonder when it rains will it be full of mud when I pick him up? I know aesthetics shouldn’t matter, but I hate vacuuming out the back seat of my car.

Our third choice has a lot of the foundations that we’ve instilled on our own. However I am still unsettled with their academics and that is why you go to school. 

Lastly we have public school. Whenever I say the word public school, I just see prison gates closing and my son sitting in a cell next to some ungodly creature who says, “What are you in for?” My son says, “My parents sent me to public school,” and the ungodly creature says, “Yeah, if they had sent you to private school you could of gone to a white collar prison.”

I am not going to put down public schools. In fact, I would like to build them up. Public schools get a bad wrap just for being called a public school. If you send your child to public school, it’s like you’ve done them a disservice. When parents searching for a school ask where your child goes and you name a public school they shake there heads and say, “Oh, I don’t want him in public school.” But chances are those parents went to public school themselves and probably turned out just fine.

I am a former preschool teacher. I know it is not the same as elementary school but I did feel a lot of the same pressures for students to excel. So I understood some of the teachers who commented about the movie “Waiting for Superman.” One teacher asked, “Where is the responsibility of the parents?” 

Now, that man may have been a very good teacher, or he may have been the worst teacher in the world, but his remark is still valid. Do you keep the learning process going at home or does it start at school drop-off? And when you’re not satisfied with what you see, do you look down on the education system and weep because no one is coming to save your child, or do you try to do something about it?

What I like about some charter schools is that the presence of your child’s first teacher is required: That would be you. Parent involvement in any way is an investment in a child’s future. The permanent teachers in my child’s life are my husband and I. From the day he was born, to the day we die, and maybe even after that, he will draw on the knowledge that we have instilled in him. It is us… the Dynamic Duo of parenting who matter most. If you are a single parent, you can be Wonder Woman or the Flash.

Alex secretly listens to our conversations when we don’t think he is even paying attention to us. He remembers things that happened three months ago and can recall them verbatim at the most inconvenient times. He has been known to use the skill of a Navy Seal to enter a bedroom undetected at five in the morning. Then he uses his amazing mind powers to stare you awake from a dead sleep. As his parent, I must mold these powers for good. We have access to so much information. We have books and computers and libraries.

Why did we move the library out of the double-wide if we didn’t want to use it? It’s not just for story time. Take a subject they are learning and expand on it a little bit each day or week or what ever you can fit in.

Yes! Public schools can and should do better, and parents should raise hell until they get better. It is sad that people feel they must ship their child to Kyrene on a bus for a better education. But I can’t blame them. I am looking for the best option for my child as well, and I plan to be the sidekick in his education. When I drive my car into the school parking lot, I expect it to be recognized. I want them to say, “Oh goodness . . . Mrs. Wheeler is back. . . again”.  

So while American is justifiably “Waiting for Superman,” for the sake of your child, why not try putting on a cape? 

Erin Wheeler is a mother and former preschool teacher.

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