School Decisions

Robby . comes from a line of public school teachers. My Mom was a teacher, I taught in the public schools, and Scott is still teaching. Education is a core value in our home and something that, as parents, Scott and I weighed greatly.

Although we have the utmost respect for the public school system, it became clear that this was not the best option for our family. We anticipated that the hardest battle was going to be convincing my staunch public school system supporter Mom that we were not making a mistake by opting for a private school for Robby. As it turns out, she is one of the strongest advocates of our school choice. This is a good thing because it feels like we have encountered legions of naysayers on the topic.

Let me be clear: I am not asking for permission about where we decide to send Robby to school. We are his parents and the choice is ours. That being said, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain our rationale in the hopes of muting some of our many critics.

Robby has a hearing impairment. As much as it hurts me to admit, his hearing issues are impacting every aspect of his young life. Typically outgoing and gregarious, in a crowd he quickly becomes disoriented and retreats. If he isn't looking directly at us when we speak, we cannot be certain that he has heard us. Auditory chaos causes him frustration. Simply put, he needs a smaller and quieter learning environment than the public school typically affords.

Of course we could have Robby evaluated for Special Education services based on his hearing results, but Scott and I both feel that being proactive about putting him in the optimal environment for HIS learning success will thwart many issues. He has thrived this year in his small class with the individualized instruction from his teachers. He is happy and excited about learning. His thirst for knowledge, coupled with his test scores, are the only confirmation necessary that we have made the correct educational decisions for our son.

During the past two years we have seen Robby flourish. At this point, until his hearing issue is corrected, we are opting to continue with the small classroom and Montessori approach that has yielded so much success for him. Despite what has been suggested, I assure you that our decision to send him to the private school has nothing to do with my perceived inability to "let him grow up," nor is it an attempt to "continue to coddle him from the real world."  As a mother, I resent both of those accusations. 

I am astounded by how many people feel compelled to air their grievances about our education choice for our child. He is receiving a top-notch education and is a sweet and compassionate child. As parents we second guess most of our decisions.  However, as far as I'm concerned, this is one thing I know we have done right!