Summer's End

Well, not quite, but it is approaching.

I do love the time of year when the kids are closing in on going back to school. I'm approaching this year with a mix of excitement and some trepidation, though. And I'm saying goodbye to a summer that, while it was in some ways lovely, was not--especially at the beginning--what I expected it to be.

The main reason for that is that, in what was an entirely unexpected development two months ago, my children are switching schools this fall. No, we're not moving and I'm not packing them off to private school. And the school board hasn't voted to close their elementary school, at least not yet. But the shortest version I can manage to give is that over the course of the past couple of years, both our kids have undergone a few rounds of testing. For whatever these tests are worth, Abra has tested out as being gifted in all three main areas in which they test--Math, Reading, and Cognitive (Thalia hasn't yet been tested in Math but that's coming as well). And the district decided to change how they're doing gifted education for fourth and fifth graders starting this school year. Kids like Abra who tested out in all three areas have been invited to enroll in a separate, self-contained class. The issue is that the classes are only housed in two of the seven elementary schools, and Fairfax, the girls' home school, is not one of them. If we wanted Abra to be in this class, we'd have to transfer her to Roxboro. A great school, no doubt, but not *our* school for the past four years. To make matters worse, I discovered this abrupt change on the very last day of school last year--in fact, quite literally, 15 minutes before the final bell on the last day of school. It was, to say the least, quite a shock.

Chris and I went back and forth a number of times over the next couple of weeks over whether to enroll Abra in that class or not, and if so, whether to leave Thalia at Fairfax or move her to Roxboro with Abra. It was an agonizing decision, at least for me, and I'm still angry about how badly these changes were communicated to the parents. A couple of weeks after school let out, we got the girls' report cards in the mail along with school supply lists for Fairfax for the upcoming year, and as soon as I saw those I sat down and cried. But in the end, for various reasons, we decided to give the class a try and also decided to move Thalia as well.

I will say this up front: I'm not looking for feedback or opinions, and while I greatly respect the views of people who might be reading, I'd just as soon not have any. As you might imagine, these changes provoked a lot of negative reaction among many of the parents--parents of kids who are not eligible to participate in the program (many of whom have also been identified as gifted, just not in all three testing areas), and parents of kids who are eligible to participate but have to change schools in order to do so. A few of those parents might read the blog and so I really don't want arguments.

We feel on the whole that it was the right decision, but it's impossible not to have regrets or sadness. I love Fairfax, and in fact had just agreed to take on a two-year commitment to the executive committee of the PTA there, a commitment which I obviously can no longer honor. Both girls have made good friends there, and Abra in particular is a highly social girl with lots of friends and a great social network. A few of those friends will be transferring to Roxboro, but most will not be, either because they're not eligible or because their parents don't at this point want to switch schools. Rationally, I know it's hardly the end of the world from a social network point of view. Abra will know a few other people, and she's the kind of girl who makes lots of friends pretty easily so I'm quite sure she'll have more buddies by the end of the first week. Plus, the new school isn't far at all and she'll still be able to see her Fairfax friends as well, and they'll all be reunited in two years when they start middle school anyway. From Thalia's end of it, the new school has a heavy emphasis on world cultures in education, part of which includes instruction in Mandarin and maintaining a relationship with a sister school in Shanghai. Her Chinese heritage is starting to become very important to Thalia, and she's excited about learning Mandarin and tickled that the school actually celebrates Chinese New Year. So we're pleased about that.

But all of this still circles back to the fact that I had been looking forward to a lazy, laid-back summer of hanging out with the kids and then starting school like old hands. Instead, we're starting over at a new school and we're a little nervous. But even so, over the past couple of months we've still ridden bikes and taken swimming lessons and gone to the pool and done some day camps and played with the dog and hung out with Gramma when she came for a good long visit. And this weekend we'll be hitting the annual Greek Festival with Papou and Yiayia (that would be Grandpa and Grandma for you non-Greeks out there) when they drive out with Uncle Bill to visit. We're still doing back-to-school shopping and waiting for soccer to start. Life changes, but it still rolls on.


Best imitation of mermaids they could muster.