My Thoughts on our SC Education System – A Series
As a retired educator, I have words of wisdom that I didn’t share while in the education profession for a number of reasons. I won’t go into those reasons here, but I will say that I have seen many things that can improve in education with a few simple steps that are well monitored and evaluated.
I begin my first story in a “series†today that will focus just on that…SC education and what we can and should be doing about it. With that in mind, today I begin to tell my story of experiencing education in SC from my point of view. I could be one of many parents in South Carolina as you will see on these pages.
While the SC school districts I worked in – both rural and suburban – were from one end of effective to another, I will say I had the distinct privilege of working for the best several times during my tenure in the field.
I had the unique ability to choose what school my son attended…something most families do not have the ability to do. Here is my story.
My husband had died several months back after a long fight with leukemia. We had lost another son to a rare disease less than two years before and had the one older son remaining. That son had just turned six and had experienced several years of a magnificent early childhood school in Orangeburg. He was entering his first grade in the town where we lived. From every indication he was going to have a great year…and I really wanted that for him because of his father’s death and the adjustments to that. My favorite picture – still today – was of him with his gleeful and excited look going out the door with book bag, lunch box and apple in hand for his first day of school. We were both excited.
A few days after school began I suspected things were not going well when my son came home crying. We talked it through and I marked it up to beginning of school – new school gitters – and the adjustment to his Dad’s death. Then he started crying the minute he got up and “refused†to go to school everyday for the next week. I did my duty to get him there.
After a week and a half the class work he brought home measured two inches thick, I realized all he was doing was work sheets. I called the teacher and she admitted to having a slow start. She had taught special education for years at a primary school down the road. This was her first year as a first grade teacher. I could hear she was struggling and even offered to come help her set up her room. She declined.
After another week of a very unhappy child, I called and talked with the school administrators. They made light of it and when I suggested he be moved to another class as an alternative, they baulked. They said give him a little more time to adjust.
While I am not the kind of person to spread rumors, I started asking other parents how things were going for their child in that class. The information I received was alarming, so I decided to pay the classroom a visit. I heard from others that their concerns and complaints seemed to be unaddressed.
Meanwhile, I considered other educational options, including private schools, and found no better places for my son to go. He was getting more and more miserable and my efforts to sooth him were not working.
This was not the way I wanted 1st grade to be for him. Education was supposed to be fun, positive, uplifting, and appropriately challenging. He already had over three inches of “desk work†and I knew that was not right.
I did what I thought was right for us and started to consider a move. My school district down the road would not let me bring him to school there unless I owned property. I was not about to do that during this time of transition. So taking him to my district was out.
The next weekend my son and I visited a principal friend of mine in Myrtle Beach and told her the story. She took me to visit her primary school and I saw loving, supporting environments with teachers that greeted my son as if he were their own.
Then, she asked why I had waited that long to do something and why would I wait any longer to make a move? Four weeks was a long time not to be in a good situation. She ever said she would find me something there as soon as she could so I could quit my job and move there. My son’s face lit up with excitement.
On the way home my son and I talked about the day…about the school…and I asked him to describe his classroom.
“There is an ABC chart over the board.†He said.
“What else?†I asked.
When he told me there was nothing anywhere else in the room I pulled off the side of the road and listened. As a family that day we decided we were going to do something else by the end of the week. He said he would hang in there so things could get better.
That Monday morning I dropped him off at school and headed to Columbia. My family was nearby there and if I could find a school for him I would quit my job and move there. I spent the day interviewing principals and teachers. I found the “perfect†school for him with a teacher that was waiting with open arms. I also found a place to rent so he could attend that school. I secured a moving company to pack me up on Wednesday.
Tuesday I went to his school that morning, asked to see the classroom when the children were gone to lunch and confirmed the situation I suspected…bare walls; empty, crushed coke cans turned sideways on tables and the floor and just generally a very uninviting room. The ABC chart was half up and half down. No learning stations…no nothing…it was horrid. This was the 4th week of school.
I asked the principal and psychologist – both of who I knew well – why would they want me to keep my child in that classroom under those conditions? Would they want THEIR child in there? I asked for copies of his records and told them that would be his last day there.
I then went to my principal in the district next to ours and told him I was leaving my guidance director job and was giving notice. He was so mad I was leaving he demanded I come back that day after school and take all my things away without talking to anyone. He said he would guarantee I would never find another guidance job anywhere. I said I was sorry he felt that way but that I was doing what was right for my child.
A visit to the Superintendent found more support where he wrote me a great letter of recommendation and said to use his name as my supervisor. I was very grateful to him for his support and still am to this day.
Wednesday the moving company packed me up. Thursday they loaded things on the truck. Friday they unloaded in our new home in Columbia.
My son’s first day at school that Friday was awesome as he hugged me at the door.
Meanwhile, I was scared to death of leaving a job and not having another. Had I made the right move quitting my job and taking my son to a school where he could thrive?
Time would tell.
My wish for you today is that you take action if your child is in school and things are not going well. Time is of the essence. It’s been almost four weeks now our children have been in school.
~ Joellen
Next time – how taking a chance when it’s for the good of your child can be worth it.