{"id":395,"date":"2007-09-10T05:41:19","date_gmt":"2007-09-10T09:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=395"},"modified":"2007-09-10T05:45:39","modified_gmt":"2007-09-10T09:45:39","slug":"risking-it-all-when-it-comes-to-your-child%e2%80%99s-education-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=395","title":{"rendered":"Risking it all When it Comes to Your Child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Last time I told you about moving to another part of South Carolina from a community where the education system was not working effectively.<span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/font><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><!--more-->I want to make sure you understand that they have gotten much better at dealing with educational challenges in that community as time has moved along.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>I suspect that the situation that occurred when my son was there would not be repeated today and that, indeed, most of those children in my son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s class may well have gone on to be successful young adults.<span>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><font face=\"Times New Roman\">For us, we did the right thing.<span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/font><font face=\"Times New Roman\">How do I know that?<span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span>Well, the principal called after my son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first day of school.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>She had glowing reports just as he did and I breathed a sigh of relief.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Never mind that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a job.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>I was pleased that he was taken care of and decided that I would make the most of my free time by volunteering at the school\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6at least until I found the right place to work.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>It was nice to be able to greet him at the door each day, hear about his great 1<sup>st<\/sup> grade experiences with his teacher and the other students.<span>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, it was worth it.<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The principal said she was concerned about something though and asked if I was planning on working anytime soon.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>She said her counselor had just told her she would be on maternity leave during statewide testing and would I be willing to do that long term sub for her in early spring.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>I agreed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and thought what a blessing that was to be able to know I could take a breather, unpack boxes and settle in\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6AND to know I would be able to work a bit after the holidays when I knew my son would be adjusted well to the new school. <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><br \/>\nI did just that.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>The months went by quickly and I was at the school in no time acting as the substitute counselor during the busy testing season.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>The counselor never came back, I interviewed for the job, and was working fulltime that fall. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">I had gone from an educational environment where things were rather dismal to one where parents were involved, students were engaged, and teachers and administration looked for changes to grow along with their students.<span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/font><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span>The principal was quite a leader \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the very best elementary principal I have ever worked with.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>She challenged me as a parent and as a counselor just as she did all the other adults in our educational setting there.<span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have asked for anything better.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>My son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s educational experience was phenomenal\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6not perfect\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6for there were a few weak teachers he grew with in his middle school years. He was in a remarkable educational environment for him to become who he is today.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><br \/>\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">That is what every student deserves in SC.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>I have come to find from my last 16 years of work around the state as a counselor, assistant administrator, and grant director &amp; coordinator that education is not created equal from one place to another.<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><strong>My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you take a long and serious look at what your child is getting at his\/her school. Be involved and volunteer.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>See what positives there are and identify the challenges.<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Be a part of the solution to needs.<span>\u00c2\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span><\/font><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><br \/>\n~ Joellen<br \/>\n<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Next time &#8211;<span>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>What makes a Good Teacher?<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last time I told you about moving to another part of South Carolina from a community where the education system was not working effectively.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}