Prep School Applications

BrownBear is still asleep and the one major thing I need to do today is finish her applications for school next year. LawyerBoy and I want her to go to the same school her sister is currently enrolled in. Somehow, when PrepGirl was in 5th grade and applying out for middle school, she landed in exactly the place she should have gotten accepted into. I don't know how she (or we) did it. We aren't moneyed or privileged or any of those things that many people assume you need to be to get into private school. At the same time, my mother was diagnosed and then died from colon cancer. PrepGirl was testing, writing her applications and interviewing for private school all while her very dear grandmother was dying. The last time I heard my mother laugh was when PrepGirl told her about the essay she had to write for her application.

PrepGirl had waited and waited and waited to finish her part of the application. I wondered if we would get it in on time. She finished and got the thing to the admissions office on the very last day. When PrepGirl spoke to my mother, she told her all about it. Her essay topic? The Importance of Doing Things on Time. My mother cackled. She knew all about that girl.

This time, the school that we want BrownBear to go to has an essay for parents. Please. Please. I thought I had written my last essay to get myself into college. Not my 6th grader. So, I have to draft an essay explaining how BrownBear would fit in. I am grateful that, this time ,we have a legacy. Their applications get put on top of the pile. She is only one of two girls at our elementary school applying out to these two schools. When Prepgirl applied, there were about ten. Things change. I am hoping that they take a look at BrownBear and just can't get enough of her. I know I can't. She's just my baby. I can't believe I am talking about sending her to sixth grade.

What I can't believe is that I can't send my children to the middle school right around the corner. It is a mess. It is a disgrace. And as a 5th grade teacher, I can't tell the parents I teach not to send their children there. I guess them not making AYP for however many years in a row pretty much says it all. Oh yeah, that and the police being there all the time. And the probation officers. It is lawless. It is just like the middle school I taught at for several years. People getting to transfer all over the place. So, why don't we just let them transfer? Well, we stagger the times (apparently the bus drivers run the school system) and middle school starts at 9:15 and gets out at 4:15. I would still be teaching middle school if it weren't for the fact that I wasn't getting home until 5:00. No time to exercise, bank or run errands. Couldn't see my children hardly. They were going to bed around 7:00. It was crazy.

So, now we're hoping to get both girls back in the same school. Same time, same vacations, same curriculum. All we have to worry about is my schedule and theirs. Oh well. One thing at a time.