Part 2: Random Granddaughter’s Checkered Pre-School Career

 

 

When Mommy (Out of Law Partner) moved from being a Montessori pre-school teacher to a fully certificated elementary school teacher, her first full time job (after a year of public school substitute teaching) was at the very same School for Very Bright Children (which I will call SVBC)

As an infant, RG was enrolled in the school’s crèche. They did not require intelligence testing for infants. It was convenient in that Mommy could visit and nurse RG during her own lunch break.

As RG progressed from infancy to toddling, Mommy and Mama (Random Daughter) became dissatisfied with SVBC’s crèche/preschool and transferred her to pre-school #2. After a while, they became dissatisfied with pre-school #2 and transferred her to pre-school #3, conveniently only a few blocks away from Mommy and Mama’s house.

However, the Mommies became dissatisfied with pre-school #3. One of their criticisms was that discipline had become negative and sexist. Little boys tend to be a little more rambunctious than girls; Mommy had observed the school a few times and seen several boys were frequently put on “time outs” instead of being encouraged to play more constructively. The expectation seemed to be that boys would be “bad” and this prejudice became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The mommies began to consider sending RG back to SVBC again with the goal of putting her in a school where boys and girls each get to be…well boys and girls. RG may have two mommies, but they realize she may grow up to marry a guy (these things happen), and they hope that if that happens, she will give him a fair start in the battle/race we call wedlock.

Though with all the tenrec influence in our family I’m not sure that is really possible.

Part 1: Prequel to RG Is Rejected by Harvard

About the time our daughter was attending first grade, it became apparent to her parents that she was a very bright little girl. We lived about a mile or two away from a private school for highly intelligent children. It was sort of the Harvard (or Yale or Princeton or Stamford, if you prefer) of private grade schools.

We considered sending our daughter to this school and began by having them test her to see if she was bright enough to be accepted.

The director of the school happily told us that Random Daughter qualified. “Your daughter is a very bright child” she said. We complacently basked in the glory of being the parents of such a prodigy.

However, we never enrolled her in this school for two reasons:

• It would have been expensive to send our child to this school (almost as expensive as sending her to one of those “Ivy League” colleges) and we were very poor at the time. Even with the financial aid they offered, it would have been very difficult for us.
• About that time we moved, first closer to the high school where I taught, and then to Oregon. It would not have been convenient or even practical to send RD to that school, especially with a daily commute from another state.

As a consequence, RD attended public schools for her entire grade school and high school career, though eventually she attended Oberlin, a moderately exclusive (though perhaps very dangerous, not to mention very expensive) private college. Among other consequences of attending Oberlin:

• She roomed with and fell in love with another Oberlin student, who to this day is her Out of Law partner. (I guess that was the dangerous part. Would you want your daughter to marry “one of them?” Even more dangerous, after a week for the idea to settle in, Mrs. Random and I said, “Whatever.” I guess it RD picked dangerous parents as well as choosing to attend a dangerous college. Some children have little sense.)
• We borrowed a lot of money to pay for sending her there. To help out, RD also borrowed a lot of money to help pay cover the cost of attending Oberlin. As a result, everybody involved was poor and deeply in debt for many years. This is why everyone involved in these stories drives ancient rattle-trap cars instead of modern Lex-i or Infiniti-I or even Camr-i.