Over the past year, when meeting parents of other school-aged children, I usually get asked which school my daughter attends. On finding out that she attends a private school, I usually get asked next "Why did you choose that school?"
That was a difficult question to answer. I was fairly systematic in my approach. I found a large geographical region that was feasible for us to commute to, then listed all the private schools in that area, of which I think there were about 30. We must have visited more than half of these. Eventually, we applied to 9 that I thought were a reasonable fit for our education philosophy. In hindsight, only a handful of those really fit.
After a year of reflection, I think what eventually sold me the most on the school that she currently attends, over all the others, was the fact that every school was evaluating her on whether she met their minimum standards for attending, where as, her school evaluated her on how much she knew and her potential. There is a very big difference.
In the other schools, they were checking to see if she could recreate a block pattern that they showed her. They don't want her to slow the rest of the kindergarten class down by not being able to keep up. They said things like "It doesn't matter whether your child is reading yet when they start school, they all catch up to each other around 3rd grade." How? By neglecting the early readers to focus on the later ones?
In her school, they took her away for a private interview without the parents. When we were allowed to enter, I was stunned to see sheets of paper on the table with extremely detailed drawings, and with a veritable essay written on it in my kid's handwriting.
I didn't want a school that would herd her along and made sure that all the stragglers crossed the finish line. I wanted a school that let their students run at full speed and would race alongside with them.
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