Is the Best School Behind Door Number 1? Or number 2? 3?

Over coffee this week a friend was telling me about what a gong show it will be next year getting their three kids back and forth to school. It was dizzying. They need a dispatcher and full-time drivers to make it work. God forbid it snows and the roads are bad.

Their youngest will be driven to preschool two mornings a week, the middle one is being walked to kindergarten at the local school and the eldest, going into grade 3, has been driven to a charter school halfway across town for the last two years. She loves the place, it’s a good fit. Both parents are thrilled with the education she gets there.

However, the whole family has a better chance of staying sane if the two older girls go to the school around the corner. Husband and wife are not on the same page yet and they are under the gun because the local school is bursting at the seams and they have to register this afternoon or lose an option.

Will every kid survive if the family choses the most convenient plan? Yes.

Will mom and dad question their decision if the eldest daughter is the least bit unhappy or bored with the new school? You bet.

This year is not even over and next year is a concern for a lot of families.

The problem is we have too many choices and as a result suffer buyer’s remorse about everything now whether it’s a flat screen TV, coffee maker or a school.

Too many choice creates misery - this article drives the point home.

I was trying to imagine what my mom was thinking at this time of year when I was a kid and it was likely very little as there no choices to consider. My brothers were grown and gone, she didn’t work so I suppose she was looking forward to having me around. She and I spent the summer doing anything but  thinking about the next school. I knew where I was going, where my bus stop was, who my teacher would be and what kids would be in my class. It just was.

By the end of August I was getting a bit excited to go back, my mom would take me out to get new shoes and let down the hem of last year’s tunic if need be. We would buy a new shiny pencil case that smelled like all of Barbie’s plastic accessories (the rest of supplies would be doled out by the school) No backpack, no lunch bags (we came home for lunch) Off we went.

But now we have sports, science, art, language, tech, charter, private and gender split schools to chose from. Maybe we are looking too hard for alternatives to stimulate our kids when they should be learning to do that for themselves. To find their own (legal) cure for boredom, live through a year with a-not-so-great-teacher, wobbly desk, annoying class partner and stinky bus ride. Get a taste of real life. We probably should. But, we do have choices and when other parents are making moves we can’t help but wonder if we should too.

Fact is that alternative schools and curriculum are the byproduct of the ever-evolving nature of what’s available to learn, when to learn it, how to learn it and the ability to find and feed passions early in life. If there’s a need or a want someone is going to fill it and making money doing it.

The bottom line is this: If the school system was doing a good job keeping pace with change there wouldn’t be choices over which to angst. No one drives their kid across town or pays thousands for private school if they don’t have to...unless they are stinkin’ rich or bat shit crazy.