Its so good to wake up and think, "Last night, this country saved itself." Actual salvation is a long, slow process but the fact that we did'nt blow our chance: that was a nice, nice change.
But what's with only 46% of white folk voting for Obama? What's up with that? I'm proud to be in the minority.
Nationally the mood is one of celebration but, here in Donnyville, things are very fraught. The good news is that there is an opening ini the Waldorf School's Little Friends program and Donovan is first in line. I really should be happy about that and I am but two things keep tugging at me. First, he really is happy at Eastminster and they do take very good care of him. He's still very much one of the "favorites" and is coddled and fussed over, which I like. Also, Waldorf is more expensive. Significantly more expensive. To the tune of Mike will sell plasma on the first and third Mondays of the month and I'll take the second and fourth. Part of the money related freakout is based in the fact that, between now and Christmas, we will finally be having major work done on our waterdamaged, butt-ugly kitchen. The work is something I've known was coming and much of the monies given to us by my Aunts has long been earmarked for such. Having it sitting there in the bank, tho--well, that's been nice. I'm going to hate to see it go. Anyhow, last night when I went to bed, I really was feeling like putting Donny in Waldorf would be a bad idea.
Then, today, I had a revelation: Kids Grow Up. I went back to the Waldorf School's website and looked at the curriculum descriptions. If I'm reading everything right, Donny would be in this program for 19 months and then he would be moved to the Nursery which (again, if I'm reading this right) is free. Suddenly, I felt better. 19 months? I can be superpoor for 19 months! I actually like PB&J! We can do this!
Mike is going to call me this afternoon with his take on it all and we'll decide then. Any suggestions?
2 comments:
i continue to find myself a bit baffled by how many parents in pittsburgh have positive feelings towards waldorf education. there are just so many things about it that deeply trouble me and seem like the obvious hallmarks of bad education (not to mention the connections with the Anthroposophy cult that form the foundations for Waldorf philosophy).
In particular, i think art-as-copying, refusing to let children learn to read at all until they are 7 years old, and rote repetition of stories are all concerning to me. the odd religious education isn't really for our family either--we like to keep the religion out of the school experience.
but clearly you, and a lot of other parents i've met in pittsburgh, consider waldorf to be a normal, positive environment for childhood education. what am i missing here? is the current day care situation not working out?
The current situation is at a church daycare which, for a pipsqueak like Donny, is fine. I also would like to go on record with how happy with have been with the care and love he's gotten there. That being said, we don't want him to have a religious school experience. The setting of the Pittsburgh Waldorf school is very much a garden within an urban setting and alot of time is spent outdoors--which, considering we live on the curve of a main throughfare and our local playground is covered with sexually explicit grafitti, appeals to me. As far as the religious aspect of it, it seems less like capital R Religion and more like religion derived ritual which, as a fallen Catholic, is something I miss and one of the things that brought me to Unitarianism.
Keeping the boy in Waldorf to the grade level remains to be seen--my guess is we'll need to take advantage of the free public school system, like it or not--but as we have to pay for daycare anyhow, I think this is a good alternative to the plastic-toy-filled-next-to-a-big-box-store-have-to-walk-thru-littered-streets-to-get-there options we're able to afford. Plus there's the 2 year waiting list at the Cyert Center.
But hey--we keep playing Powerball so, if we get lucky, Scientology, here we come!!!!
Just kidding, yo...
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