This school year is bringing a fairly substantial change to our household. Eleanor has decided to attend our local high school part-time. It is legal, though rare, in our school district. Luckily, the principal is supportive and welcoming. Eleanor has chosen this path for several reasons: just to try "regular" school, to have more consistent interaction with peers, to meet kids her age in our neighborhood, and to have more structure for some of her academics (I am not always good at this...). I understand and respect her reasons. She spent a lot of time considering her alternatives for 9th grade. It has not been an easy decision.
Our local high school is in the process of "re-inventing" itself. It has had
some very difficult years. Most of the kids are on the Free Lunch
Program. Teacher turnover is high. The current principal is beginning his second year. We are going to take it week by week. Since this school is implementing a new year-round schedule this year, last week was the first week of the new school year. The school is incorporating 4 off-campus learning excursions. The first one was last week and I chaperoned. Eleanor and I were very impressed by the amount of support the kids gave each other (including her, one of two Anglo students out of 300) when they were pushing their comfort zones (like sharing a talent, speaking up at workshops, etc.). Of course, there were behavior issues and the lack of freedom we experienced due to the needs of crowd control was hard at times (for example, our little group of 12 girls traveled en masse everywhere we went). As homeschoolers, we have gotten used to making our own schedule and avoiding crowds!
As we push the envelope with the school district and push ourselves out of our own comfort zones, we will learn and grow. I'll keep you posted...
