Public School? Private School?

Spencer is going to Kindergarten in Fall 2011. I have started checking out information and attending school tours since last month. My friends Ken and Viola filled me with a lot of information and updates about the school system here. Their kids are already in the Pre-K and the 2nd Grade. They have gone through the whole process of enrollment and know a lot of weird things and insider stories.

Viola had enrolled her daughter in 7 private schools and 7 public schools, she had toured close to 20 schools, worked through different assessment processes. Ken had just finished his public school enrollment for his son. He is the one who keeps track of the school system changes and gives me a lot of reference. Originally, he supported public school system and had great confidence of sending his son to public school. However, with the recent news on budget cuts, new enrollment system, teacher layoff, etc., he is now intending to send his son to private school.

To me, I am 50/50. If Spencer can be assigned to a good public school, ideally in the immersion program, I will definitely let him study in public school. It saves us money and good public school can be more beneficial than a so-and-so average private school. Regarding school politics or parent struggle, I believe that it would be the same in either public or private school. However, with the recent updates on how the student assignment system would be changed and the fact that the USD will cut more funding and teachers, I am not impressed to take a risk, especially that I know traditional academic school may not be suitable for Spencer. he needs a lot of attention and persuasion to thrive. I have seen his improvement and learning in pre-school recently and it further reinforce my belief on what kind of school would be suitable.

In my home country, there are limited numbers of public schools and a lot of government funded schools. The system there was said to be suck but it is still much more liberal and transparent as compared to here. It is really disappointing to see politics comes first in the expense of children's benefits. What those officials are thinking? What kind of schools are they going to send their kids to? If they are not willing to send their kids to the public schools that they have designed, then why the other parents should believe that it is the best system?

Some of my beauty favorites

I like to try different products especially beauty merchandise. My current favorites: -

philosophy: 

1) purity facial cleanser - I can use this to wash off my makeup and clean my face at the same time. Do not need to use makeup cleanser first and it's not greasy. After washing my face, I feel so refreshed and pure. That's why it call purity ^-^
2) hope in a jar - smooth, smell good but no cheap sweet fragrance odor. I tried a sample pack first and loved it at the first trial. It's easy to apply, spread and made my skin so silky smooth.

3) apple cinnamon 3-in-1 shampoo, body wash & bubble wash - I can use one bottle to wash my hair and my body. The apple cinnamon is just good enough to give me a refreshing feeling but not too strong for me to feel like popping out from the oven as an apple pie.

Bare Essecentals:

1) Mineral powder - easy to apply and it is thin, I never feel myself wearing makeup. It's just like another layer of skin. I wash my face, put on moisturizer and then use the brush to spread the powder on my face and that's it. It takes 2 minutes and I am ready to go.

Burt's Bees:

1) Lip balm - I like its peppermint smell and it is so refreshing. But, the #1 reason for me to love it is its natural ingredients (most of Burt's Bee products are over 90% natural and the packages are usually eco-friendly). This lip balm is made of beesmax and other natural herbs. BB products usually are more expensive than the other brands but I think that it worth to pay extra for something natural and green.

2) Foot treatment set - it contains a coconut scrub and a lemon taste cream. It's so indulgent to use after a hard day of walking or standing. The portion of the set is large, possibly good for use of a year.

School Fundraising

These days, I have been busily preparing the online auction of my son's preschool. It's the biggest and major fundraising activity of the school. Last year, the school had raised $15,000 through this online auction. This year, we would like to see if we can keep this up. My husband is pretty against fundraising activity. He believes that the school is asking for too much, the parents who are in charge have their own agenda and they are not going to listen to other people's suggestions and comments. I agree partially. They have been in the school longer than we do. They have seen what work and what do not. Likely, some parents are close and they have made up their own mind before coming to the meeting. Sometimes, I feel left out too but I am willing to do my best to help out the school and I have been doing the similar kinds of work for 15 years before. By doing all these, I can find a lot of satisfaction and I enjoy all kinds of project-based tasks. What can be more enjoyable when you finish a project that you have planned it out, worked it through and finally gained a success?

Restart after a long rest

It has been a while after my last post. The reason of such a long "vacation" is that I was so busy with my 2 kids. After my son started preschool and my daughter settled down for the daycare, I started visits of elementary schools. It's to prepare my son's enrollment to K in 2011.

Believe me, I would say that the school system in San Francisco City is crazy. In many other cities, students will be assigned to the schools in their neighborhood. In SF City, the kids usually will not be able to enter the nearby schools especially they are in rich neighborhoods; if the schools are with good reputation and competitive; if they are Caucasian or Asian. The SFUSD adopts a policy of racial diversity and "no children left behind". It does not seem bad but SFUSD keeps changing the game of enrollment and student assignment instead of emphasis on improvement of school quality.

No parents would want their kids to go to crappy schools. Therefore, when their children are assigned to schools with low performance, they usually pull them out to go to private schools. These parents (many of them can afford to pay a good amount of tuition and donation everyday) input funds to private schools.

I still have not decided to send my son to public or private school. To me, if my son can get into a good school or one of the neighborhood school, I don't see any difference to send him to public or private school, maybe a little.