I absolutely love Tolerance.org. I think it is wonderful that they supply teachers with materials for free — and good materials, too. If you haven’t checked them out, you should.

Because I’ve order materials in the past, I’ve been subscribed to their bi-annual magazine, Teaching Tolerance. I have found some good lesson plans in the past. The current issue had an interesting opinion piece entitled “Good Morning Boys and Girls” The subtitle? “Simple greetings can promote discrimination in young children.” I was intrigued so I read on.

The contention of author Rebecca S. Bigler is that we highlight differences between boys and girls more by using gender as a means of organiziation (alternate boy/girl seating) and in lessons (alternating boys and girls in turn-taking). She notes, for example, that we would never use race or ethnicity as a label in this way: “Good morning, whites and blacks,” or “Latinos, get your backpacks now.”

Does she have a point? Well, there are David and Goliath’s tee-shirts for girls. As a girl child, I probably would have considered them funny. As a mother of a son (as well as two daughters)… not so much.

While I think some of her arguments are valid, I wondered if this isn’t a mountain created from a molehill. I grew up in an era which was marked by less gender equality than my students seem to feel. I remember feeling pressured to pretend I wasn’t smart. That isn’t to say I succumbed to that pressure, but then, I was also considered a nerd, too. There were plenty of smart girls who played dumb. I also remember going through a period in elementary school during which boys were extremely yucky, and my peers and I spent plenty of time highlighting our differences. I grew out of it, and it seemed most of our peers did, too.

The more I think about it, however, the more unsure I feel. What exactly are we saying to children in our classrooms? What sorts of messages are they receiving? Does all this matter?

In the controversy over my school’s future building site and Fulton County Schools, the divide over public versus private schools was outlined starkly in the AJC’s reader blog over Weber’s brush with eminent domain. Very early on in the discussion, posters began to veer away from the topic at hand and debate very nastily over whether public schools or private schools are better and why. I think the blog is an interesting microscope of many issues we’ve all discussed in the education blogosphere.

I teach at a private school, but my background in education is mostly in the public schools — 6 years in total. For the last two, I’ve been teaching in a private school. I think private schools can be like any other schools — there are good ones and not so good ones. The school where I work happens to be a good one. At the same time, the public schools in my area have very good reputations.

However…

If I could afford to send my daughter to a private school like the one where I work, I probably would. I happen to make too much money for us to qualify for scholarships, but too little to afford private school tuition.

I have no broad condemnation of public schools. I can’t even bring myself to vote for Libertarian candidates because of the Libertarian platform on education.

So why do I feel this way?

I think that’s a question worth examining.

1. Smaller class sizes at my private school mean students receive more individual attention.
2. A marked difference in the number of discipline issues.
3. I can’t say if this is always true, but my experience so far has been that private school teachers are more satisfied with their work environments. Any teachers reading this blog probably realize morale is very important in making good schools.
4. Private schools are not inundated with testing. No CRCT. No ITBS. No state graduation tests. No “gateway” tests. With all that testing out, I’m able to have more hours in the classroom to really teach, and not to teach to some standardized test.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that private school teachers are less likely to be certified. In fact, some of my own colleagues are not. However, they are also brilliant, gifted teachers. While my salary is competitve, I have heard that some private school teachers do not earn the same as their peers in public schools.

With NCLB, school choice is once again a hot topic. Indeed, parents are allowed the option of transferring their children out of schools which fail to make AYP. I have to say that I am very conscious that I am delivering a product that parents pay a lot of money for. I think I was as good a teacher in public school (or tried to be — I didn’t always have the necessary support from parents or administration) as I am in private school. However, I am very conscious that parents do not have to send their child to my school. They have chosen to do so. I can’t say I feel more obligation necessarily so much as a different obligation. After having said that, maybe I do feel more obligation to my students and their parents, if I am to be completely honest with myself.

Do I believe in school vouchers? I just can’t go that far. I don’t think students are entitled to a private school education. And it isn’t just the wealthy upper class who send their children to private schools. Middle class families, poorer families send their children, too. I was surprised to discover how many private schools had financial assistance for families when I began researching possible schools for my daughter over the summer. I believe all Americans are entitled to a free, public education, and they receive that under our current education system. I am starting to wonder, however, what sort of changes will be wrought in public education if parents were allowed to send their children to the public school of their choice, and not just because the school failed to make AYP. What would our public schools look like? Where would the line between public and private be?

I have good news! According to Fox 5 News Atlanta, Fulton County Schools has decided not to exercise its right of eminent domain in order to seize the property purchased for our new school.

I will let you know if anything changes. I am upset that Fulton County’s new line is that they were under the impression we wanted to sell that land. If that is so, why threaten eminent domain? We never gave the impression to anyone that we wanted to sell the property, and I think it was a weak attempt by the school district to wipe the egg off their faces.

You can read the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about the controversy.

Update: The AJC has a new article about this story, detailing Fulton County’s “withdrawn threat.” Fulton County maintains that they thought we were in negotiations with a willing seller. This is not true. No indication was ever given that we were looking to sell the land. I find it odd that Fulton threatened eminent domain if they felt so sure we were willing to part with the site.

My school will finally have a permanent residence… that is, if Fulton County Schools don’t get their way. The Weber School has been housed in temporary buildings (modular units or trailers) next to Zaban Park (the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta). After spending years looking for the perfect site — “the geographic center of Atlanta’s Jewish population” as our board president put it — a former property of Lucent Technologies was purchased. Our groundbreaking ceremony is set for this Sunday.

But there’s a glitch. Fulton County Schools approached our board with a proposal to buy the land to build an elementary school. Our board refused. Fulton County is now threatening to exercise their right of eminent domain — which means condemning private property and seizing it for the “public good.” Fulton County Schools explained that their elementary schools in Sandy Springs are bursting at the seams, and they need to build a school.

I don’t understand why a new school has to be located on our property, which would effectively snatch away everything our community has worked for over the last seven years. I hope that our community (and you, if you are so inclined) will rally against this move. It would break many hearts if this spurious method of attaining property were allowed to be successful. I sincerely hope that Fulton County will find a better solution to this problem.