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The Attraction of Magnets
I'm going to tell you a secret. For four years, my kids have flown under the radar of Wake County reassignments. How has this happened? We’ve been part of the magnet school program.
Now I know that being in magnet is not a guarantee that one won’t be reassigned. And I’m crossing my fingers that I haven’t just placed a spotlight on my rising 6th grader’s application to a magnet middle school. But let me just say—it’s been great.
Yes, there are downsides. The long commute. Play dates that can only take place on the weekend because classmates are so spread out. The looks from my acquaintances when they express their frustration with the school system, and I sympathize, but don’t seethe along with them.
I truly do understand the feeling of impotence they must experience when trying to secure the best education they can for their children, yet feel they are just cogs in a wheel. I experienced it too, when we first applied for a magnet program.
In truth, we weren’t even trying to go to a magnet because of its unique qualities. We hated our base school. Yes. On this subject, we too seethed. The first year that I could, I applied to our local year round school, but we got turned down. The second year, I applied for every possible school that wasn’t our current one. We got turned down. (3 choices for 3 elementary schoolers plus 1 choice for a middle schooler= 10 rejections in one day, if you’re counting. Which I was.)
Eventually, the fates turned in our favor (and the Office of Growth Management helped us) and we found ourselves enrolled in two terrific magnet school programs. While each magnet can offer something different, our experience is with the programs offering Gifted and Talented (GT) classes. Students do not have to be identified as gifted in order to participate. The theory is that all students have gifts and talents and that these schools offer classes that nurture them.
Elementary students can learn French (something most schools don’t offer until high school); explore coastal ecology, short story writing, the stock market, dance, theatre, and hundreds of other offerings.
Middle schoolers can also take a variety of classes, including upper level language and math classes that can help them gain high school credit.
Another thing I’ve noticed about our magnets is the energy and student focus that seems imbedded in the schools. They really “get” kids. They enjoy them. They –listen to this—they WANT to foster a love of learning in their students. And, as far as my kids are concerned, they’ve succeeded.
None of this means you should be happy about being shuffled around to a school you have no desire to be a part of, but if this is your situation, maybe take a peek at what the magnet schools have to offer.
Just don’t tell anyone I told you.
Magnet School Information: http://www.wcpss.net/magnet/
Crazy Is My Life
Four kids, two schools, a bazillion sports, a messy house and 90,000 133,000 miles on my four five-year-old van. Need I say more?
Pamela appears Tuesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Pamela on her blog Crazy is My Life.
Comments
NOW you tell us! HAHA. I know-I avoided the magnet schools for all the reasons you mentioned-inconvience, wanting my kids to go to school with the other neighborhood kids, and frankly not wanting to go through all the stress of the application procedure. I'm a sucker for keeping things as simple in life as possible, and at the time, magnets seemed like a complication not needed. But now obviously I'm reconsidering every preconceived notion and thought I've had about education.
If anybody is interested, there are magnet school information sessions every Tuesday morning through the end of February.
Details: http://www.trianglemom2mom.com/event/wake-county-magnet-schools-parent-information-sessions-raleigh
We too have avoided reassignment and have always had our kids in neighborhood schools. When we lived in the Garner area, our kids were assigned to an elementary school that at the time had the highest percentage of free and reduced lunch and rather dismal test scores. I loved that school...my kids did too.
The teachers who were there were there because they wanted to be. My kids, both being advanced readers (well, duh, look at their mother!), got lots of individual attention and the opportunity to go to reading classes 2 grades ahead of them. We haven't had that opportunity at most other schools. We've moved in and out of the Triangle, so there have been lots of moves.
Right now, the attitude at my son's middle school seems to be, suck it up and learn this year's curriculum...despite the fact that you took the EXACT SAME CLASS WITH THE EXACT SAME TEXTBOOK last year in Florida.
We considered the magnets this year, but ended up ruling it out due to some news stories about safety at the school we were considering. I feel terrible for those whose kids are getting moved around like chess pieces without regard for their comfort level at a particular school, the stress of changing schools, etc.
Yes, interestingly enough, instead of being assigned to the elementary school that you can walk to from our house, we were assigned to one about 5 miles away with a very high FRLP. Yet, we never complained because we LOVE the staff, and it's a smaller school with smaller numbers and we've put our hearts into it. But it's also been nice with my two older ones now at the middle school that you can walk to. And now we're looking at these changes that just make NO sense.
Lilybug, you are right about loving a school, even though the numbers may not be great. Those numbers just do not tell the whole story.
We are in a Charter school and love it. We got very lucky in the lottery. We can't get reassigned and we have a unique learning enviroment. I wish I could have gone to my kids school when I was growing up.
Do you mind me asking which one?
We are at Casa Esperanza. It's a dual language Montessori school.