Random questions to which you seek an answer
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here's a random question for you parents out there, what do you guys do when you can't reach a consensus on things that effect your child?
My ex-wife and have looked at elementary schools for our son but we aren't seeing eye to eye on where he should go. One of the schools is close to mom's house, has a pretty good reputation and has an after care program. The other school is a little bit further away, is a Spanish dual immersion school and also has an aftercare program. I want our son to go to the closer school because his friends go there, but my ex-wife wants him to go to the Spanish immersion school.
I do understand the educational benefits of learning a foreign language but it's what my ex-wife wants and not what our son wants. Basically, I don't want to force something on him if he has no interest in it. Am I being short-sighted in this situation? I'm going to tour the Spanish immersion school next week so that I can get a sense of class size and programs offered.
What would you guys do and how would you resolve this disagreement?
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A few things occur to me, firstly, how old is your son? Secondly, in the most objective fashion possible, without ego or relationships with your ex playing any role at all, what is the best decision for your son in the long term, and short term? Finally how much better will the best option be than the next best option?
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A few things occur to me, firstly, how old is your son? Secondly, in the most objective fashion possible, without ego or relationships with your ex playing any role at all, what is the best decision for your son in the long term, and short term? Finally how much better will the best option be than the next best option?
He will be 5 next month. Honestly, I don't know what the best decision is, short or long term. According to my ex, our son needs to be challenged at his age and she believes the dual immersion school can provide that for him. It's a fair point but I guess I don't see how the other school won't challenge him either. My son's friends already attend or will attend the first school I mentioned. My ex mentioned that his friends all have learning disabilities and that the first school does well addressing those needs. But, she implied that because our son's friends have learning disabilities he wouldn't be challenged. I guess I found her reasoning a bit flawed because our son's current daycare is a school that has children with disabilities and he's doing just fine.
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Take some time and really think on it. Be honest with yourself as to what is best for the child. Like neph said, take ego out of the equation and think what’s best for him. Not what you think is right, but what is best for him. There is a subtle yet important difference between those. Good luck.
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Just to confirm, your son does not, to your knowledge, have learning disabilities, correct? That changes the analysis considerably.
Otherwise, I think I'd lean toward the immersion program. That depends very much on your son, though. Immersion programs have a small window- if the child isn't in one by about 1st grade, then they probably aren't going to be able to do it ever- they just fall too far behind linguistically. So your choice needs to be soon. It will be more challenging, and I think the long term benefits are worthwhile.
However, this is the part that depends on your son. Is he likely to adjust well to a new school and making new friends? Is he even marginally interested in learning Spanish? Does he do well when challenged? If the answer to any of those questions is no, then the odds are that this won't work.
I would point out that the worst case scenario probably isn't very bad. He's young, so the odds that you'll do any serious academic damage is really low. If you try the immersion program and it doesn't work, you can put him in the other school with no issues.
And then you can forever after point out to your ex-wife that she made the wrong decision… (which would be completely dickish)
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To my knowledge he does not have any learning disabilities. My ex-wife's cousins, both of whom are in their early 20's, were in a French immersion school since the age of 5. I don't know if this is what prompted my ex to choose Spanish immersion or not.
Our son does incredibly well in new environments. When he transitioned to different classes at his daycare he quickly warmed up to it and made friends right away. His current teacher says that he's the most popular in his class because he's very social and loves to play with his classmates. I honestly believe that part of his personality was inherited from his mother as she's very outgoing, whereas, I tend to keep to myself in social settings and am usually the quiet guy.
I guess you're right though, if Spanish immersion school doesn't pan out he can go to the other one.
Thanks for the input fellers
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Is there a search function for these forums?
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Brian the Bootmaker can make basically anything you want
Not always the case… I asked him for a pair of boots he had made before, with a very “seemingly simply” upgrade and he said he was not able to do it...
I know he had made western boots however - I believe he made a pair of Snakeskin for a client. I seem to remember them being snip toe though, not sure if you want a Cuban toe, or snip.
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