Last night the school had its Give Thanks Feast. The kids had a ball eating with their friends and then tearing out of the place to run it all off at the playground, while the adults socialized and cleaned up. The housekeeping was well underway when I finally had a chance to say hello and introduce Jorge to the mom who hosted the legendary Halloween party. I had loaned her my copy of The Well Trained Mind some time back after a post parent-teacher night discussion about middle school options. Her son has been officially tested "Gifted," so his options are the "Alpha" track at the local middle school (nope), or the school especially for gifted children a heck of a long drive away (maybe.) We talked briefly about homeschooling, but she was uncertain about how it could be done. Since then, she's asked if I didn't mind her keeping the book a bit longer. No way, have at it! At that point I decided her next recommended reads would be A Thomas Jefferson Education and The Paideia Proposal, two short treatises to give her a break after digesting the extremely comprehensive WTM and present a less complicated plan, ultimately working her up to my dog-eared, highly notated copy of Climbing Parnassus. The other day, Gracie came home and mentioned that her schoolmate might be homeschooled next year. Speaking with his mom last night, this is something he wants to try -- Gracie, the poster child for homeschooling, has been out there selling it apparently. The mom is still nervous, but said that with support, she would be willing give it a go. I then pseudo-jokingly mentioned the other option would be to start our own private school. She has been one of the key people in establishing the charter school, so she has had plenty of experience getting an educational facility up and running. I briefly outlined the "600", or non-traditional private school (the new preferred FPEA terminology) option, something I considered in the past, which is home educating under the guise of a private school designation. She said other parents on the island would be interested too, and suggested we discuss it over lunch.
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Continuing in the homeschool vein, there was a post to our local support group's board asking about the appropriateness of bringing nine and eleven year olds to see the Bodies exhibit at MOSI. The poster was concerned about exposing her children, not to the sights of plasticized corpses with their flesh peeled back, but to nudity. She wanted to know if there was much included in the exhibit. I couldn't even begin to compose a reply, it would have been thoroughly sarcastic. Now I have visions of the displays wearing little red gym shorts.
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