Ahhh. Saturday afternoon. Yesterday was spent with my lovely daughter and her new peers at her new school. My dearest will be a pre-school student at Abington Friends this fall. I’m so proud. One may be asking at this point, what’s a little Black girl doing in a friend’s school? My answer to this is a resounding: GETTING THE BEST EDUCATION I CAN AFFORD!!! Albeit barely.
Since Aubrei’s birth, I have had nothing but bad experiences with her day care. She’s 3 now and hasn’t been in day care for at least a year. I was kissing the ground my mother walked on for retiring early to stay home with Aubrei. My mom and I may not get along all the time, but honey, my mom’s temperment is no match to the impending bald spot I was forming from worrying about Aubrei in daycare. I don’t know about most folks experience, but hon-ney….
Aubrei started her “schooling” experience at 6 months old. The first school I chose for her was convenient because it was literally right next to the station. No issues really during her “crib” months, for the most part. Except, I don’t think I was ready for her to be in daycare, so I took her out. It just so happened my mom was home for 6 months, so it all worked out.
When my mom went back to work, of course, I put Aubrei back in the school. Several months later, she came home with two black eyes in two weeks. The school offered no explaination. I took her out without passing go.
The next school I put Aubrei in was several minutes away from the station. I did the “random drop by” several times the first several weeks. On two separate occasions I found a strange male person who was not Aubrei’s caregiver chilling in the classroom with the kids during their naps. On one other occasion, some random woman came through while the kids were napping—very loud, very not supposed to be there—very collecting money from one of the teachers. I spoke with the director about this and she seemed cool with it. She said, “Oh, every now and again the teacher’s get visitors during their lunch”. Paint me crazy here if you want to, I took Aubrei out. Particularly when I was late picking her up the next day by 5 minutes and they charged me $20. I was like “cool”, until they told me Aubrei could not come back to school until I paid that $20 late fee. This rubbed me the wrong way a bit, but I didn’t mind playing along.
I told the director that I would be happy to pay the extra $20 with Aubrei’s next weekly tuition payment. She told me that I wouldn’t need to bother with Aubrei’s next weekly tuition payment if I didn’t have the $20 late fee with me upon Aubrei’s next day arrival. (You can’t make this stuff up folks). I told her that sounded like a plan. When I picked Aubrei up that evening, I handed the director a crisp $20 bill, collected all of Aubrei’s belongings and never returned my child to that Looney bin again.
Aubrei’s next school was as close to a slice of heaven as I was going to get. The school was clean and gorgeous. The teachers were polite and attentive. The kids were generally amicable. Aubrei was learning a lot and all was right in the world for me. Until Aubrei’s dad and I had our final fall out. Considering that tuition was just shy of $1500 a month, I just couldn’t afford to literally pay two rents by myself, so after a year, I had to take her out. I was devastated.
I found another school for her that was far less expensive, and seemed nice enough. I was anchoring morning news and traffic at the time, so my hours were weird. I dropped Aubrei off extra early and picked her up at odd times afterward. One day a few months in, I picked Aubrei up earlier than usual and found her teacher brutally pulling on the arm of one of the little boys in the class in an attempt to drag him into “time out”. Of course, she straightened up when I walked in, but honey—I spoke to the director– who said the teacher was probably just having a bad day. I was not in the mood to count down the next bad day that would happen to another child or my child in particular. I don’t even have to tell you what happened next. I vowed that day that Aubrei would not see another day in day care, so help me God.
I vowed that the next time she went to “school”, it would be a real school with real school hours and a real learning environment and I don’t care if I have to get 3 jobs and a paper route, once I found that school, that’s where she’ll stay.
And so here we are. Abington Friends. *sigh*. I looked at a lot of different schools. I was sold on Abington Friends when the director told me rather bluntly: “We don’t do the regurgitating information routine here. We believe in teaching children to be critical thinkers and conflict resolvers.” It would have been totally inappropriate had I jumped on the woman, wrapped my legs around her and tongue kissed her right then—so I didn’t. But I’m pretty sure I wanted to. But I didn’t.
When Aubrei got her acceptance letter in the mail, I cried real tears. It’s been 3 years and some change coming, but we’re finally here. I would do the church shout dance, but I’ve been doing that since Aubrei got her acceptance letter and I’m all shouted out, but oh, the joy in my heart. It feels good to think of all the possibilities and opportunities my little girl will have with a solid education. I’m so proud of her now; I can only imagine what’s to come.
Admittedly, I stress myself out over my own life and career, until I remember who exactly I’m doing it all for. I work and create and strive toward my greatness so Aubrei can have a living example for what’s possible for her. Things may not always work out the way she plans, but they will definitely always work toward her greatest good.
To think, I learned all that simply by almost going to jail, what? Four times over daycare drama? Next, of course, it’ll be puberty and then boys. Okay, okay, okay. One dramatic life series at a time, please.
Can I also say– I thank God every day for my mom.
The moral of this story? None to be found here, just some food for thought. Thank you for reading this though. Peace, and abundant educational blessings. –e-