As a mother getting ready to send her young son to kindergarten this fall, I’m now going through the stressful and frustrating process faced by many parents in our community: finding a school that will ensure my child gets a great education.
We live on Williamsburg’s South Side, where my family is zoned for a public school that, while improving, is still not at a level I feel will challenge my son on a daily basis.
His preschool has done a terrific job of giving him a leg up: At 4 years old, he’s already reading short sentences and can comprehend and relay in detail stories we read together. He’s been writing his full name since he was three.
I want to make sure he will be exposed to a curriculum that will keep him challenged and motivated with a desire to learn. Luckily, there’s a new option that I believe will meet his needs. This fall, Success Academy will open in the neighborhood. It’s a public charter school with an excellent track record of helping students achieve at very high levels, particularly children of color.
I learned about the school from a flyer and decided to take a tour of one of the Success schools. I was blown away. Aside from the warm and comforting learning environment, I was impressed by the structure and by the rigorous and detailed curriculum.
For example, I saw kindergarteners programming robots in their science class, just one of the school’s unique daily offerings. Other children were playing chess, building with blocks and doing word problems in math. I also liked the uniform requirement, which is optional in traditional public schools.
I’m aware that I can also apply to other elementary schools within my district, but I feel that my choices for good schools are limited. Even one of our community’s most prominent Latino leaders admitted he wouldn’t send his own child to the neighborhood’s elementary schools, with the exception of one, and acknowledged that all schools need to improve.
Yet he is part of a coalition in the neighborhood doing everything possible to prevent Success Academy from opening. This group is trying to paint Success as a school for the wealthier families who have moved into the area.
They’ll be out in force at a public hearing for the school tomorrow night, saying the Latino community doesn’t want this school — but they won’t be speaking for me or the many other parents I know who have applied.
I don’t understand why they’re not embracing the growing diversity of Williamsburg — a diversity that is likely to be reflected in this school. This sort of insular attitude isn’t good for our community, and it certainly isn’t good for my son who needs access to great public schools today — not ones that might be better tomorrow.
Schools have the power to bring together children from all different kinds of families, and I hope my son can be part of that experience. The world he’ll enter certainly isn’t homogenous, why should his school be?
Success Academy is an opportunity to bring a world-class education to even more children in our neighborhood. Let’s hope it’s the first of many more like it that want to open doors for our kids.
Janet Rentas has entered her son in the entrance lottery for the new Success Academy.