The Expo

My head hurts. I went to a charter school expo at the convention center Saturday which served no purpose whatsoever. Every school said the same thing. "We have a play-through-learning approach. We cater our lessons around the kids' needs. We have an aftercare program." Just once I want someone to be honest and say, "I hate children. I took this job because of the recession. We need your child for the tax dollars."

I started judging the schools based on factors that make no sense whatsoever. One school had a really nice display and handed out fact sheets on bond paper. They were handing out Reese Cups and M&Ms.  The woman I spoke with seemed very proper and well to do, while the other three people just stood behind the desk and let her talk. I scratched them off my list. I know all too well what it's like to put the ace out in front and let them carry the team. Plus, if you have money to print stuff out on bond paper at a public school then something is amiss.

The school next to them had a display that looked like they found out about the expo that morning. It was an old science fair project board that was in the same condition as one of those beat up boxes you get from Costco to carry your stuff out to the car. They had handwritten messages from the kids that I couldn't read because the kids' handwriting looked like Sanskrit. They were handing out that church candy with the wrapper that looks like a strawberry. All of the people ran up to talk to me because I made the mistake of making eye contact with them. They kept asking questions about my daughter and passing me from person to person so that I could meet this person who teaches X and that person who runs the aftercare program. They made my list. They seemed kid-centric and reminded me of teachers I had growing up.

So now that we know which schools made the playoffs, it's time to move on to open houses where I can see some of the teachers in their natural habitat. Of course they'll all say the same thing, so I'll be checking out little things in my own Sherlock Holmes way. I'll take pictures of the chalkboard and have their handwriting sent to the lab for a personality assessment.There are seven open houses that I plan to go to over the next two weeks. Then, we'll move to the conference finals...School Tour during a regular day.

Sadly, none of this will mean much as it all comes down to a lottery. To be continued...