Half Changed World

I’ve read some interesting posts recently about the process of applying and choosing preschools.  Moxie wrote about the preschool interview process in New York City — and she swears that this is the low-key version.  Yikes.  Toronto Mama wrote about the preschool they didn’t get into — and the one they did.  Julia is having second thoughts about her choice of preschools.

We actually had a pretty sane preschool application experience by contrast.  We didn’t apply to any of the schools that have people lining up at 4 am to turn in their applications, in part because we weren’t clued in enough to know that we had to line up to have a shot at getting in.  The preschool that was our first choice — because we liked it, and because it was walking distance from our house — turned out to have exactly ONE slot open that year for kids who weren’t siblings of current students or children of alumni.  Of course, no one mentioned this to us until after we had already given them our $75 application fee. 

As it turns out, the preschool D attends didn’t even have a waiting list.  I think that’s because it’s a Jewish preschool and many non-Jews don’t even consider it an option.  We’re very happy with it.  D looks forward to going to school, has lots of friends, and is learning to sit quietly when it’s appropriate and take turns and things like that.  That’s all we were really looking for.  At the parent "orientation night" they gave us a big speech about why they have a "play-based curriculum" and recommended Einstein Didn’t Use Flash Cards.  I didn’t need to be convinced.

That said, someone posted to the DC Urban Moms email list a few weeks back on the verge of hysterics because she had been waitlisted at every single preschool she had applied to.  A lot depends on geography around here — traffic is so miserable around here that you really need to stick to places right near your home or work if you don’t want to spend an extra 2 hours a day sitting in traffic.

I have a theory that these preschools that are so hard to get into are the major incubators for "mommy madness."  It seems likely that if you make parents jump through hoops to get their kids enrolled, you’re selecting for high intensity parenting; the same people who were willing to line up at 3 am to get into the school are also going to make lots of calls for the fundraising auction and push for all organic snacks.  Even at our laid-back preschool, I sometimes feel guilty for not being more involved; I hate to think what I’d feel like in one of those pressure cookers.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 4th, 2005 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Education, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.