school choice

I went pre-kindergarten school supply shopping today.  For every parent who has children in "real" school, I only got a glimpse of your life right now.  Still, the glimpse brought me back to nearly five years ago, and it wasn't pretty.

When Obi-1 was born, I had planned to enroll him in daycare and continue building my career.  I remember visiting the daycare while I was pregnant, and I noticed all the wonderful, stimulating details of the environment.  I saw the program that would teach my youngster everything important - like colors, letters, and sharing.  I observed the routine followed for all babies - changing on certain hours, feeding on routine, holding each one equally, etc.  These things impressed me.

Then, a few months passed, and I was holding my baby in my arms.  Like many parents, I suddenly became aware of all the germs riding around on friends and family - especially those little children we loved - and I shuddered to imagine my bumpkin ever contracting one of those gross runny noses or awful coughs.  We enforced "hand-washing" campaigns on every one who visited.  If you were one of those, I'm sorry. 

I looked at the childcare center, and I couldn't get past all of the chances for my child to get sick.  The place followed standard cleaning routines - including bleach wipes and all, but I only saw toxins in those wipes and dozens of children we didn't know.  I started calculating missed days due to staying home with a sick child, and got a little paranoid.  I saw the feed-on-schedule and routine and realized my son would be one of many babies.  It wasn't just sanitizing wipes & routines of a large-center childcare that changed my mind about working, but I'll honestly admit that "health" is one factor in to my decision to stay home longer, work different schedules, and eventually phase out of the paid workforce.

Obviously, just a few things have changed since then.  Obi-1 has had (and probably shared) his fair share of illnesses.  As any parent of siblings can attest, whatever illness one child endures will likely be shared, worsened, and passed along throughout the family.  I'm glad there were far more (better) reasons we used in making such large life decisions for our family.  

Anyway, it should make me happy to see "1 large bottle sanitizing wipes" on the pre-kindergarten checklist, right?  It should, but alas, I nearly lost all motivation for sending my boy off to school this year when I had to make that purchase.

Maybe it was the little note at the bottom: "no need to mark items with your child's name - we'll be using them as community supplies." I thought of the kid in my classes who sneezed long, squishy remnants into his hand and wiped them on his jeans before continuing his coloring project.  I thought about the way I loved to keep my crayons sharp and ordered in roy-g-biv sequence.  My son will have a big bucket of crayons, all passing around the same snotty germs to one another, only to be generously shared back home with the rest of our family.

Wipes won't help with that.  Of course, this is the nature of public (or any) school.  This is part of the cost of getting together and learning with other kids.  I get it.  It's just, well....

There's another nutty little thing about that supply item.  My right-wing-conspiracy-theorist friends & family (you know who you are) like to say our town is a haven for "environmental wackos."  I think they include me in that terminology, so it's somewhat endearing.  Nonetheless, sanitizing wipes are rarely environmentally friendly.  In fact, I personally don't think they're good for our health, but that's probably another post.  With the rare exception of biodegradable wipes in recyclable packaging, this is not a great (or even effective) way to clean.  It's also good to note that these enviro-wipes don't come in "large container" size, as was requested on school supply lists.

True to the "wacko" bit, I don't use wipes much in my household.  I even considered suggesting the classroom use some health-friendly spray and good clean cloths.  Thankfully, I didn't say that idea out loud.  I have no doubt that enormous containers of lysol wipes will be carried into the classroom this fall.  I can only imagine the (crazy) impression my suggestion might leave on a preschool teacher.

So there I stood, list in hand, excited son counting crayons and colored pencils, and wipes staring me down from the shelf.  A thought crossed my mind, "maybe we should just homeschool."  It may be a good option for many families - I wouldn't rule it out for my own - but choosing to educate my son at home because I didn't want him using sanitizing wipes might be a little nuts. Seriously.  Nuts.  Let's all agree that this type of decision-making doesn't indicate the sort of wisdom we want in a person teach our children.  

So, we'll deliver our school supplies to the teacher next week, and try to concentrate on how much Obi-1 is looking forward to the whole experience.  And when we get home, we'll wash our hands.