So I was thrilled when the excellent optional, public school program my eldest daughter was enrolled in became a charter school and added 7th and 8th grades to the kindergarten through 6th grade that they already had.
The Open Classroom, which had been around since 1977, has a strong emphasis on community. They believe in working out issues as a part of the learning process. Bullying at the O.C. is rare and usually caught early on and worked through as part of the community experience. I also get to know the kids who are friends with my daughter, and often their parents as well.
An added bonus, last year we started a whole new kind of lunch program, one that includes a lot of healthy, fresh and whole foods. Salt Lake City Weekly named it the best school lunch in their Best of Utah edition.
This will be our 9th year in the O.C. -- the last year for my 8th grader. Next year, my youngest daughter will go to kindergarten at the O.C. (there usually is a waiting list for the younger grades, so it's not certain). I basically can't say enough good things about this program, and as much as my older daughter has benefitted from it, I think my younger one will benefit even more.
In an effort to let other Salt Lakers know about this wonderful program, I'm publishing some of the latest promotional info on this blog:
TESTIMONIALS
With the Open Classroom now entering its second year as an official district charter school and its third year after forming an "Upper House" of 5th through 8th-graders, I can see the tremendous progress that has been made in this development, even as the framework from the old K-6 model remains vital and in place. The philosophy has stayed the same--the commitment to embracing and teaching to the individual while at the same time building a community around that individual. That basic respect that everyone is offered has not diminished one bit, nor has the framework that allows creativity and problem-solving to flourish, encouraging an ever-evolving curriculum and active involvement among the community. Some things on the surface may change, like course offerings or scheduling, and this is something we considered seriously,
but in the end, the more important criteria became "Will my child be able to develop his talents and will he feel good about the person he is becoming during the most emotionally challenging years of his education?"
In most middle schools, a child may have seven teachers, and they may be very caring, committed teachers, but the child is not guaranteed that one of those teachers will make sure he/she doesn't slip through the cracks. We've all heard that an at-risk child can be saved by one caring adult. At the OC, this is not left to the good will of the teachers or to the oversight of an overburdened school counselor. Even in the middle school grades, each child has a homeroom teacher and cohort of students--their "home base" at the beginning and end of school each day. As a parent, I can trust that not only do my children have the support of that homeroom teacher, but also of all the other upper house teachers. I have seen countless examples of the kind of individualized attention and collaboration among their teachers that I think is rare to unheard of in a middle school environment.
What happens when you get a whole body of people moving according to these principles and practices? You get to see what I saw at the annual air guitar assembly, where kids who might blend into the background at a normal middle school performed, rockin' and rollin' with a fluidity and sense of confidence that some of them never would have found. You get to see children who experiment with make-up and wild clothing slowly shedding the protective disguise to reveal their genuine selves. You get to see your own child demonstrate patience and compassion with a younger child, as he reads to him, teaches him the rules of 4-square on the playground, or helps him transition to the next grade.
But you only get to see these things if you show up. So yes, my child will show up to seventh grade at the Open Classroom next year, and so will I.
Karen Salas Wheeler, parent
This past weekend I had breasts on the brain. A couple of breast-related events are probably the culprit . . .
On Friday another woman, Melissa, and myself (plus our husbands and babies) made the trip north to Ogden. A store in the Newgate mall called "The Quilted Bear" had recently been in the news for having asked a breastfeeding woman to leave.
In Utah, breastfeeding in public is legal. It wasn't too long ago that a Burger King did the same thing. We felt we needed to be pro-active and educate this business on breastfeeding moms' and babies' rights.
We made a sign for The Quilted Bear to hang up in their store that says, "The Quilted Bear WELCOMES Breastfeeding Moms and their Babies" and brought them flyers we made that detailed the Utah law and gave other information of breastfeeding for their employees. We also included a letter that expressed our disappointment in the incident and asked for a response.
At the Quilted Bear, Melissa walked around the store breastfeeding her baby and then we approached the cashier desk and asked to see the manager. I shook hands with the manager and introduced myself and presented her with the items we had brought. She promised to make sure they were put on the owner's desk.
Melissa and I talked before we went into the store about rights. Some people she talked to about the Quilted Bear incident just shrugged their shoulders -- after all, it is still legal to breastfeed in public, and the actions of the Quilted Bear employee didn't change that. But my feeling is that our rights can be taken away at any time. Nothing has illustrated that to me more than the past 4 years. I think it's still important to continue to educate people on our rights and take steps to enforce those rights even if it's a little inconvenient to do so.
On Saturday, I went to a "Care Fair" which had health care services for those not covered by insurance.
I'm currently uninsured. It's one of the decisions we made when we decided that I would not work for two years so that I could raise my infant daughter in a home environment during those critical attachment years. The price of insurance through my husband's work if I was added would be costly enough that I'd have to find a job just to help us make ends meet. I'm relatively young and don't have a history of health problems, so it felt like a safe gamble.
My husband wanted me to get several things checked at the care fair, and a breast exam was one of them -- I hadn't had one since my pre-natal appointments. I was reluctant -- breast exams are not my idea of fun. Breast cancer is on the rise, though, so I went ahead and did it.
I remember when the chances of getting breast cancer were 1 in 10 -- it's up to 1 in 8 now, and in doing a little research I found out that it was 1 in 20 back in the 50s. Those are horrible odds -- something must be wrong. It's no secret that our world is becoming more and more toxic.
Some of the information that I've been coming across is that a cosmetic preservative, parabens, may be one of the many culprits as it has some estrogen-like qualities.
I recently purchased a paraben free deodorant at my local health food store by Kiss My Face (which also has "active enzymes") but I haven't used it enough to report on how well it works. I recently went through my various personal products ingredient lists to find things like methyl-paraben and other ingredients with "paraben" in them that I've had to toss, stuff like lotion and shower gel. I use relatively few of these products compared to most women I know.
The Breast Cancer Awarness campaigns have been under fire lately, from problems of disorganization on how money is spent on research to "sponsors" of the campaign being creators of the products that may contribute to or cause breast cancer, inspiring "think before you pink" activism. It's a good idea to beware of the "corporatization" of any cause -- it can undermine a lot, if not all, the good done in it's name.
I passed the breast exam this time. Until we start to value life over profit, we'll continue to foul our own nests and have to live with the potentially disastrous consequences.
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green_jenni- Jennifer Killpack-Knutsen
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