STEM

Mason is starting Kindergarten this August.  We are lucky to have a number of school options in our area.  Since last Fall, we started looking at our options, visiting schools, reviewing the applications and their enrollment processes.  We had 2 gifted and talented schools on our list, STEM and our default neighborhood school.  After visiting the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) K-8 school Bill and I both thought that would be a great school for Mason.  They had been open for only 2 years and doing very well.  They followed the standard curriculum, but thought through science, techonology, experimentation and problem-based learning.  Bill turned to me during the tour and said "I want to go to school here".  The teachers and staff were passionate, and it has attracted great educators to join.  STEM is a Options school, everyone is selected through a lottery system and the waiting list last year included 450 families and about 1/3 for Kindergarten.  This year, due to how popular STEM has been, Adams County was opening a sister school called STEM Launch just a few miles away, giving us a slightly better chance.

The two gifted schools (Stargate and Hulstrom) were excellent as well.  Hulstrom has a Mandarin program that was attractive to us.  Mason qualified to both schools through their interviews and tests.  However, both of them reminded me of the schools I attended.  Not to stereotype, but even through the tours we could see the overachieving kids, helicopter and tiger parents, and the bury-yourself in books approach.  I attended Colegion Bandeirantes in Sao Paulo from elementary through when I left for the US.  It was an intense competition to pass and rank higher than your peers (they would send report cards with an open rank by subject every quarter), great education, but left behind everything else (sports, social intelligence and fun).  Although I have great friends (all doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers) from those years and I am grateful for the strong academic foundation it has given me, it didn't give me a passion for learning.  I studied because it was expected, to pass and move on to the next year, I got good grades but hardly remember much of what I learned.  I don't know if I would choose that same path for my kids given other choices.  Bill attended Westminster Schools in Atlanta, also a great school.  If we had a similar option near by with reasonable tuition, we may even consider it. 

We also visted our neighborhood school (Cottoncreek Elementary).  It is a great school even thought their grades may not be as high as the other choices on our list, as a public neighborhood school they are not cherry picking just the brightest kids.  We spoke to a parent who chose Cottoncreek over Stargate for the same reasons we were turned off by Stargate.  We talked to the principal for a long while and really felt a connection with him, his school and passion of what he was doing.  We left the visit feeling good that if Mason didn't get into the other lottery schools, he would have been just fine attending Cottoncreek.

Still our first choice was STEM, and we felt crushed when we didn't get selected through the first round of lottery in March.  We were wait listed everywhere but Cottoncreek.  But luckly two weeks ago STEM Launch got an open spot and Mason was next on the list!  Because it is a new school, their full day Kindergarten is free.  They are adopting a uniform, which we are not against if the shirts could be a little big brighter and more attractive.  His first day of school will be on August 21st.  He will be leaving Gateway Academy and friends he has known since he was 1.5 who are all going to various different schools.  I am sure it will be sad for him, but he is also very excited to go Kindergarten.