Quote:
Originally Posted by malcolmk14
With all due respect, all we have here are anecdotal stories. No one is keeping stats on how many students have been gently directed away from charter schools under the guise of "we don't have the resources to support your child," or, "we think they could be supported better somewhere else." You won't get any charter school administrators coming on Calgary Puck writing that yeah we kicked 14 kids out this year back to the public system so our charter can run nice and smooth and we can accomplish our goals without those problems. That's ridiculous.
Like opendoor has told you a couple of times but you seem to refuse to try to comprehend, recruitment practices that charter schools utilize already screens students. Families with time and resources are typically the ones looking for schools of choice. I'm glad you were able to pay $3200 to send your son on a robotics trip; it's great for kids to experience those types of things, but you can't honestly see that even being able to consider that opportunity makes you privileged? I'm not trying to cast a judgment here. I, too, shop for schools, my kids are in every activity they want to be, and they're afforded every opportunity - I guess the difference is I see the other side of the coin. Most lower income families in Calgary don't even know that charter and private schools exist, let alone entering the lottery to get their kid to go to one.
As for anecdotal stories, I'll tell you about a student I taught 8 years ago. We'll call him Adam. Adam came to my grade 5 public school class after being kicked out of a popular Calgary charter school because he was autistic, had ADHD, had a difficult time functioning in group situations, and reacted violently when approached with force or anger. I read the reports from the charter school and he had two documented incidents of "violence". Remember this is a 10 year old autistic child.
Anyway Adam came to our public school, was put in a classroom with 26 other students, 4 or 5 of whom also had severe challenges. He had a challenging year, but he got by. The most violent I ever saw him in the two years I worked with him was he got angry and clenched up his fists and cried when something didn't go his way a few times. He was super talented at tennis and chess and an absolutely brilliantly gifted kid.
Adam graduated from the public system and is taking a Biomedical Engineering degree. He was kicked out of the charter school because he didn't "fit" their charter. They didn't know how to work with him. He disrupted their smooth and easy pursuit so back to the public system he went. The public system doesn't have the ability to simply just weed out kids like him, so it learned to work with him and for him and he was able to be successful within it.
That's 8 years ago and I've had students in my class almost every year since with similar stories. I've got two students this year "back" in the public system after the Charter experiment. Charter schools are great for kids who fit them. Public schools face a much bigger challenge of accommodating for every single student.
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Sorry for being so defensive but Connect Charter changed the life for my son. He has ADHD, was in IPP for all 6 years and was one of the more
'violent' kids in his grade. He was suspended twice and once was in Grade 4 in the 1st term of the 1st year. he would have been the perfect candidate to get booted out.
Instead they gave him an excellent counsellor he would see 3-4 times a week and it totally helped him for high school.
That is terrible for Adam and that was terrible for him to be kicked out. I can guarantee that was not at Connect Charter.
So maybe and i'm sure some Charter schools suck ass in Alberta. Just not the 2 we have encountered.
My wife hasn't worked in 15 years so we are not exactly privileged. Out of the $3200 for his trip, $2200 was made up by fundraising and donations so we had to pay $1000. I mean I never had to submit my T4s for the schools so how would they determine if we were 'upperclass' or not?