We are tired of hearing all the negative reports on education in Chicago. Both of us have children in the public school system-and it was not our choice of last resort.
One of us has a child in a gifted program at Bell School and a child in the kindergarten program at Agassiz School. The other has a child in 1st grade and one in 5th grade at Agassiz. Both of us have found dedicated teachers and involved parents at the schools. (My little one’s teachers give up their lunch period so that the children will eat lunch properly.)
Bell always enjoyed a fine reputation. Agassiz did not. That changed when a new principal took over, working very hard to bring change to the school.
Of course that does not mean a panacea at either school. Both suffer as a result of federal, state and city intransigence. Non-funding of education in the end is destructive to our whole society. But in spite of this shortsighted policy, both schools function and function well, trying to educate the whole child.
Perhaps if the media could start to report some of the good things happening in the public schools instead of only the negative things, fewer people would choose private schools or flee to the suburbs, and politicians would be more amenable to funding city education.
