(no subject)
Today, Jen and I sat in line for admissions into the area's magnet schools. For those who may be ignorant to the importance or meaning of a magnet school (as I was before moving here), apparently, its a public school with near-private school curriculum. Its main importance lies in the fact that its free like public school, but is sponsored by private funding in addition to public funding, allowing more of a free-form, specialized education. For example, the one we're trying to get our daughters into is aimed more at a liberal arts program, emphasizing creativity through the arts, and not just an hour of every subject some school board deems applicable to "kids" as a singular entity. You might call it a hippie school. But I'm a firm believer in providing education to children based mostly on their individual strengths, not a standardized format. Thats a very liberal side of me.
So anyway, we got to this place at around 8am to stand in line because its a first-come-first-serve basis for admissions. Well I'll be damned if there weren't a whole slew of parents that had camped out from the night before sitting out front. We ended up only being about 50 people back, so those people probably didn't need to camp out. Maybe they thought it was for Allman Brothers tickets.
The whole experience was an interesting glimpse into Chattanooga's social web. There was a man near us desperately trying to communicate, but he spoke only spanish. I was very surprised that no one around could speak spanish, so I offered to help him, basing my offer solely on the 2 years of high school Spanish I had in my brain, but no one else offered any help. He even asked a man of Indian-decent nearby if he spoke spanish. HAhAha....Surprisingly, though I was able to communicate enough to let him know what was going on. Then he left his place in line and went home. Maybe "pinche cabron" doesn't mean "howdy pal", afterall!!1!1! Actually, I think he was in the wrong line. Maybe he thought he was waiting for Allman Brothers tickets too. Or Los Tigres Del Norte, possibly.
So now we just wait to see if our efforts paid off. This whole process really says alot for this city's school system if people are willing to camp out so their kids don't go to the regular school district-alotted schools. Tennessee ain't 48th in the country for education funding fer nuttin', y'all!!1!
God Bless diminishing education funding for increased military spending!!!1!!11!
So anyway, we got to this place at around 8am to stand in line because its a first-come-first-serve basis for admissions. Well I'll be damned if there weren't a whole slew of parents that had camped out from the night before sitting out front. We ended up only being about 50 people back, so those people probably didn't need to camp out. Maybe they thought it was for Allman Brothers tickets.
The whole experience was an interesting glimpse into Chattanooga's social web. There was a man near us desperately trying to communicate, but he spoke only spanish. I was very surprised that no one around could speak spanish, so I offered to help him, basing my offer solely on the 2 years of high school Spanish I had in my brain, but no one else offered any help. He even asked a man of Indian-decent nearby if he spoke spanish. HAhAha....Surprisingly, though I was able to communicate enough to let him know what was going on. Then he left his place in line and went home. Maybe "pinche cabron" doesn't mean "howdy pal", afterall!!1!1! Actually, I think he was in the wrong line. Maybe he thought he was waiting for Allman Brothers tickets too. Or Los Tigres Del Norte, possibly.
So now we just wait to see if our efforts paid off. This whole process really says alot for this city's school system if people are willing to camp out so their kids don't go to the regular school district-alotted schools. Tennessee ain't 48th in the country for education funding fer nuttin', y'all!!1!
God Bless diminishing education funding for increased military spending!!!1!!11!