It’s a Good Investment.
Dylan got accepted into the private school.
He still wants to go, and we still think it’s a good idea, even if it’s only for one year. So now what?
Now we scramble to find money. We try to figure out how to get both kids picked up from school at 3:30, when their schools are 25 miles apart. We sign the enrollment contract, hand-deliver Dylan’s IEP, write a big check.
Basically, we take one panic-stricken step at a time.
I’ve already applied for half a dozen jobs, in addition to the teaching job I’ve already taken with the public schools. I feel like my time has just been shortened by 3 hours a day (because it has) but I need to work more hours than ever before. The money is going to be tough, but we are going to get by.
We have promised ourselves that we would not touch Shane’s college savings. We don’t have much saved for either boy, so we are hoping this private school somehow leads Dylan to a major scholarship in a few years.
Dylan is brilliant, but the beatings he’s taken in middle school have crushed his self-esteem. Not only were the kids harsh, but even the teachers could be downright cruel.
I keep thinking about his algebra teacher, when Dylan would finally take a chance and raise his hand to ask a question. She consistently humiliated him in front of the whole class: “Well if you would just pay ATTENTION, you would know the answer to that!”
So we’re putting him in a pleasant place, with kind teachers and an atmosphere of caring. The hope is that Dylan will recognize the real person he is – the kind, sensitive soul who can hold his head up high because he’ll have little successes every day – both academically and socially.
And then, the hope is, he’ll be able to carry that attitude into high school – whether public or private – because he’ll know that it’s okay to be who he is, and how he is – and that no one in any high school (or anywhere else in the world) can take that away from him.
So it’s worth looking for jobs, juggling transportation and scrambling for money… as long as it works out in the long run.
I was trying to explain this to one of my friends today, and she said, “It’s a good investment.”
She said it better than I could. We’re investing in Dylan’s future.
One panic-stricken step at a time.