elementary school

I'll be sending my kid off to Kindergarten next year. If I only had my way, I'd have her stick it out with a small, non-traditional school and have her start first grade in a "big" school. But circumstances (and practicality) dictate that I get her into a big school as early as Kindergarten.

So I had my choices whittled down to three, the names of which I will not disclose. (I don't want to run the risk of vicious comments over which schools have the skankiest girls, dumbest girls, etc.) School A, School B, and School C.

School A is my top choice. It is, in every sense, a Chinese school. Kids from this school excelled in college, at least during my time. I admired them so much because they (usually) were very masipag and, for lack of a better term, unaffected.

School B has a nasty rep for being sosyal . But I've heard enough good things about their fine graduates to at least try to secure an application form from them.

That leaves School C. I went to School C. From Kinder to the first quarter of fifth grade, when my dad relocated us to the big sandbox (Saudi Arabia). I must say School C has excellent facilities and inspiring teachers. But School C was my last choice.

Why? Because...kids there were mean. There were the cliques, the teachers' pets, the rich kids (who were always part of the cliques and who were usually teachers' pets), and then there were kids like me who didn't have Cabbage Patch dolls who'd always get picked on. Who would want their daughter to experience such, right?

I almost started to hyperventilate when memories of School C flooded back. The shrink in me took over and calmed me down. Then I thought, what schools aren't? What schools don't have cliques and teachers' pets and rich kids and kids whose parents weren't into buying butt-ugly dolls? What schools don't have bullies and nerds? What schools don't have artists and math whizzes?

And you know what? School C accepted my daughter. School A waitlisted her (I suspect it's because she doesn't know how to speak Chinese) and School B hasn't even started processing applications yet. We're sending her to my school.

And no, I'm not worried about her going through the same things I did. Well, not as much, anyway. I know she'll be smarter and stronger than I was, that she'll be able to transcend the cliques and teachers' pets and butt-ugly dolls.