A Tale of Two Schools

Each week, I volunteer at two elementary schools. They're about 12.5 miles apart geographically, but sometimes I think they might as well exist in different universes.

Children with names like Emma, Hannah, and Nicholas attend one, while Jenesiss, Royaltee, and Danger attend the other. Children arrive at one school through a very complex carpool system, so complex that some mothers arrive an hour early to retrieve their children after school. Most of the kids at the other school either walk or ride their bikes. One group arrives to the sound of classical music being piped over the loud speaker. The other hears Beyonce coming out of a boombox in the gym. At lunchtime, most of the students at one school bring lunches packed at home, often accompanied by a note from mom. In the other cafeteria, children eat government-issued school lunch. A couple hours earlier, the kids sat in this same cafeteria eating government-issued breakfasts. If it's testing week, snacks will be provided for them, also by the government.

One school sees very little student turnover. Children's names were put on a waiting list at birth, and if they leave, even for a year, they will not get back in. This means that the same children return year after year after year, and most of them will be together at high school graduation.The class list changes weekly, if not daily, at the other school. It's not unusual to find a third grader who's already been in six or seven different elementary schools.

Reading is important at both schools. In one, students read Captain Underpants and Junie B. Jones, anything, as long as they're reading. At the other school, teachers plug classics like Misty of Chincoteague and Island of the Blue Dolphins. Occasionally reading is rewarded in this school, but children are generally taught to seek and appreciate intrinsic reward, doing something because it's the right thing to do. At the other school, rewards are everything. Kids earn tickets throughout the day, which enable them to shop at the school store. Rootbeer float parties, popsicle parties, even limo rides are offered as rewards to those who behave well, read well, test well.

One school is almost entirely paperless. Communication with parents is sent by email or text. The other school sends home every announcement three times. Field trip next Thursday? Three pieces of paper on three separate days. The reason for this makes sense, but I wouldn't have figured it out without asking someone: A child may go home with mom one day, dad the next, and grandma or an aunt or a neighbor yet another day. The school is never quite sure where the child is staying. At that school, less than 50 percent (and probably closer to 25 percent) of the children share their mother's last name. Not only is it hard knowing who lives where, it's hard keeping track of who belongs to whom. Not such an issue at the other school, where the vast majority live in homes with parents who are married to each other and have the same last name.

At one school, turning in chaperone forms is a competitive sport. The first two parents to turn in the form get a coveted spot on the field trip bus. Depending on the speaker, PTO meetings can be standing room only. Moms cut boxtops, shop at stores that give school kickbacks, organize teacher blessing weeks, and rearrange schedules so they can spy on the classroom. Er, I mean grade papers. At the other school's recent PTO meeting, not one parent showed up. This was after the triplicate paper announcements were sent home and government-issued snacks (good ones!) were purchased. The principal has determined that at this school, parent involvement means parents getting their kids to school. On time when possible. Period. Beyond this, parents don't have the luxury of time, or the stability, to spend time at their children's school, whether they want to or not.

One principal battles issues related to Common Core. The other battles issues related to attendance and tardies. Both work so hard for the children in their schools, and both lead a team of dedicated teachers who deserve twice the salary they make.

Both schools are also filled with children who think their reality is what's normal.They're children who will most likely follow in the tracks of their parents, because what their parents do is what's "normal" to them, whether that's practicing law 12 hours a day or bouncing from one minimum-wage job to the next, having a baby at 17 or waiting until they've earned a couple graduate degrees, riding the bus or driving a Lexus.

Twelve and a half miles and a whole universe apart.