The Education of a Public School Parent

For twenty years, education has been a prominent topic in our family’s life. During that period, our houseful of kids have attended public, private, and charter schools—we even spent a year homeschooling a child. Our view of public education has been influenced by the choices we’ve made on our children’s behalf, which is surely true of most public school parents today.  

Times have changed, of course, since our own school days, and so has the role of responsible parents. We brought home a report card every six weeks; our parents signed it and maybe gave us a quarter for every A. If you’re like my husband and me—and whether you’re urban, suburban, or rural school parents—you grapple with the new reality of change, challenge, and choice, trying to determine the best way to educate your kids so they will be informed, successful, and happy. It takes a lot of hard work and attention.

The kinds of schools, curricula, and miscellaneous options you have to choose from today can be dizzying, especially in the metro area. The vast range of choices can be both a blessing and a curse, whether during the early years when your kids are first entering the system or later, in junior and senior high, as your kids grow and mature. Some people wonder if all this choice strains our school districts’ limited resources. For us, it’s been a good thing, and, honestly, it has kept us in the system.

Though solidly middle class, our family is not a traditional one—if there is such a thing anymore. My husband and I are now fortysomethings. We have two birth children, one adopted daughter, and, over the course of the past decade, three “extra” kids who have lived with us during tough times in their lives. While our story may not be typical for one family, there’s no denying we’ve had a range of experiences. There’s not much we haven’t seen.

My husband, Bill Radosevich, who grew up on the Iron Range, is more traditional in his expectations of our kids and their education than I am. An Air Force brat who moved every few years following my father around the world, I am what I euphemistically call more “fluid” in my approach. I’m also the parent most involved in the daily demands of our children’s education. Yet we share core values. We want our kids to be lifelong learners. We want their schools to fit the type of person and learner they are. And we want them to work hard and give their best at school. (And, OK, we were just happy to see a couple of those kids graduate.)

We live in south Minneapolis, and our children have attended the city’s public schools, including Andersen, Andersen Open, Barton Open, Green Central Park, and Lyndale elementary schools, Anthony Middle School, and North, Roosevelt, and Washburn senior high schools. Two of our kids attended a Quaker school in St. Paul, and our sixteen-year-old is currently enrolled in a charter school in that city.

Like other complex systems, the Minneapolis Public Schools, where we’ve had most of our experience, is a mix of the good, the so-so, and the bad. Our children have had opportunities that my husband and I couldn’t have imagined during our school years in the sixties and seventies. They have studied aviation, peered through an electron microscope (while taking part in Microscopy Camp at the University of Minnesota), competed with the best and the brightest in citywide math competitions, and studied dance with famous visiting choreographers.