Our Journey to 1st Grade & Private School
New series about our & our son's journey into the first grade here in Shanghai…
This is the start of a new series I somehow feel motivated to write — about our son’s journey into the first grade here in Shanghai, including into a top private school, which is a new experience for all of us. Uniforms, strict schedules, tutors, multi-lingual education, parents groups, and so on.
We had orientation recently and I thought it’d be interesting to chart and describe our course along the way, especially in the colorful world of school parents in the 21st century, a far cry from my public school education in the 70s. And in the age of helicopter parents . . . while I’m mostly a free-range kind of dad.
Things are further colored by our setting here in Shanghai, the once & forever capital of Asia. With mostly international parents, including American-born Chinese (ABCs), lots of Europeans, other Asians, & local Chinese parents, too.
Which school our son goes to is unimportant and won’t be mentioned for privacy & security, but suffice it to say it’s one of Shanghai’s top private schools, of which there is quite an array to choose from.
I’m already feeling the competitive juices flowing after our son got into a new and upper-class school, e.g. I want my son to do well; of course, be the best if he can, but with no pressure. And have the best toys, clothes, etc. This feels evil and more about it soon.
We’ll spend the summer in the U.S., mostly having fun in Maine, but also preparing him for school, with reading & cooking, teaching robots, drone flying, typing training, swimming & socialization in day camp, and anything else we can think of to both prepare & give him a leg up, as they say.
This also feels weird, as somehow I’m already turning into the detested parent who trains & prepares their kids in every way possible, while simultaneously taking a low-key free-range route to parenting a empathetic, curious, well-rounded kid, ready to lead in the 21st century. Balancing this is a future article topic, for sure.
I’m also well-aware all this smacks of massive white upper-class privilege. The amount of time & money we spend and will spend on school, uniforms, extra-circulars, toys, learning tools, travel, and so on is a bit staggering (school itself is $25–45K/year). How can you spend that much? How can you not, if you can? I’m not sure what to make of that, but will write more about it soon.
So wish us luck in this brave new world of 21st Century parenting into the world of high-end international education for the next 12 years or so.
Stay tuned …
If you like this story, please clap, and comments are always welcome, even ones that hate every bit of this.