When what you fought for in one place is given freely in another

My heart is full and I feel hopeful. We have been impressed with Micah's highschool since before he started attending. Between good reviews from parents of older kids to the student presentations on information night, sitting in on his admissions interview, communication from the school etc, we have heard good things and seen good things. Tonight was a parent information night. We were treated to food and wine, arranged by the PTA.

First of all, the students are all placed into one of 6 houses, each titled with Maori words. Micah's house is Pitau. There is friendly competition between the houses, with points up for earning for your house. It really does feel a bit like Hogwarts in that regard.

One of the things that I love about this school is their built in mentorship. They believe that students who feel a sense of belonging and connectedness do better with learning. For 20 mins every day, the same group of students, spanning year 9 to year 13 meet. Essentially, they will see the same people every day for 20 mins a day. It is a time for them to fellowship, mentor eachother, and for their mentor teacher to check in on them. One of the goals is to remove the hierarchical stigma common in highschools between the seniors and the juniors and since the houses comprise of students of all grade levels, the juniors are able to participate alongside their peers from the beginning and form friendships that will last.

Did I mention that they are assigned a mentor teacher?!

Mentor teachers mentor and monitor each student on their academic goals and progress and their co curricular activities.

Also, this school believes in mindfulness, growth mindset and restorative discipline.

Lastly, (and I could go on), the reason why school starts an hour late on Wednesdays is because the teachers are mandated to meet on campus together during that time to collectively work on learning and fine-tuning best practices.

It is nights like this, and aspects of our life in New Zealand like this, that reinforce for us The Why. This is something that I am sharing for my family back home and my friends in AZ who I have fought alongside and who continue to fight for all of these features in our public schools. With voucher expansions sprouting up throughout the States like vines leaching desperately needed funding from public schools, and hateful politicians working hard to cloud the eyes of students through whitewashing, Randy and I are grateful to be in Aotearoa.

We are grateful to finally have one less thing we have to beg for and demand.