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Written by the mother of a Kindergartner and toddler
My daughters attend Wisconsin International School and I can’t say enough good things about the curriculum, the teachers, the Head of School, and the other parents and students. Let me explain why I chose WIS and why I am so excited about this school.
I have always been an advocate of public education. From kindergarten through graduate school I attended public institutions in Minnesota, Michigan and Washington. Wisconsin’s excellent public schools were a deciding factor when I accepted a position at St. Norbert College. However, after teaching college chemistry to students who for the most part were educated in the Wisconsin public schools, my confidence in public education has diminished. The majority of my students are bright and hard working, but lack basic problem solving and critical thinking skills. They are deficient in math and science. They prefer memorization to a problem-based approach to learning. The students in my senior level biochemistry course are some of St. Norbert’s best students with high ACT scores and high school GPAs. I can’t count how many times my best students have said they didn’t have to open a book until they got to college. Our children deserve more from their education. I don’t fault the teachers working in the public schools. They are overworked, pressured to teach to standardized tests, faced with discipline problems, and must fight the culture that learning isn’t cool.
For these reasons I chose WIS for my girls. I want my daughters to be challenged and learn to solve problems not just memorize. I want my daughters in an intimate environment where the teachers have the time to give each student individual attention. I want my daughters to benefit from teachers who are given freedom to develop the best learning methods. I don’t want my daughters to decide that they aren’t good at math and science because girls aren’t supposed to be good at these subjects. I am confident that Wisconsin International School will allow my daughters to gain the critical thinking and problem solving skills that so many of my students didn’t develop.
Cyndi
Mother of a Kindergartner and toddler
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