"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." -Mark Twain

I read this today and quoted it before knowing where this entry was headed. Where IS this entry headed?

Rachel started school today. It was an hour and a half of orientation for them and back home before lunch. I met her teacher yesterday when we visited school to find her classroom. She was nice, of course. I popped the question to Rachel on the walk home from the bus stop ... there are five white kids in the class, one is another girl. It matters to me because I am responsible for Rachel's environment and I am unfamiliar with being a minority. We know her school is mostly brown kids, as she calls them, but we also know we are white. If anyone is different, it's her.

Our city is about half and half and the preschools are full of white kids. I find it a shame that so many white people avoid the public school system. They avoid the mall, too. It's an issue I have with white people is all. It makes me sad.

If I could would I avoid the public school system? Yes. I prefer it to Catholic school and to an all-white school, but would be happier with an even mix. Heck, I used to feel bad for the few black kids in my own elementary days for not having more black kids to befriend!

A school board parent and I were talking about the city's plan to buy 10 of 80 foreclosed homes, refurbish them, and offer them to "professionals," with the stipulation that they use the public schools. Put your thumbs together and your pointer fingers up in the shape of a W and push it out in front of you and back. That is whatever! in sign language.

The things to focus on are the effective rating her school received, which I can see stems directly from parent-school involvement, and that she loves her school, butterflies on the first day and all.