A new year, a new era: post-private-school San Francisco

December 28, 12:20 PMSF Education ExaminerCaroline Grannan

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Thanks to school board member-elect Rachel Norton and parent activist Crystal Brown who posted to alert us all to the new San Francisco magazine   article  on "the post-private school city," focusing on blogger Amy Graff of  The SF K Files.

I literally ran out to get the magazine -- an opportunity for a short jog to the market -- and the article is bringing me joy (it almost feels like the Obama victory).

If the tipping point hasn't already been reached, bringing a true end to private-school dominance in San Francisco, I think this article is it. I spent enough years cringing and being defensive at social events where the private-school parents viewed me as daring but obviously reckless. Now the tables are turning. Instead of "I'm not sacrificing MY kids just to be PC!" the spoken or unspoken comment hovering in the air will be: "You spend HOW much on tuition???"

Even though writer Diana Kapp interviewed my daughter for a student's-eye view of a turnaround school (San Francisco's Aptos Middle School, pictured) and didn't use any of that interview -- the article focused on elementary schools -- I figure that was part of the research that helped convince Kapp that our public school students aren't illiterate, bullied, moronic mindless drones.

And just this morning I finished reading Sandra Tsing Loh's witty and offbeat autobiography, "Mother on Fire," largely on the very same topic. Wow. (Now, if the Obamas would only see the light about their school choice...)