Lola and MICDS
I joined the MICDS faculty in 2000; Samantha permanently
joined the staff in 2008; Raina became a student in 2009. The three of us carpool together to and from
school and share stories about our collective days. I cannot fully express how wonderful it is to
have my sister and my daughter spend their days in the same place that I love
so much. Once we fully realized how
wonderful the school was for Raina, the real panic set in about Lola. Of course we wanted Lola to attend MICDS; we
want her to start at JK and continue all through 12th grade! And she wanted it too – she wanted to make
“Raina, Mommy, and Sammy’s school” her school too. But it wasn’t our decision. So the Whomptons engaged in another school
admissions process this fall / winter, as we desperately tried to convince
MICDS that Lola was the right fit.
Well, if you know Lola, you know that she’s incredibly
sweet, loving, energetic, active, athletic, fun, strong-willed, spirited, stubborn,
independent, and assertive. Lola is a
good match cognitively for MICDS; we have no doubts about her future academic
and athletic performances. However, we
had real concerns about her behavior. A
head-strong Lola is a formidable foe and we worried that she would show her
darker side during the interview and observation process. And she did.
Apparently during the interview Lola decided that she did not want to
perform a fair number of actions required, so she just stopped. In Lola’s words, “She told me to jump this
way and it was wrong and I didn’t want to do it.”
Lola showed all sides of herself during the interview – she was
sweet and compliant, she was intelligent and savvy, she was mule-headed and forceful
– so MICDS got the full picture first-hand.
Eric, Samantha, and I were very honest during our MICDS interview as
well; there’s no easy way to sugar coat a kid’s oppositional stubbornness. We just crossed our fingers that the school
would appreciate our forthright information and take her anyway.
We found out Tuesday that she was accepted and she’ll start
JK in the fall. Woooooooooohoo! We’ll have one (or multiple) transitional meetings
this spring / summer / fall to ensure that Lola doesn’t pull a full year’s
worth of oppositional behavior on her teachers.
(This is not a meeting that we had with Raina.) Goodness, we’re so happy to do it. We’re grateful that the school will partner
with us to help make Lola successful next year and that they granted her the
chance to shine.
Yay for Lola!
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