Reading, Riting and Rithmetic

After church today, Hannah and I are going to help out at the St. Clare of Montefalco Open House. Every Catholic School in the area is hosting an Open House today from 1-3 so I'm not sure how many people we'll have going through. St. Clare was a great choice for Hannah and Jackson so I'm happy to talk about it to others. However, I always feel guilty at the Open House. The school tries to maintain somewhere around a 60/40 Catholic/Non-Catholic ratio. Most of the people going through the Open House are not Catholic so their odds are slim. The diversity of black/white, Grosse Pointe/Detroit and Catholic/Non-Catholic is also what makes St. Clare great since the kids are challenged daily to think about the differences in people and to appreciate them.

It is a weird situation since St. Clare also desperately needs enrollment to stay open. The School Commission is working really hard to reach out to Catholics but it is difficult in this economy and since the school is located in Grosse Pointe where the public schools are pretty good. In any case, Hannah will put on that plaid skirt uniform one more time today and do her part. (The parents don't have to wear the uniform, thank God!)

We're spending a lot of time these days thinking about high schools. Hannah took the test yesterday at Liggett. They have 10 scholarships available so we're crossing our fingers. It is a fabulous school but it is tres expensive. We could probably buckle down and do it but should we? We've also thought vaguely about moving to a good school district but that doesn't seem fair to Jackson who loves Cass Tech. (And who would buy our house in this economy??) I always thought what we did for one child we should do for another. Jackson chose Cass over U of D and is so, so happy there. But is he being pushed hard enough??? Should we have sent him to the tougher school? Is it fair to send Hannah to an expensive private school while Jackson is at Detroit Public Schools?

Hannah got her acceptance letters yesterday from Mercy HS and Bishop Foley HS. We expected the Mercy letter but we got a laugh out of the Bishop Foley packet. She didn't even apply there!