To the Editor:
Some words of caution if you are thinking about sending your child to the Center for Teaching & Learning in Edgecomb.
On CTL’s website they claim “CTL is a school for regular kids. We do not seek gifted children, those who will be easy to teach, or children who demonstrate particular learning styles; however, CTL lacks the financial resources to fund a special education teacher, tutor, or separate program for children who cannot be accommodated in the classroom.”
In reality, this translates to CTL keeping only students and families they want and asking others they do not wish to deal with to leave. CTL is a private demonstration school whose mission appears to be disseminating their teaching methods. They receive tuition money from area towns whose residents send students there, yet they have no accountability for their selfish and hurtful actions.
I do not believe that CTL is “a school for regular kids.” It is a school that creates the “community” they want by weeding out those students that no longer fit.
Students that they find disruptive are kicked out, which seems to happen more often to boys. I know this because it happened to my son – who is now thriving at public school as an honor student, in the gifted and talented program and a member of the band and National Junior Honor Society. He is by no means a student that has or had severe discipline issues, needs special attention or as CTL claims “cannot be accommodated in the classroom.”
I have connected with many families (with boys) that have had a similar experience to ours. With little or no warning you are simply and quietly asked to not return the following school year.
This is a traumatic incident for a child who is told (and the parents that must tell them) that they will not be able to return to their school and their friends; or, it is a tricky dance for parents of a young child when they must lie to their children as to why they will not be returning to their school – to their “community.”
Not exactly what I think about when I think of community! Before you decide to join the world of CTL, know that the bottom could drop out from under you at any time.
You might want to ask yourself first – What does community mean to you?
