Choosing Schools, Choosing Futures: When Parental Values Meet Reality

This morning on On The Way To School, I’m reflecting on a conversation we had last night at Lore Leimert Park about the continuum of care—and a powerful question raised by Nikole Hannah-Jones’s recent writing about her daughter’s educational experience.

Parents make enormous decisions on behalf of their children.

We choose schools.
We choose neighborhoods.
We choose programs.
We think about college.
We think about opportunity.

And often, we make those decisions because we believe we know what will give our children the best possible future.

But what happens when the choice we made for them becomes something they have to live with?

That question works in both directions.

Sometimes we choose the school because we believe it is the “best” school—even when our child may not thrive there.

Sometimes we reject a school because it doesn’t carry the prestige we think our child needs—even when that school might be exactly where they could flourish.

And sometimes, as Hannah-Jones’s story illustrates, we make a choice rooted in values that are deeply meaningful to us, only to discover that our child is experiencing the consequences differently than we imagined.

Our children have to live the education we choose for them.

So maybe part of our responsibility as parents and educators is to disrupt our own definition of what “good” looks like.

There are more than 50 colleges worth considering. There are extraordinary schools that don’t carry the biggest brand names. There are many paths to meaningful work, leadership, creativity, and success.

The question isn’t simply, “Is this a good school?”

It’s “Is this good for my child?”

And perhaps most importantly: When we learn that it isn’t, are we willing to change course?

🎧 Listen to today’s episode of On The Way To School wherever you get your podcasts.

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