I usually shop at my local grocery store. They have a great selection, great customer
service, and the store is close to my home and convenient. They have more than one shelf of peanut
butter. I can get different brands, crunchy,
or even almond butter. What great
choices!
And then one day, my daughter developed an allergy to peanut
butter. And every other kind of
nut. So, the great selection at my local
grocery store didn’t work anymore. We
couldn’t do peanut butter or almond butter.
We asked our great customer service to add a non-nut butter, but we were
told that there weren’t enough customers to justify the expense of adding
another product. Our local grocery store
just wasn’t a good fit for us.
So we started to explore other options. We found a specialty store in another city
that had great options for us and it was a perfect fit for my daughter. But we started getting feedback from friends
and neighbors about our decision to shop somewhere else. We were told that spending our tax dollars
somewhere else was hurting our local grocery store, funneling funds from
them. We were told that we were hurting
our city because our tax dollars were benefitting another city. We were even told that our decision to do
what was best for our daughter was hurting the sense of community. We were told we should just keep shopping at
our local grocery store because it was good enough for everyone else.
And then it got even weirder. We were told that we were racist and
classist, practicing racial and class discrimination since only rich, white
people could afford to shop at a specialty store in another city. We denied these accusations since we saw
people of all races and classes shopping there and we knew that all kids had
food allergies, not just rich, white kids.
And then people said that I must hate peanut butter and want
to try to get it taken off the shelves.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I love peanut butter. I ate
peanut butter toast for breakfast every morning as a kid and I miss it. But just because it doesn’t work for my kid
doesn’t mean I hate peanut butter or think your kid shouldn’t have it.
But some people feel that pulling money from my local
grocery store is wrong, that I should be happy with the brightly colored
shopping carts and the great customer service, even though it doesn’t carry the
products my child needs. And they think
we should limit choice so they try to limit the number of building permits
issued for new specialty grocery stores and even try to close the ones that are
already open.
OK, so obviously this post isn’t really about peanut butter
and grocery stores and it is ridiculous.
But it is something we have encountered.
Our school district is like our local grocery store. We do have great teachers (customer service)
and we have great options in our schools such as autistic preschools, Gifted
and Talented, and Immersion. But we hit
a serious bump when our oldest was in 8th grade and we were told by
a school counselor that the school could no longer meet her academic
needs. So we started exploring
options. We found a great charter (specialty
store) that fit our daughter’s needs and we were thrilled! But that was also when the backlash
started. I was accused of stealing funds
from my local school to support charters (both are public schools funded with
tax dollars). I was accused of hating my
local district schools and teachers.
False. I was accused of being
elitist, even when my child attended a Title 1 charter school. I don’t hate my local district schools. There are so many things to cheer about in my
area-everything from Battle of the Books to school plays to jump team to
Knowledge bowl to Lego Club and Pony Band.
But my local schools weren’t working for my child, so we decided to do
something that did work. We chose a
charter school with phenomenal teachers and different opportunities. But different isn’t wrong. We need to stop parent shaming, and schools
are the latest division between parents.
Different kids and different families need different things and I
support school choice. I support parents
making the best decisions for their child.
Because while this may seem like a silly analogy, the truth is that my
choice doesn’t make yours wrong or less than.
It is just different.
