J is over to the far left - second from end in the middle

I am trying desperately to figure out how to upload moving video so you can watch this hilarious one and a half minute presentation by the Grace Church MOPS kids. No one threw their skirt over their head but is still was comical just because it's kids of that age.

J has been going around the house singing the song "jump, jump, jump to the light, light, light...run, run, run from what's not right...jump, jump, jump from the dark, dark, dark...run to Jesus, give Him your heaaaaaaaaarrrrrttt." Over and over and over again.

Today L and I passed an accident on our way home from running errands. Immediately I start praying for the people involved, the officers handling the scene, etc. It's something automatic in me (and trust me, it's not like I am constantly in prayer throughout my day) - in Catholic grade school we used to stop class if there were ambulance sirens or police going by (which was more frequent than not since the school was not far from the hospital). I have vivid memories of Sister Corcoran stopping the lecture and leading the class in a prayer for the person in the ambulance or the safety of the police who were responding to a call.

Not that this little ingrained response in me has completely changed my life, or kept me from always going down the wrong path - but it does make me wonder, as we approach school age with J, what path we should lead him down? What building blocks do we want him to have?

Which experience is most important in shaping a child for adulthood? Grade School? High School? Or College?

I've always been in the camp of College being the most important. I still believe that grade school is important but a lot of the values and knowledge can still be embedded at home. I'm now beginning to realize that it just may be high school that is key. The wrong education, the wrong peers - mixed with the world we live in today could equal disaster.

So this weekend was prom in our city. Prom is such a big deal here that a movie was just made about it. Parades, red carpet entrance, televised post-prom party - the works. So sad as our lives are right now, we had time to sit and watch it all on cable after the kids went to bed. And fair or not, I was picking out our future high school based on the kids coming through the doors (they come in, in a processional manner, by high school). Thanks to Wisconsin's open enrollment policy - we can pick any school we want. Of course the kids who seemed the most civilized, whose dresses weren't slutty and behaved well enough to the camera as not embarrass themselves, were the kids from The Prairie School.

This school is considered the S.C. Johnson school and where tuition costs more than a term at Miami University (when I checked on it for preschool, it was $8,000 a year - yes that was $8,000 for PRESCHOOL - what? Are the crayons spun from gold?). 100% of graduates go on to higher education - usually attending the most prestigious universities in the country. In an area where the drop out rate is high and the test scores are low, these things worry me. I've heard of kids doing well in a poor school and getting to college and not being able to survive because they were not academically prepared for it - no matter how smart they are.

So where J and L end up remains to be seen - who knows, we might not even be here by that time. But as we search for grade schools next year, memories of Immaculata will be flowing through my head I'm sure. I have no idea what I academically learned there, but my friends, teachers and little things like ambulance prayer have remained.