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smackenzieWeekday mornings in the Godwin house follow a fairly set pattern. Mr Godwin wakes, dresses, eats breakfast, and has Mr Sewell drive him to his office. Luisa comes to the house to wake James and Aimee and get them dressed and washed. William and Julia and Con are responsible for themselves, but there is always a 50% chance that someone will have to get Con out of bed anyway, because he is a heavy sleeper and claims he can sleep through his alarm clock. Julia and Luisa both think he does it on purpose.
Mrs Malcolm makes them breakfast - even Luisa - and sometimes Mrs Godwin will join them. Luisa takes the boys to school, because she has been put in charge of James' well-being during the day at times when he isn't in class, and if that means William has to put up with her walking him to school, well, he tries to pretend that isn't what she's doing. Mr Sewell comes back from dropping Mr Godwin at work, and drives the girls to school. Aimee and Julia attend an all-girls school with the same rigorous attention to education as any all-boys school. It is Mrs Godwin's alma mater, and she sends her daughter and stepdaughter there because she believes girls should be educated the same as boys, with the same curriculum held to the same standards.
Mrs Godwin, for all her polite society manners and gentle feminine ways, is a suffragist and early-days feminist, although no one will ever see her on the front lines, or chaining herself to a ballot box, or marching in front of City Hall or the governor's mansion with a sign. She has never understood why women are not allowed to vote, but President Wilson and Congress willing, the government will fix that in time for the next election. It is high time she had a chance to cast her ballot next to her husband.
But none of this matters to James (or William or Con, or even Luisa, who is now a sworn citizen of the United States but doesn't know or care about women's voting rights or lack thereof) in the morning on the way to school. He only cares about maybe learning something and maybe getting to play with his classmates - he has been trying to interest the boys in his class in pretending to be pirates for the past couple of weeks, but without much success - and hopefully having something nice for lunch. (Being seven, James is always interested in a nice lunch.)
James' father owns factories and ships and railroad lines - he makes his money in manufacturing and shipping - so James fits right in with the other boys at school. There are always a few charity students, but by and large, James' fellow students have fathers who are doctors and lawyers and judges and bankers and captains of industry, and one of the boys in James' class claims his father is an exiled Russian prince. There is one boy whose mother is from Virginia and whose grandfather evidently made is fortune down South during Reconstruction. James has heard the rumor that his own grandfather on his mother's side made a not inconsiderable amount of money as a young man running the blockade during the Civil War, but considering he heard that rumor from Julia - who tends to embellish - and Con - who tends to lie - he thinks maybe he shouldn't believe it. Even thought Julia did make it sound very dashing and adventurous....
None of them know it now, but in September, Mrs Godwin will send James and Aimee and Julia to a newly-opened school run by a woman whose progressive educational philosophy and coed classes excite her. William will refuse on the grounds that he doesn't want to go to school with girls, and Con will refuse on the grounds that he has friends and a history at his current school, and besides, it would be stupid to pull him out and send him someplace else for his last two years, rather than let him stay where he is and be a big man on campus like just about every other Godwin son before him.
(Mr Godwin leaves the K-12 education of his children to his wife. But when it comes time to send them to college, he is very much involved.)
Starting in September, James will be beside himself at the idea of getting to attend the same school as his favoritest sibling, but right now he is so used to saying goodbye to her after breakfast, and so used to boys and girls being educated separately, that he can't even conceive of a future in which she can walk him to school, because they're both going to the same place.
James actually likes school. He isn't learning anything particularly complicated, at least not compared to Con and Julia and even William, but there is enough to fill six hours of his day and give him something to do and new things to think about. His teacher, Mr Van der Waal, is stern but not too strict, and because James learned to read early and is good at math, he is a bit of a favorite.
words: 877
total words: 2739
today's quickie research: all-boys and all-girls private schools in nyc and locations of same
Mrs Malcolm makes them breakfast - even Luisa - and sometimes Mrs Godwin will join them. Luisa takes the boys to school, because she has been put in charge of James' well-being during the day at times when he isn't in class, and if that means William has to put up with her walking him to school, well, he tries to pretend that isn't what she's doing. Mr Sewell comes back from dropping Mr Godwin at work, and drives the girls to school. Aimee and Julia attend an all-girls school with the same rigorous attention to education as any all-boys school. It is Mrs Godwin's alma mater, and she sends her daughter and stepdaughter there because she believes girls should be educated the same as boys, with the same curriculum held to the same standards.
Mrs Godwin, for all her polite society manners and gentle feminine ways, is a suffragist and early-days feminist, although no one will ever see her on the front lines, or chaining herself to a ballot box, or marching in front of City Hall or the governor's mansion with a sign. She has never understood why women are not allowed to vote, but President Wilson and Congress willing, the government will fix that in time for the next election. It is high time she had a chance to cast her ballot next to her husband.
But none of this matters to James (or William or Con, or even Luisa, who is now a sworn citizen of the United States but doesn't know or care about women's voting rights or lack thereof) in the morning on the way to school. He only cares about maybe learning something and maybe getting to play with his classmates - he has been trying to interest the boys in his class in pretending to be pirates for the past couple of weeks, but without much success - and hopefully having something nice for lunch. (Being seven, James is always interested in a nice lunch.)
James' father owns factories and ships and railroad lines - he makes his money in manufacturing and shipping - so James fits right in with the other boys at school. There are always a few charity students, but by and large, James' fellow students have fathers who are doctors and lawyers and judges and bankers and captains of industry, and one of the boys in James' class claims his father is an exiled Russian prince. There is one boy whose mother is from Virginia and whose grandfather evidently made is fortune down South during Reconstruction. James has heard the rumor that his own grandfather on his mother's side made a not inconsiderable amount of money as a young man running the blockade during the Civil War, but considering he heard that rumor from Julia - who tends to embellish - and Con - who tends to lie - he thinks maybe he shouldn't believe it. Even thought Julia did make it sound very dashing and adventurous....
None of them know it now, but in September, Mrs Godwin will send James and Aimee and Julia to a newly-opened school run by a woman whose progressive educational philosophy and coed classes excite her. William will refuse on the grounds that he doesn't want to go to school with girls, and Con will refuse on the grounds that he has friends and a history at his current school, and besides, it would be stupid to pull him out and send him someplace else for his last two years, rather than let him stay where he is and be a big man on campus like just about every other Godwin son before him.
(Mr Godwin leaves the K-12 education of his children to his wife. But when it comes time to send them to college, he is very much involved.)
Starting in September, James will be beside himself at the idea of getting to attend the same school as his favoritest sibling, but right now he is so used to saying goodbye to her after breakfast, and so used to boys and girls being educated separately, that he can't even conceive of a future in which she can walk him to school, because they're both going to the same place.
James actually likes school. He isn't learning anything particularly complicated, at least not compared to Con and Julia and even William, but there is enough to fill six hours of his day and give him something to do and new things to think about. His teacher, Mr Van der Waal, is stern but not too strict, and because James learned to read early and is good at math, he is a bit of a favorite.
words: 877
total words: 2739
today's quickie research: all-boys and all-girls private schools in nyc and locations of same
no subject
Date: 2011-11-04 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-05 04:15 am (UTC)