Which Boxes to Check?

With K turning four in April, I went to find information about preschool registration for this fall. When he was in day care - that was pretty much preschool, but with him staying home with D now, we know that we should probably enroll him in some time of structured program before he enters Kindergarten. Well ... low and behold, you have one month to register for preschool. We must have all our forms turned in by the end of this month and then depending on the number of people who register, we will be entered in a drawing to see if we get a slot. Now the pressure is really on to make sure I get everything filled out and submitted on time.

So, yesterday, I called the school district to make sure that my children are in the system (because, clearly they were not, as I have not received any information, like when I have to do the mandatory school screening - which now we are doing tomorrow.) The women on the phone was very nice as she walked me through all the questions. Then we got to the question that I've been wondering how we'd answer when it came time. "What ethnicity is your child?" She then proceeded to list the categories we're all familiar with: African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian, etc. I paused for a moment and then asked, "Is there an option for multi-racial?" She quickly responded, "Actually, our system now allows us to select more than one ethnicity per child, so you just need to let me know which ones you'd like me to select."

I was shocked and amazed. I felt like it was a sign that we as a society might be moving in the right direction (of course, really being in the right direction, ethnicity wouldn't matter and we wouldn't need to put ourselves in any category.) So, I let her know which boxes to select for my sons and then we moved on to the next question. When K and O get older, I will let them determine how they will want to define themselves when it comes to this question. I was just glad that I could pick all options that applied for now and not have to pick one. (or "other" - if they want to select "other" they can."

Now on to the next adventure tomorrow, when I take K in for pre-school screening. It will be the first realization that my baby is really growing up and will be starting school in a year. I know it will be harder on me, and I just hope that tomorrow he's in a good mood!