#tnva

TNVA has ruined our school experience.

So as most of you know we home-school, but not in the way most do. In our area we have a k12 public school option called TNVA. When we started out it was great. Now before I get to the whole story let me just say we love K12 and their curriculum. By no means does this story reflect K12 in any way.

I enrolled Rowan after reviewing K12 curriculum. I love how advanced it was. Rowan was way ahead in…

Hailey Alexander’s TNVA story !

  Hello,

My name is Hailey Alexander. I have been with TNVA since it started when I was in kindergarten.I will be returning to TNVA this year. I am going into the 4th grade this year. I am in the gifted program and skipped 3rd grade. I never even got the chance to take the TCAPS. Last year I was in 2nd grade and this year I will be in 4th. My little sister has been wanting to go to TNVA for…

So Alice was the one mentioned before?

Andrew heard something slip into the shower behind him and turned to see Virginia. The younger state’s face went blank as the soap slipped out of his hands and clattered noisily about the slippery floor. He belatedly covered himself with the shower liner he yanked over his hips and stared at her as his cheeks burst into flames.

"V-Virginia, I think… I-I think yer in th’ wrong… Oh boy."

Tennessee paled when he turned around and saw that the locker room was filled with women. Apparently he was the one confused.

Maybe it's because my old one was consider racist, so was required to change, or be removed or it will forever offend people.

And that amount is just ridiculous, Andrew. I know you love music, but still... couldn't you find one that has sentimental value?

"Andy! Andy~! Do you remember when you made this for me?" George Christian, the State of Georgia, asked with a giddy smile that made Andrew want to groan with embarrassment. He stared at the poorly constructed bobble which vaguely resembled a an old flint box that his elder brother had converted into an ornament. Tragically, decorating Christmas trees had not been a popular tradition during Tennessee's childhood. Thus, Christian had improvised to make sure the younger state's generation did not feel left out when he hung up ornaments others had put together for him over the years.

"Yeah, I remember," the Tennessean said with a faint blush. It was so tacky and dirty looking on the tree next to some of the other, cuter ornaments. Not to mention it reeked of a time period when life was exceedingly easy to lose, but Christian seemed to treasure it just as much as any other ornament. There was something oddly comforting about it even though Andrew felt compelled to punch that goofy grin off Christian's face when he looked at the old flint box. So on the tree it went.

"..... Andrew, seriously?" Logan Hiram Campbell, also known as the State of Georgia, gave his little brother a look as he held up a small, blue monstrosity with sneakers and a horrific smile. The sight of the 1996 Olympics mascot, Izzy, which had plagued Atlanta during the games caused a tiny smirk to form on the Tennessean's lips. Oh, how he loved that thing for all the wrong reasons.

"I bought it to be supportive," Andrew said with a small shrug and a look in his eyes that translated his meaning to: "I will never ever, ever, ever, EVER let you live that down." He plucked it from Logan's hands and put it on the tree in a place of honor where all could see. The scowl pout of his other big brother did not go unnoticed, but it only encouraged the little troll to continue putting his Izzy ornament up year after year.

"This is ridiculous. All of you know that, right?" Virginia asked with a disapproving frown as she looked at the tree Andrew had insisted on putting up along the Georgia-Tennessee border. She had mostly come along to mediate any disputes that arose over the tree placement between the other states, but had found the lot of them to be surprisingly civil and cooperative. Despite the media attention their border squabbles and water wars got, it was a very peaceful neighborly spat which flared to little more than sassy quips and grand standing. Perhaps the oddest thing was how easy it was for them to make goofy collaborations poking fun at their border issue when tensions were low. The 35th-Parallel Ale and now this tree?

"... Oh, this is..." Virginia hesitated as she pulled a small, silver bell ornament from one of Tennessee's boxes. She stared at it before looking at Andrew silently. She had given this to him one year, hadn't she? Back during the Great Depression when Andrew had been forced to sell all of the nice ornaments he had collected over the years. All that had remained back then were those which held no value beyond his personal sentiments. He had told her that it wasn't a big deal to get rid of his ornaments, but his empty tree had been too pathetic to ignore. The only thing that had glittered on it that year had been the silver bell Virginia gave him as a small token of sympathy. Virginia's stare caught Andrew's eye and he looked back at her in confusion for a moment until he saw what she was holding. He blushed a little at the ornament which had restarted his collection a little less than a century ago.

"Not that one," he said as he reached over and carefully plucked it from her hands to place securely in his pocket. "I'd rather keep this one on my tree at home."

"Hey, Andrew, what do you think of this one?" The Tennessean returned his attention to the Georgians and raised an eyebrow at the rather large peach ornament that both Logan and Chris seemed to think was something special.

"It looks like a fuzzy ass."

"What did you say, boy!?"

"Ya'll heard me."

The Georgia-Tennessee "35th parallel" tree inevitably was covered with peaches, of course, and their decorating slowly divulged into a competition to see whose football mascot ornaments would dominate the tree--at least until it finally toppled over from the weight of their petty rivalries. But beneath all the silly bantering and meaningless competitive ornament placement, at least Virginia knew there were some ornaments on the tree which symbolized honest affection and the longevity of their relationships with one another.