Topic : 11/24 Great School Debate

That's all I have to say!  "THANK YOU." 

Donna

I started my son in kindergarten this year at the public school system.  My son was doing the best on ALL of his work.  But a week into the school year the teacher kept getting him into trouble for not having neat writting or cutting good enough.  He is a boy, and they tend to be later developed with the fine-motor skills.  He is also left handed and often wanted to use his right hand (since that is what the other kids were using)  However, after a few weeks of his work not being good enough, he decided that if his best wasn't good enough he wasn't going to do anything at all.  The teacher started sending his work home with him.  And I'd do the work with him, we'd get it all done and send it to school the next day.  The teacher said he'd never be ready for 1st grade at the end of the year! That he'd have to repeat next year!

Often times my son would come home very stressed and angry.  Very angry, angry enough for my once peaceful child to kick his brothers, throw our dog (small dog) accrossed the room etc.  It was him taking his frustrations of school out at home. 

Hubby and I discussed the possibility of homeschooling.  To see if we'd like to give it a try for a year, let him develop his fine-motor skills and perhaps be able to start 1st grade at the start of the new school year.  We decided that since we'd never homeschooled before, it would be to our benefit to go through a virtual charter school, through the public school system.  I do think a homeschooling parent should having somebody keeping them accountable!

It's been about 2 monthes since my son started homeschooling.  We started out at the beginning of the kindergarten work, and worked our way up.  He is now the peaceful boy he used to be.  Loves to be around his brothers, and is very nice to my dog.

But beyond that, he is in 1st grade math (turns out he was bored with the math at the public school) he is doing 1st grade science, he already knew all the kindergarten science stuff.  He is reading, and is past where the kindergarteners are at in the public school with his reading/phonics books. 

So, for his individual needs, homeschooling was best for him, as he knew all the kindergarten stuff, however didn't have the fine-motor skills to get the writing/cutting done to the standard the teachers have to go by.  He can now learn, and not be held back. And he can develop and practice as much as needed.

I don't think any person has a right to say one way is better than the other.  It all depends on the child. I like the homeschooling because the child can learn at their own pace, in all subjects. and thus, never being "held back" due to a single area.  if a child get stuck on something, the class doesn't "move on" without them.  there is no cheating, a parent can really tell what the child knows, and the parent knows exactly what the child is learning and can then much more easily help the child learn!

I know how much my children have learned.  I sat everyday after school for twenty five years helping my children, with homework, answering questions about "cliques" and first loves, helping them make choices about a plethora of topics.  I

I understand your point.  I really do.

My thinking is that if I spend all of that time AFTER school doing these things, then why send them to school in the first place?  School is just getting in the way of living life joyfully with my children.  Who cares more about what my kids are learning than I, as an involved parent, do?

The school isn't a system that can be changed overnight, or even in a year or two, by more dedicated, caring parents.  I'm not complaining about the people IN the system doing the best they can with what they have.  The system itself is flawed and light years away from how kids truly learn.  I care about my kids and their learning right now, rather than a system that cannot be fixed right now or in the forseeable future.

Every state has homeschool laws. Period. There are no states that rely on "standards". 

As for the couple on the show, I would be willing to bet they are under religious exemption so they are not required to test at all, and can literally fall off the radar. 

As for the "scrapbook", a portfolio is a much greater representation of a childs education than filling in circles on a test.  States vary, however, a parent must show the evaluator (who is a teacher) that progress has been made throughout the year by showing actual work done by the child.  A parent cannot say "We did this" or "We went here" they must have proof (pictures, tickets, receipts, etc) that certain trips were taken or areas were covered. The evaluator is also free to talk with the child, which most do (I cannot speak for all of them as I do not know all of them) at which point, the teacher can find out directly from the student what has been taught or covered and what has not been.

The AVERAGE teaching salary in Massachusetts is about $54,000. Massachusetts is also one of the few states where teachers are required to earn a Masters degree (I THINK, within five years of beginning teaching).  I am from Massachusetts originally, and I still have teacher friends and relatives there.

Some areas will have higher salaries because they are critically low on qualified teachers. That IS how the rest of the world works - when there is a shortage of qualified people in a certain field, the incentives get better. My husband is in a VERY specialized field, and he gets great raises, bonuses, and other perks - far beyond what any public school teacher could dream about. This is in the private sector. Many states, including my own, have it backwards - as the pool of teacher candidates shrinks and weakens in quality, they have made it considerably LESS attractive to become a teacher. Go figure!

As far as merit pay, how exactly does one determine how effective a teacher is? Test scores? That is like assigning police men to different beats and paying them based on crime rates. I have worked in high income schools and low income schools. The jobs are really not comparable. When I taught in the low income areas, I worked tremendously hard and had to deal with a multitude of social problems. The teaching assignment I had in a higher income area was MUCH easier, and I got a big bonus when the children scored well on the state exams. This type of system will drive the better, more experienced teachers to the "better" schools and leave struggling schools with primarily inexperienced, and even unqualified, teachers.

I know you see the lack of respect for homeschooling, but BELIEVE me it is there for public schools as well. You simply are not on the look out for it as much as you are for homeschooling. I also think many homeschoolers do themselves a disservice by touting invalid statistics and faulty analysis of data, not to mention absurd lists of homeschool success. I am not picking on you specifically, but it seems that any concerns or questions about homeschooling is met with a militant defensiveness rather than genuine answers.

 I think responsible homeschoolers should make it VERY CLEAR what the commitment entails and what it really takes to homeschool successfully, rather then stating that homeschooling is superior PERIOD. I realize that there have been some posters who are closed minded to homeschooling, but let's be fair. The vast majority of posts here are pro-homeschooling. There have been far more knocks against public schools. If you don't believe me, count back about 50 posts or so and keep count of how many are pro-homeschool, pro public school, or simply neutral.