Messages By: msi_gemini

I am a new parent-to-be and have been weighing the pro's and con's of homeschooling.  So far I have found nothing good to public schooling except for the fact that the school would have my child for a few hours so I could work again part-time.   

To begin with I don't even trust the school district here in Central Florida.  When I was young some of my friends were molested in elementary school by a man that would frequently visit the school and play with us and his daughter that was in our class.  He was even head of our Brownie Girl Troop until he was arrested.  Then as I went into middle school I was sent to a Catholic school in the area, where the principal was accused of molesting the young boys in the school.  Since I've left high school there has been a whole chain of child molestations in the elementary and middle schools in the area, including one school that was right down the road from me!  I could never be able to leave a child at school now without fearing the worst. 

Then once you hit high school here its a complete joke.  At one point the school board tried to enforce a very strict dress code to all public schools in the county.  I witnessed countless friends that were suspended and expelled from school because they refused to wear a polo shirt, tuck in their shirts, or wear a belt!!!!  Then as I asked the Deans when the next school board meetings were, but they would never tell me.  Luckily my mother had a friend in the school system so he would personally take me to the meetings about dresscode but I would geting completely dismissed by one man out of six representatives telling me I was wrong when I just made some simple valid points.  Our school was at the bottom of the grading list and yet they were more concerned about whether we had a belt on that day then if we had done our homework.  They even tried to convince me to take a state test a 2nd time! Not because I had failed the first one, but because I had done so well that they wanted me to take it again to bring up their school score!  Of course I flat out refused. 

As far as socializing goes, I already plan on afterschool activities whether it'd be dancing, sports, martial arts, music, anything.  I personally believe that exposing the socializing in hobbies will make the acquantinces more important and the interest more important as well.  Instead of being forced to make friends in a class, doing a hobby would give the child friends that he actually has something in common with.  Plus he/she would be more focused on his studies without the class around to be disruptive or pick on the child which was my problem growing up, so I ended up skipping a lot of school as I got older.  I find with friends that I have that have been homeschooled they come out very level-headed and quite closer to their family as well.     

But thats just my opinion...