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Did the current public education crisis prompt you to homeschool/supplement?


veritas
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I don't know about other parents, but I planned to homeschool long before we ever had children. My parents pulled two of my younger siblings out of school, back in the 90s. It was mostly an academic decision, then, and I think they intended to put my brother back in school in high school. I think they then decided it was more of a lifestyle thing, and neither of the kids went back to school. I was in high school/college/newly married at the time, and homeschooling just made sense to me. DH and I had the same complaints about our own educations, even though they were good enough to get us into an honors program at a good university, and we knew we wanted more for our own children. Plus, having an at-home parent for our very little children has always been a huge priority for us, and homeschooling just seemed like a natural extension of that. So, for academic, religious, social, emotional, lifestyle, etc. reasons, we thought we'd homeschool.

 

And then we actually had children. A traditional classroom setting could not have met the needs of our first, who was an early reader and who would have been bored in a traditional classroom. She's not a quiet bored either, and she's very active, so I think behavior would have been an issue. Maybe a private or charter school? Can't afford private, and we are in the middle of nowhere, so nothing's really close enough to be feasible anyway. Plus, we'd miss her! And here at home, we can tailor assignments to her needs. Pretty sure the public school down the road doesn't do Latin in elementary school, and that's her favorite subject. If I hadn't known about homeschooling before her, I probably would have turned to it out of frustration with the traditional classroom.

 

And our second? He is also very bright, but he's a bit of a late bloomer, a sweet, shy boy, who really needed some extra time to be young and not to be forced out of his comfort zone. He also needed not to be pushed to do academics until he was ready. At five and a half, he was nowhere near ready to get on a bus and be away from me for several hours, and he wasn't ready to read until he was about seven. At just shy of nine, he has blossomed so beautifully. He is a strong reader and enjoys reading. He's thriving in math, and while he's still on the quieter and shyer side, he's really come out of his shell. Of all the things I might have gotten wrong as a parent, keeping this little boy home with me is one I strongly feel that I got absolutely right.

 

My current 5yo is the first of my children that I can see doing well in a traditional classroom setting. But we're glad we have him with us -- our day would be so lacking without his little burst of sunshine, and I'm glad I get to teach him myself.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The way they were teaching math really got under my skin. That was my biggest academic beef. When I finally got fed up watching dd draw out 47 little circles or lines or whatever, I sat down and taught her the traditional algorithm in about 3 minutes. I get that some kids need that visual representation to understand the concept, and I'm totally fine with teaching that in the beginning, or using it with a child who's struggling. But two years of little circles was enough.

 

Oh TERC Investigations in Number, Data, and Space!! That was the worst waste of time ever!

 

This is exactly the same reason I decided to homeschool. I gave my second grader a math problem to solve. It was something like 43+31, and I asked her to solve it as they do at school. She drew more than seventy circles. The classroom curriculum was TERC Investigations.

 

A week later I asked the teacher what literature they were reading in class.

 

"Well," she said, "we don't read books. We don't have time." 

 

Um, that's because it takes fifteen minutes to solve a single math equation.

 

A few weeks later we started homeschooling.

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No.  The state of the current educational system in America is not the main reason I homeschool.  

 

I worked in public education for 17 years.  I am fully aware of what the PS can and can't offer.  I am also aware that some kids can thrive in it anyway, while some kids will get lost in the system.

 

My prompting to homeschool came in 2004, when my oldest was having some major issues in school.  We couldn't figure out what in the world was going on.  We praying about it and prayed about it and the poor child was miserable.  We felt very strongly that the Lord was telling us to keep him home and homeschool him.   

 

FF to 2014, 10 years later.  That same child was diagnosed with Asperger's and LDs and we have been told the best thing we could have done for him was to homeschool him.  He is doing so much better than I could have ever hoped.  He is functioning almost at grade level, he is a Life Scout and working towards Eagle.  He is in so many activities I would have never thought he could do.   There is so much more but you get the idea.

 

I also HS for religious reasons.  I am pretty mainline Christian, conservative in many areas, but more middle of the road on others.  I read about the latest drug bust at our "top rated" local public school and think, "my kids don't even have to face that and that isn't a bad thing!"

 

I am not anti PS.  Not by a long shot.  I just know this is working for us and we will keep doing it until it isn't.

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No, when I needed to stop paying tuition for my kids' private school, we didn't really consider public school. We knew we could offer a better education at home in fewer hours a day. This is kind of a big sticking point for me. I hate how much time is wasted out of the day, especially at the lower grades. These kids need more time for playing and they don't get it because they are spending in the classroom but it's not worth it for what they are learning. I'm not sure if that counts as an educational crisis...

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There's always some sort of "crisis," isn't there?  But overall, most people still manage to muddle through.  And I'm sure my kids would have, too.

 

I decided to homeschool before I even had kids.  In talking to parents of school-aged kids, and in reading a few books about current education theory, it became clear that if I wanted my kids to actually KNOW anything, I'd have to do it myself.  I'm still pretty confused that most people kind of laugh this off, or at most give an eye-roll when they say what Kumon is costing them.  I want my kids to have a content-rich education, in less time.  That way they have more time to just chill or follow hobbies.  Unfortunately, their primary hobby right now is to argue about whose turn it is to pick a TV show, but we're also having a hard winter.  I'll nip that in the bud when it's a bit more pleasant outside.

 

So far things are going well.  DD does an extracurricular almost every afternoon.  But since we get almost all of our schoolwork done in the morning, she usually has about 3 hours between "school" and having to go to her extracurricular.  I would not be comfortable with it if she went straight from a 6.5 hour school day to an extracurricular, and then got home only to have homework.  When are kids supposed to be kids in that schedule?

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When dd was a little girl, dh really wanted public school because he had had a really positive public school experience. I was more hesitant because my public school experience had been a nightmare due to bullying and general bad teaching. The difference between dh and I was that he was in an affluent school district and I was not, and he had a stable, happy family while I had a dysfunctional, terribly unhappy family.

 

As we looked in detail at the options for dd, we weren't thrilled though. We were in a high-crime area of Chicago. Dd would have been literally the *only* white child in the entire school. The school was literally surrounded by gangbangers and criminals, and the school itself was an academic wasteland. That was unacceptable. Chicago has a tiered system wherein you can apply to schools outside of your district. We were fairly confident that we could get her in somewhere much better, but that would likely require me to spend 2-5 hours each day getting her to and from school. (I have friends who did make that decision, and yes, they do literally spend 2-5 hours a day just on transportation to and from school. It usually averages 2-3 total, but if there is weather or traffic--as there ALWAYS is in Chicago--the commute can get long and ugly. Or they take public transportation, which always makes the commute really long.) I wasn't thrilled about that much car time for me, and even the better schools in Chicago have typical urban issues and overcrowding.

 

Our other option was private school, but that would have required both a lot of money AND a lot of car time. We considered this long and hard, because we had friends who had an excellent experience with a school downtown.

 

I was overwhelmed with trying to research charter schools, and ended up realizing that the better charter schools had the same issues with long, ugly commutes from where we lived.

 

I had always been drawn to homeschooling because I enjoy teaching. I went to a local homeschool support meeting and fell in love. Finding a group of likeminded individuals was wildly exciting. Being in Chicago, we could do millions of great field trips, many of which were free. We loved being able to set our own schedule and travel whenever we wanted. Within a semester my hesitant dh was hooked as well. As friends of mine struggled with commuting, poor teachers, agenda-driven and often dark/violent reading lists, I reveled in my freedom.

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No. The public education crisis of the 1980s was more influential than the current public education crisis. I opted out of this one before it started.

 

(I might need some definitions of terms...)

 

 

This is the reason for us.  The education I got in the 80's was pretty crappy.  I was in a school district considered one of the best in the state, but the state as a whole was ranked very low.  I don't remember how low, but I remember teachers talking among themselves and being genuinely happy the state wasn't last.  My school district also targeted homeschoolers enough that a famous lawsuit resulted.  Which brought the homeschooling idea into my brain.  

 

The only reason the school did not negatively impact my life was that I was smart enough that I could get their work done super quickly and then read my books.  Teachers quickly learned that I disrupted class by chatting to my neighbors otherwise.  My husband has always stated that he got "a fine education" in the urban school that he attended.  But, based on his stories I pointed out that he'd taught himself from 3rd grade on.  He was bored in 3rd grade math class, and disruptive as a result.  So, the teacher handed him the 4th grade textbook, then on until he was teaching himself Algebra.  After that his SOP was to take the final exam the first day of class and be left alone.  When they did try to fit him into the mold he would be even more disruptive than me.  Things like lighting his farts on fire in the class.  In one of his classes, about once a week the class could see how many desk they could throw out the first floor window before the teacher noticed.  Once they almost got all.  Oral s$x also happened in the classroom, during class.  SO, my husband was quickly converted to the idea. 

 

So, Crisis isn't the word I'd use. It has been going on too long for that.  I haven't heard anyone say that public schools are better than they were in the 80's  

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I began to homeschool because my older son, in Kindergarten, was already figuring out how to get by with the least amount of effort.  Plus, I'm older, and the classroom environment changed dramatically for the worse since I was in school.   I was appalled at the behavior and lack of respect that many of the kids had for the teacher and their fellow classmates.   Ugh.  And they all threw their trash on the floor and nobody told them to pick it up, so by the end of the day it looked like a garbage dump.  Seriously.  The floor was covered in trash -- not just a bit here and there.

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No, I homeschool because my DD is a statistical outlier who has needs that the local schools cannot meet. It was easier to teach her myself than to try to keep fighting for the perfect fit.

 

Having said that, I'm very glad DD is NOT in PS right now because we have a lot of adults acting like spoiled children in my area and the kids are the ones who are suffering for it.

 

 

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My local public schools are rated very high. My oldest went to out neighborhood school for 2 years (K and 1st). This school rates 9/10 on great schools, has excellent test scores, and something like 50% of kids pass the GT screener. That is ridiculous BTW. The cutoff for our district is much lower than for most because they want to be more inclusive to low income/minority kids that aren't doing private preschools.

 

I will say my kid hit the ceiling of the gifted screener and was reading jr. high level by 1st grade. He could have skipped a couple years of math in PS at that point. There was no gifted programming - it was all cut due to budget the previous years. I'm less alarmed by the lack of GT programming than by how poor a job the school did to accommodate kids that were out of the box. The only enrichment my child received above grade level was a book club run by a volunteer parent. I don't know how to address "crises", but the focus of all kids being at some magic point at the end of the year is ridiculous for kids that are out of the box. Struggling kids need to make progress yearly, and ahead of the curb kids should be exposed to new material every year. I would love to see education become much more personalized to learning styles and levels and less about focusing on the least common denominator. My kid learned little to nothing in school for 2 years other than to keep his mouth shut, wait in line, and how to be class clown.

 

We looked at many very highly acclaimed private schools and could have afforded tuition. Sometimes they would use slightly accelerated curriculum, but honestly, it seemed like they weren't going to do a better job than our 9/10 rated school. If you asked them about GT programming or allowing kids to accelerate in certain areas, often answers were "oh - all our kids are accelerated". Mmm ... ok, that really wasn't going to work for my kid. So I guess I have a problem of a traditional classroom model where the target is the 50th percentile.

 

I will also say, I'm not a huge fan of grade skipping my kids. They enjoy being kids and aren't frantic to be part of the adult world. I also think grade skipping can cause problems later down the line that are hard to see before a kid reaches puberty. I have talked to more than one parent of a GT kid that regretted grade skipping between 7th and 10th grade. I accelerate my kids across the boards, they can do college classes in high school locally, but I have no intention of graduating them early without them asking to do so.

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No. 

 

There are many reasons we decided to start homeschooling, depending on the day one reason might be more on my mind than others. A huge driving influence was knowing that ds would simply not fit in a traditional classroom, he was/is a late blooming ADHD kid. I do find most of what they do in PS to be a waste tbh and feel we can do a better job in much less time and do it in a way that is far more enjoyable. I really disagree with the push to earlier and earlier education and the increasing amount of time spent on school. 

 

The private schools (at least around here) would be even worse. They pride themselves on being traditional, which means no allowance for the kid who is different and work that is not very engaging. I cannot stand the view of children and discipline they have either. Children are to seen and not heard. They are very controlling. 

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It wasn't for me. I wanted perks that I believed would be difficult or impossible to get if my kids were gone all day.

 

The public schools where I live are roundly considered outstanding and the elementary school where I was when my oldest was Kindy was ranked as one of the best in the entire nation. So no. 

 

I'd have to say no to this question too. We lived in one of the top school districts in NJ and the nation too. Even so, my daughter had major gaps in her education due to due to neglect in her home during her early years. We are on our 5th yr of homeschooling.

 

We have since moved to the South and our state ranks 46-48th place nationally. I know I can do better. If we weren't homeschooling before we most certainly would be now. My youngest daughter went to PS last year for 2nd grade because I had to go to work. She came home with straight 100's on her report card. Some may look at that and say that's great, I looked at it and said it's not challenging enough. I don't think she learned a thing the entire year. I quit my job and she is back to homeschooling.

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Harriet - it was so encouraging to read your post (#63). Yesterday, we got a notice that our son was accepted into Whitney Young High School. We have homeschooled since kindergarten. He is now in 8th grade. Most parents would be so thrilled because it's ranked 3rd in Illinois and thousands of kids want to go there. However, like you said, the long commute (we live just west of Midway Airport) would be 40 minutes without traffic so we'd probably have to allow an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon for getting there/getting home. My son's reaction was "that's cool, but I want to continue homeschooling" "I like homeschooling." That's a huge relief to me because that's what I'm leaning toward. However, I don't even want to tell people he got into Whitney Young because they'd think I'm crazy for not sending him there. I have anxiety that there's no way I can offer the kind of academics that they can. However, he's done well enough thus far, perhaps we can take it all the way. Also, like you said, I love the freedom of being able to travel, do field trips and follow a classical education. He's doing Great Books (ancients) this year and loves it.

Anyway, thank you so much for contributing to this forum, it's giving me strength to say no to Whitney Young. May I ask where your homeschool group meets?

 

Thanks!

Paula

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Not really.  I never thought we would homeschool.  We dismissed it out of hand while I was pregnant.  Then Rebecca approached 5.  I didn't want to go sign her up for K because "that's what people DO."  I wanted to make an informed decision.  So I researched homeschooling, educated DH, brought him around, and never put her on the bus.

 

Haven't looked back since!

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We've always homeschooled our children because we just wanted to be the biggest influence in their young lives.  I really didn't want them away from me several hours a day 5x week.  Our current school district and the one we lived in before moving here almost 3 years ago, are among the top few in the state.  Didn't make a difference to me though.  Just wanted to be with them as long as possible.

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It wasn't for me. I wanted perks that I believed would be difficult or impossible to get if my kids were gone all day.

 

The public schools where I live are roundly considered outstanding and the elementary school where I was when my oldest was Kindy was ranked as one of the best in the entire nation. So no. 

When I started hs-ing where Quill lives (county), the high school had the highest rate of heroin use in the nation and the highest rate of heroin overdose among teenagers. I believe she's right that NOW those schools are considered outstanding. The drug abuse had a lot to do with why we continued to homeschool and when it started getting better, we just kept on...

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