Yes (and he did a great job :)). People outside the school systems are no better than those within the systems. If you get bored sometime, go to a Wikipedia article and copy a sentence, put it into Google with quotation marks around it, and see how many people have copied the article or part of the article verbatim. This doesn't just apply to Wiki, either. People do it with news articles, blogs, information from health sites and government sites, and more. It's often difficult to determine which was the original source.

The school itself is in a rural area and is over 90% white (state average is 46% white). As a whole, 46% of the students are economically disadvantaged (state average is 50%). The other teachers got to choose which students to send to the new teacher (a teacher before me, who only lasted nine weeks—and then, ultimately, me), so I had more students with problems than most of the other teachers had. A number of my students had at least one parent in prison, and a large percentage of the kids didn't even live with one parent. Because of location (an easy drop point for drugs), the area has a high drug rate. All that said, the school generally rates around a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, which is based primarily on test scores. (I've taught in a school that rated 1 and in a school that rated 10, so I've covered the range.) All the teaching to the test usually gets the school to make AYP, but barely.

In theory, it is taught in Georgia schools. This is from the sixth grade standards: However, in practice, it doesn't really work that way. I learned this the hard way: by teaching. I had last taught school in 1993, and I had primarily taught math and science—only occasionally teaching other subjects (I'm certified in middle grades math, science, language arts, and social studies, and I also taught high school math on a probationary certificate one year). I was used to knowing what needed to be taught, making my own plans, and implementing them. I worked other jobs after I quit teaching, including a job as an installer/trainer, which required traveling. After my son was born in 1998, however, I didn't return to work; I just helped my husband with his job. Then in 2007, dh's job was among the first to be affected by the recession, so we were in a mess. I felt I had no choice but to return to the classroom, so I went through the process of renewing my certification and then began the application process. I was interviewed and hired so quickly that I should have known to run. I had not been in a classroom in 14.5 years, and, boy, was I in for an eye-opener. Anyway, while all the other sixth grade teachers each taught one subject all day, I was hired to teach all the major academic subjects. Each main subject was given the same amount of time. In other words, I had my social studies students just as long every day as I had my language arts students; yet I had far more I was supposed to cover in language arts. We were all supposed to be teaching the same thing at the same time, so all the teachers of each subject in each grade met together each week to plan. I'll just say that there wasn't a lot of input allowed. We just did the same thing they had done for the past few years. This meant that the reality was that we only had a couple of weeks to try to pack in all the grammar, punctuation, etc. During one of our so-called planning sessions, I asked, "Are we not going to cover comparatives and superlatives?" (They were in our book.) The head of the department said, "No, that's not on the test." Much of our time was taken up by the kids' taking benchmark tests and doing a variety of other things to make sure the kids were ready for "the" test. Let's not forget that at one point all of our other materials were cast aside so that we could use the Coach books to further prepare the kids for "the" test. (In case you feel left out, most likely your state has them, too. ;)) Truly all that mattered all year was "the" test (actually I started teaching on December 3rd of that school year). In one of our faculty meetings, one of the assistant principals said, "I don't know why y'all complain about having to teach to the test. It's a good test." Then she went on to say that "the" test was based on Georgia's standards and that Georgia's standards had been rated near the top in the country (number four, if I recall correctly). Without thinking, I said, "Well, that's depressing," and she, not surprisingly, gave me a dirty look. Nothing really seemed to be taught in any logical sequence. It was very frustrating for me, and I'm sure it was frustrating for the kids as well. Add to that the fact that worse than no preparation, my students had had poor preparation. They had been allowed to develop very bad habits. They were allowed to use what their elementary teachers had called "kid spell" (the kids just guessed at the spelling, and their errors weren't corrected). Likewise, the elementary schools taught that all that was important was to write, write, write. Structure nor anything else like that mattered. The teachers didn't correct the students' papers because they didn't want to "ruin their creativity or self-esteem." I would much rather have started from scratch than to have dealt with that. I should add that one of those elementary schools got national recognition for its writing program. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.

We do no spraying inside or out. In my opinion, the health effects to humans and animals and the damage to the environment isn't worth it.

I grew up deep in the Bible Belt. As a child, I never knew anyone who didn't believe in the Christian god (or maybe I should say that I didn't know anyone who admitted that he/she didn't believe). Regardless, I remember being as young as three years old and not believing. It scared me tremendously because I had been taught the whole "fear God" stuff, but I simply didn't believe. I tried some childlike questioning to both my mother and my aunt, but none of their answers satisfied me. Over the years, I tried really hard to believe. I attended Bible studies and Kingdom Hall with my Jehovah's Witness family and Southern Baptist churches with my Southern Baptist family, but none of it made a difference. I was pressured into getting "saved" and baptized in a Southern Baptist Church when I was 13; at that point, I hoped I would feel something, but it never happened. I even "rededicated" my life when I was 22, but I still didn't feel anything and still couldn't believe. Finally, in my mid-20s I gave up on trying to believe. I have to say it was the best thing I could ever have done. I'm no longer living a life of misery from trying to be something I'm not and trying to believe something that I don't. The only "choice" I could have made in all this would have been to play the game and pretend to believe. I "chose" to quit playing that game. I'm now content as an atheist—very content. I have no desire to believe at this point. My only desire now is for family and friends to accept me as I am instead of so many of them judging me because I don't share their beliefs.

I'd probably get FLL 4 since there is a lot of repetition from FLL 3 and since your child already has had exposure to grammar.

I'll give a potential con. My nephew appealed his property taxes in Cherokee County, GA. He lost the appeal, and since he had not paid the amount due by the due date (he didn't think he had to since he was filing an appeal), he was charged with interest, past due penalties, etc. Basically, even if you file an appeal, you probably should pay what they are saying you owe by the due date.

:)

I would test.

When I first started using SOTW, it bugged me a bit that the Bible characters were presented as factual, so I put it away for a while and looked around for something better. However, I never found anything I liked better. Ds absolutely loved the books (all four of them), and he learned a great deal from them. He would bring up things he learned from them out of the blue at times yet on topic. He was actually disappointed when we finished reading them. I was able to get around the parts that bugged me by stopping and discussing the different perspectives, which turned into some really good conversations. We read the first three books together, so that was easy to do. By the fourth book, we didn't sit and read all of it side by side together, but we did discuss each chapter after we had both read it. As for inaccuracies, if you can find a perfect history book for me, I'll pay double for it. As Rosie pointed out, there are different perspectives in history, so you'll find different viewpoints in different history books. I also agree with farrarwilliams that some of the complaints are asking too much for books that were written for the grammar stage; those issues are more for the logic stage. Recently ds asked me if SWB had written any history books for older kids. I guess that says something for the books.

Absolutely! Sadly, until my family joined the homeschool group of which we're now a part, I knew more bad homeschoolers than good. One of my cousins pulled her kids out of school to "homeschool" them because her husband, who is a pastor, essentially demanded it. She had no desire to homeschool her kids, and the reality is that the kids played video games all day and then bragged about it.

Was this directed to me? If so, for starters, many states do not have teachers unions, so the sweeping generalizations don't apply. Oddly enough, though, as I mentioned earlier, the states with unions rate higher than the ones without unions. I agree with Aelwydd in regards to this. Again, sweeping generations. You're speaking for the entire country based on your particular area. I certainly can't speak for other states, but in my state, teachers indeed have to pass tests in order to teach. Even within my state, however, I can tell you that the schools vary greatly, so I won't even try to speak for all schools in my state.

I'm afraid to even look right now.

I thought she was probably talking about renters and/or undocumented workers. You can bet that the property taxes are included in their rent, so, yeah, they're paying the taxes even if they don't get credit for them when it comes to filing income taxes.

Who doesn't pay into public schools?

I've overbought a lot during the past few years, so about the only things I need are 3-ring binders and good pencils. I love these sales, though!

If he'll bring the baby to you in FL, I'd let him. Then if you can afford an attorney, I'd go that route. If you can't afford an attorney, you can go through the Department of Family and Children Services (or whatever it is called in your area). I don't know how it works in FL, but in GA, the process is generally much faster if you have an attorney, but it's not impossible without one.

These are huge generalizations that couldn't possibly apply in some areas.

I grew up calling it either a "ponytail ring" or a "rubber band."

:iagree: Since states with unions outperform states without unions, I think you'd have a difficult time proving that one.

I know it's not something that you want to do (I didn't, either), but it sounds as though you could benefit from going both gluten-free and yeast-free. I fought it for many years because it was "too hard." It took my almost being unable to get out of bed before I was finally motivated to do something (I don't recommend letting it get that bad!). Chemical exposure was another problem for me (I have extreme chemical sensitivities), so I also had to make a bigger effort to avoid fragrances and other harmful chemicals. I can't say that I'm in great health now, but the improvement has been amazing. I feel so much better than I did before that I'm no longer even tempted to eat yeast and gluten; it's just not worth it. I have been gluten-free and yeast-free (and lots of other stuff–free, too) for over 2.5 years now.

I came into this thread expecting that I would have to be the dissenter, but I agree with the rest of you.

Wow, that is scary! I'm glad that Hunter wasn't hurt worse and that everyone else is okay as well.

Welcome, Donna! :)

Welcome, Aileen! :)