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elizam

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Posts posted by elizam

    Doran's Holocaust post got me to thinking...

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I really liked the book, but I was probably 13 or 14 when I read it. I tried reading it aloud with my then 12yodd, but she found the style of writing very tedious and didn't care for all of the "cute" talk about liking boys, etc. We wound up quitting it.

     

    My ds had to rad it in PS 8th grade in play format, and he thought it was awful. In those circumstances...it probably was.

     

    But...it's a great book for the mature girl who is ready for it. I wouldn't guess 9 would be old enough. JMHO!

    Is public school sometimes the LESSER evil?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    yet, ds was so hard to deal with as a young adolescent, dh and I both thought he might actually be happier in PS and do better with "structure", "more qualified teachers", more diverse population from which to make friends, etc.

     

     

    Well....:rolleyes:

     

     

    What we've seen since 7th grade at what I'd consider a really cr*ppy middle school, is mostly negative.

     

    He has ADHD, so that really affects his learning and memorization. Mostly, it affects him by causing him to have all sorts of organizational challenges, which caused him to get tons of zeros and frustrated teachers galore in middle school.

     

    Kids like this fall thru the cracks in the humongous overcrowded high school. They are not considered college material and are not taught as though they are.

     

    In middle school, any kid not in "gifted" classes seemed to endure a lot of verbal abuse from their peers and even their teachers. Because except for maybe 3 students in each "nongifted" class, the rest were the "riffraff" a previous poster mentioned. If you didn't know (*really* know) my ds, you might even consdier him riffraff. I mean, we don't have tons of money; I'm not a PS teacher, and dh is a blue collar worker. Those factors coupled with ds not making good grades and playing several sports make him look like one of the many burnouts there. :(

     

    You have to be failing to be considered having real problems. Passing is the goal in the high school, not good grades.

     

     

    He is not exposed to many of what most people would consider the "good kids", so the ones he does spend a lot of time with, he feels out of place with because we aren't really like "that", or he makes the occaisonal friend and we are cringing because we don't feel comfortable with his going to the friend's house or doing anything with said friend. :eek:

     

    It is almost impossible to meet other parents, and the ones *I* would identify with have honors kids, not kids on my ds' "track."

     

    Ds rarely wants to read anymore, but he loved to when he was homeschooled. Ditto for piano practice. What once was a passion is now a chore most days. He is always tired, shows signs of depression, and occasionally acts out in really ugly ways that make us wonder about how good PS is for his moral character.

     

    I was floored when he actually admitted to me last night that he "hates school.' Poor kid. He's held that in for about 2 years now, always saying he wished he'd never been HSed and that HS is for "geeks and losers." Well....when he was hsed, he hated kids with taht mentality!

     

    My mom thinks my ds is bored, scared, and depressed because he is surrounded by kids that don't care, kids that don't do well, and adults that don't think they're capable....when we didn't raise that kind of a kid. People *used to* think he was sooooo smart, when he was hsed. We've even had a few PS teachers say he "seems smart". But his aptitude test (they call it IQ, but it isn't really, as it is a group aptitude test) showed him to be slightly below average. I really think that's because he didn't have the attention span to do it And what he is graded on now--proper notebook setup, low level comprehension questions, and very dry assignments....those don't inspire him to learn. He finished his latest book of his own interest last night, Hitler Youth. But most likely no one would ever realize he is interested in history, and when presented in textbook format he rarely remembers much unless it already interested him.

     

    So. Is PS "evil" IMHO?? No.....but it is a huge disappointment for me and I think it might even be for my son. I will be praying HARD before making any rash decisions about my other kids. I'm scared of ruining them, quite frankly.:(

    For those of you that put your dc into public schools

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    My older son, who had been homeschooled all his life, went to PS for high school. He really wanted instruction in art, and I couldn't give it to him at home, so he went to school. It was a mixed bag. In his artistic endeavors he excelled. He learned a lot and won a lot of contests. Eventually, he was able to get into our state's residential high school for artists and that's where he is now.

     

    My son is very average academically. His SAT total of CR and Math is just over 1000. He has a less-than-3.0 average. In 9th and 10th grade, he took all the "Honors" courses he could and he discovered that in his school, Honors classes meant students could read. He thought they were "normal" classes. Sometimes he had to take "regular" classes because there weren't Honors alternatives. In those classes, he said the students couldn't read or write. He was appalled. Yes, he could've made straight A's, but the funny thing is, having easy classes demotivated him. An A wasn't worth anything. And, being highly social, he didn't care about grades.

     

    He enjoyed the social aspects of HS so much, that there would be no getting him back to homeschool, ever. He learned some things that I wish he hadn't and he became more cynical.

     

    Here's something he said in 9th grade....I wrote it down after he said it.

     

    "When I was was homeschooled, I used to look around and think people were the most creative, inventive creatures. Now that I’ve been to ScoolName, I’m amazed at how primitive people really are. They are selfish and inconsiderate. They need to teach morals at SchoolName."

     

    Overall, I'd say it's a mixed bag. My younger son is still homeschooled and my older son thinks it's awful. He thinks I'm ruining him for life by doing so and that his brother needs to get out in the real world and toughen up.

     

    Well, I don't know. But there are some things about my older son that are worse now that he's been to PS....there are some things that are better.

     

     

    Sandra, the last part of your post really resonates with me! My ds is very much like yours. He isn't talented in art, but he does have an appreciation for literature and music and creativity in general. He is fascinated with science topics--except when they are presented in PS.:rolleyes:

     

    We also have a younger ds and our older one is always saying that he should never have been HSed and that younger ds should go to school and toughen up in the "real world." Ironically, I don't think older ds even loves his real world experience of PS. He generally thinks his peers are either stupid, boring, or stuck up (if not all of the above). He was well liked by most adults as a homeschooler, and still is by many teachers, but every now and then the clueless type or the ones with little ADHD knowledge find him hard to deal with. He is not well liked by peers, and the few that accept him are not the ones I'd prefer he be around so often. He is in low classes because of the troubles he had in middle school (also PS, and ADHD related rather than actual intelligence).

     

    He thought he'd go to school for fun, better teachers than mom (we clashed over math!), and sports. But it is hard to make the sports teams and he barely has time for any extras when he takes so doggone long to do homework...

     

    I'd think long and hard before putting any not very motivated student into PS. They can fall thru the cracks and there is no guarantee when it comes to playing sports.

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