HappyGrace Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Also did you find it narrow in scope (too humanities centered, not enough math/sci/current events, etc)? Not wondering reasons why hs'ing is better (I know that:)), just specifically why you felt classical school wasn't good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 The one here wasn't any more able/willing to deal with an asynchronous kid than any other private school in the area. And my DD didn't need Saxon or Shurley at grade level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 The one here wasn't any more able/willing to deal with an asynchronous kid than any other private school in the area. And my DD didn't need Saxon or Shurley at grade level. EXACTLY this. If anything, I found the classical school more rigid than a non-classical school. Granted, we were only there for K-4 and K-5, but in the parent-teacher conference before the K-5 year, I mentioned my concern that my daughter wasn't going to be challenged, and I asked if there there plans to provide her with accelerated work. The teacher duly reported this to the principal, who CALLED MY HUSBAND AND TOLD HIM I HAD BEEN ANTAGONISTIC in the conference. She called my husband 'cause, you know, he's the head of our family and all. As you can imagine, after that, the school year could not end soon enough for me. Bitterness aside, the point is that just asking the question about acceleration, when it had originally been raised by her K-4 teacher in that very school, in the most conversational manner you can imagine, got me tagged as antagonistic. I was d-o-n-e from there on out. I also realized, as the OP pointed out, that it was going to be too humanities-oriented for us. When I compare the depth of the humanities taught in classical middle and science schools (and in classical education generally) with the approach to science and math, which is more or less, "learn-the-science-and-math-in-this-pamphlet and call it done," I realized that a strictly classical approach probably wasn't for us. Terri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker Martin Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 They offered my son early entrance to K, something we didn't want, but they wouldn't accelerate him in anything but math, where he'd be required to use Saxon. This meant that we would be paying for a child who has already been reading for years to sit through phonics in K. He would also have been required to do the phonics homework. Sitting around bored was the original thing we wanted to avoid by homeschooling. Our local classical school is neat. It's part time school (2 days a week), part time homeschool (3 days a week). Too bad it's just not a fit for us. We may consider it again in higher grades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca VA Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 (edited) My older child went to a classical Christian school for high school. I felt that he didn't get enough math and science. Each entire grade took basically the same courses -- there was almost no individualization. I think there were few to no AP courses. I'm looking at a completely different set-up for my younger child. The private sectarian high school we're considering has more than 40 honors and AP level courses. Students have great freedom of choice, and they are strongly supported in every area in which they show interest and ability. Edited October 22, 2011 by Rebecca VA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 The one here wasn't any more able/willing to deal with an asynchronous kid than any other private school in the area. And my DD didn't need Saxon or Shurley at grade level. For us, it's a combination of the above, religious differences with most schools, and a belief that our children (especially wiggly DS6) aren't going to be optimally served in a mixed-gender classroom environment. It's something we're very much open to for the future, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Asynchronous development mainly, followed by the $5k price tag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 That's exactly what I'm worried about-math/sci. And where is the computer literacy, and the current events, and and so on? Also the rigidness.....that is a huge concern. Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margo out of lurking Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Also did you find it narrow in scope (too humanities centered, not enough math/sci/current events, etc)? Not wondering reasons why hs'ing is better (I know that:)), just specifically why you felt classical school wasn't good. We didn't feel that it wasn't good. Hsing was just what we knew we were being called to do. Dd attended a "back to basics" charter school before we withdrew her part way through first grade. I'm not sure that it was exactly "classical," but it was definitely closer than any other school in our area. She later attended a part time program just for hsers at a classical academy. We dropped it at the start of the third year because the teachers were treated poorly by the admin, hence the turnover was high, and we were tired of getting new teachers every year who didn't understand the material. Our decision to hs has nothing to do with the quality of other options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serabi Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Ditto. In the lower grades, my son was bored and he started poking the other kids to relieve his boredom and the school's entire answer for everything was "Spank him!" (scowl) the last place we lived had a classical school and i looked into it. their discipline policy involved corporal punishment and you weren't allowed to opt your child out. that instantly ruled them out for us. where we're about to move, I doubt most people have even heard of classical education, tbh. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I only looked into one for my youngest. I realized it would be too slanted to humanities when she is more of a math/science kid. Also, I didn't think it would be a good match for her learning issues (she was a slow reader and had very bad spelling and now I have realized that she probably is dyslexic but did manage to learn to read). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I looked into one and it seemed to be too rigid and too denominationally-affiliated (though that was much lesser a concern). It made me realize that was attracted me to WTM was less the learning method and more the deep exposure to the canon (thinking of that monster Core Knowledge outline). After many adventures, my kids are currently in private, not classical schools that are giving them (I think) that exposure, and we supplement it at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Theological differences with the church that sponsors the local classical school is the biggest reason why I wouldn't enroll my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) \tmi Edited October 23, 2011 by LibraryLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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