Family Who Are PS Educators.

[rutamattatt]

If you have family who are employed in the PS system, what do they think of you choosing to home school?

 

My parents are both retired school teachers, my sisters are teachers, and most all aunts/uncles/cousins are involved in education as well. I am one of the only ones in my extended family who didn't go into education in college specifically.

 

My folks think it is great and if they lived closer would thoroughly enjoy teaching and working with my kids. One sister also thinks it's great. Other sister - not so much, but that is mostly because my daughter has some unique special needs similar to my niece, and my sister feels like the school could be managing it better than I can. (Some days I wonder...)

 

Extended family doesn't say much, but that is because of the unique circumstances with our family, and also because I usually only see them at family reunions and we are often too busy eating and shooting guns and riding 4 wheelers to talk about important stuff. :D

 

Do you receive positive or negative feedback from family who are PS teachers? Not that it matters one way or the other, but I'm just curious.

[DawnM]

I was a teacher so there isn't much they can say! I get a few comments here and there, but I try to ignore it.

 

Dawn

[Missouri Okie]

My mom taught PS for over 20 years. She is neutral. She doesn't encourage or discourage me about it. It's weird, but she never brings up my kids' education at all.

[Carrie12345]

I have a *lot* of teachers and former teachers in my extended family. They have mixed opinions. Most of the former teachers side with homeschooling. ;)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

The majority of parents with school age kids in my family are home educators and they would NOT take any lip about it. ;)

 

The only b&m teacher in my family is my grandfather's sister. She taught a one-room school in a rural area for her whole career. But I haven't seen her in years, so I have no idea what she thinks of it.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

My father's wife was an english teacher, then assistant principal, now a principal. It's not pretty.

[Arcadia]

My dad who is still teaching in an elementary school is very negative about my kids being in a virtual academy. It was so bad that I get complains everyday from my dad on MSN and I was so thankful the Pacific Ocean separate us.

 

My dad's siblings all run family businesses as did my paternal grandfather so they are neutral about it. My mum's side of the family are also neutral about it and curious about standardised test scores.

[Pawz4me]

My SIL is a retired high school teacher and my nephew started teaching high school math a few years ago. They've always remained neutral about our homeschooling.

[*Michelle*]

I get comments when I put up a new blog post, but they're all things like "delightful!" and "how lovely!" I have plenty of teacher friends and family members, too.

[Element]

My family is full of ps teachers.

 

My immediate family (mom, dad, sib) is very supportive of homeschooling. My extended family is supportive for the most part, but I do think there are a few of them who think it is our duty to give back to the public education system. I think they would have preferred me to be a ps teacher, but that is really speculation on my part. No one has actually said anything to me.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Element

[ondreeuh]

Dh is a teacher, as his his mother and both of his siblings. His cousin is a teacher and parent. Everyone is supportive of me homeschooling my 5th grader. I have met some confusion when I talk about not sending my youngest to kindergarten next year, because he doesn't have LDs.

[Pink Fairy]

My dh is a huge fan of homeschooling. :lol: His parents were in education too (teacher/school counselor), and they've never made any negative--or positive--remarks.

[Tidbits of Learning]

Hmm...well, it would depend on when in our journey you asked me how they felt about it. To begin with, they thought I was crazy and the kids were not going to get what they needed. This isn't because I am lacking in intelligence or they thought I was too dumb to do it. It was b/c of the kids that they had seen coming back into the system from homeschooling.

All that they had seen of homeschooling was children coming back 2 and 3 grade levels below their grades. Some were in 5th grade and couldn't read.

Now, they are very supportive. They can see the kids are doing well and thriving. They know that the kids do well on standardized tests. I have had my dh's stepsister administer tests for me. I donated a train table/set to her preschool class.

So I guess you could say both sides have learned about homeschooling in good and bad ways. I never knew that people would pull their kid and not school them and all they had seen were people who pulled their kids and didn't school them.

They are the first to "like" our fb posts about school, field trips, and the kid's achievements now. We enjoy going to their school things as well. I think there is a healthy respect for each other's choices now.

[ocelotmom]

My mom, all my grandparents, and some of my aunts are/were public school teachers. None of them has said much of anything, positive or negative, about our homeschooling.

[LibraryLover]

Very supportive.

Edited October 22, 2012 by LibraryLover

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[sbgrace]

My father is a retired teacher as is my father in law. My sister is a teacher and I taught public school for 10 years prior to deciding to stay home with my kids.

 

My father and father in law have always been very supportive. My sister isn't particularly but she's got some weird ideas about homeschool kids. All my friends who still teach seem supportive. If they aren't no one has told me. I think most public school teachers get why homeschool might be a good choice for some families. I know I would have when I was teaching and I never saw myself as a homeschooler back then.

Edited October 20, 2012 by sbgrace
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[NotSoObvious]

I was a teacher and have a M.Ed., so I don't get much flack from my family. I hold the higher ground in any argument they want to make because I can say, "Actually, IN school, they would be x, y, z."

 

My sister was a teacher and now stays home with her kids. I don't know if she really cares or thinks too deeply about it all. :)

 

My father-in-law was a high school teacher and my in-laws have been super supportive.

 

Being a teacher gave me a "free pass" in many regards. I get questioned less.

 

However, as my girls are getting older, I am starting to get asked when "they are going back." So, we'll see what the next few years bring.

 

Interestingly enough, my teacher friends have been most supportive of my decision. It's my non-teacher friends that usually have all the socialization questions.

[ballardlm]

For the record my oldest is only 2 BUT we are planning to homeschool and we have already started getting the "when will he start preschool" questions. My mother and MIL are both public school teachers and my step-father is a public school principle. They have actually been very supportive so far of the idea because they agree that the system is very flawed. However, I think that they feel like homeschooling is really only an option for the elementary years. In other words, I don't think they would approve of me trying to homeschool middle or high school, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I have talked to my mom in depth about hoemschooling and I have noticed that she is very concerned that I meet the exact same standards as the public schools. She also tends to think the homeschooling laws are WAY more stringent than they actually are, and if I contradict her she thinks I just don't know what I'm talking about. :tongue_smilie:For instance, I was showing her a math program I was looking at, mostly to try and ease her mind about the whole thing, and when she read the scope and sequence she was immediately like, "well, this makes a lot of sense but it isn't what the state mandates so you will have to find something else". I couldn't convince her that I wanted to use it precisely BECAUSE I disagree with what the state mandates or that I wasn't under the same strict curriculum laws as she was teaching in a public classroom. Sorry if this got too long but it is an interesting topic!

[MooCow]

My bestie has been a teacher for years,(she's actually finishing up her master's for special ed), and I was very pleasantly surprised by her reaction. She gets it. :-)

 

eta: and my uncle(school counslor) and my auntie(teacher) are extremely supportive.

[Unicorn.]

Dh is a ps teacher, and he's 150% for it! :D His mother was a teacher at one time, and all she has ever said is "I don't know how you do it. I could never do that." His sil is a teacher, and used to make neg. comments, and wasn't too sure, but I think she realized our kids were actually learning and doing school, so after the initial noises, she didn't say anything. He has 2 cousins who are teachers, One is 100% for it, and told me I'm doing a great thing by homeschooling, and the other still rolls her eyes. She was about 9 when dh and I started dating, so she's young and knows everything of course! My mother was a teacher, and died before I started, but I know she would have been supportive and even helped occasionally!

[hollyh]

I find that I get more negative comments or questions from those who are NOT in education. Those in education seem to fully "get" why I would homeschool, understanding how much more the kids could learn at home!

 

I was a PS elementary teacher. My dh is a PS high school teacher. I think people think it is OK for US b/c we are/were both educators. I get comments like, "oh, that's ok then"...

 

My two sisters are teachers. I think they both plan to homeschool as well, so no issues there. :)

[Jayne J]

Like Element above, if there were a teaching caste, I'd also be in it. My mom, step-father, grandmother, sister, brother-in-law, uncle, and two cousins all are or have been (retired) in public education. The only one who gives me grief is a cousin--she is actually a college professor with a Doctorate in Education--teaching reading. She seems to think that one cannot teach a child to read with anything less than a specialty degree in the area. Even she though, just looks sadly at me. All the rest heartily support the decision.

[Rivka]

My sister teaches 2nd and 3rd grade special ed. She loves to follow along with my blog, talk about teaching methods, and look at my resources - she got particularly excited about RSO Chemistry and Beast Academy.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

My grandmother is a former school teacher, she actually taught in a one room school house. She is 100% behind homeschooling and has never given me anything but support. Until this past year (we moved) I would sit with her each year and show her all the years curriculum and get input from her on the different items. When she came over she always made it a part of the visit to go into our school room, sit and have the kids show her what they have been doing.

[sunnylady303]

DH's mother is a middle school special education teacher. She is beyond supportive because of her experiences with public school. She loves to hear what the girls are doing and talk about what I'm using and my challenges etc.

 

DH's father (who is divorced from his mother) is a retired national award winning high school physics teacher who now teaches at a university. He is horrified. We are sheltering them, babying them, stunting them by lack of exposure to other people (like they would get a lot of exposure to different people in our tiny rural KY elementary), that I should be working and could if we would just put the girls in school (completely disregarding the fact that if I worked DD2 would lose disability coverage but that's another vent), I'm depriving them of so many opportunities (nevermind that our county doesn't offer any AP classes whatsoever) and on and on. Ugh. It's awful.

[Carolyn in Ohio]

My SIL, on dh's side, his brother's wife (see how I like to distance myself?) is a retired teacher. She is completely obnoxious from 900 miles away. It is unbelievable.

 

Carolyn

[Night Elf]

My cousin is an elementary school teacher and she has always been supportive of homeschooling. She has never worried about what they were learning or tried to talk me into anything like specific skills or tests. She was a great resource for when the kids were young.

[msjones]

I taught ps for eight years and my husband is in his 18th year of teaching math at a public high school.

 

Almost all the teachers we talk to about homeschooling understand why we'd do it. Most teachers fully recognize the disadvantages of institutional schooling.

[jar7709]

My mother has a degree in education, but never taught in the PS system with exception of sporadic periods of substitute teaching 25 years ago. She gives me a little grief sometimes, I think she is still equating modern public schools with her ideal of them that she learned about when she was in training 40 years ago. Just the other day in one brief conversation she commented that I should start memorization drills and flashcards for math facts because "it works" and also mentioned socialization, again.

 

But for the most part she is supportive, and recognizes that my kids are doing fine. Just her old biases coming out in concern for her grandchildren. The rest of the family is totally cool with it...none of them were teachers.

[Rhonda in TX]

I come from a family of educators.

 

My father was a teacher. He thought it was great when the kids were younger, but now that they are high school age, he thinks they should be in PS. However, he knows it is our decision and doesn't harass us about it.

 

My sister is a high school PS teacher. She works with special ed kids, so when I was thinking about sending DS to PS for high school (he has Asperger's), I talked to her about it. We talked about the positives and negatives and she finally suggested we continue homeschooling.

 

My in-laws were both teachers. They were very much against it, but never really said much to me. They mostly talked to DH about it. As the kids have gotten older, and as they have witnessed more changes in the PS system, they are more on board with it.

[Stayseeliz]

My mom and my sister are both teachers. My mom was horrified when we first told her but she sees the benefits of it now. She also knows we live in a state (SC) where the system is broken and the education stinks. They are both pretty supportive.

[Impish]

My MIL was a teacher.

 

She tried to use us hsing as an excuse to move in, to take over, b/c she was a REAL teacher.

 

 

[Spy Car]

My mother is a retired career school teacher. She is pro-education, is very supportive of our after schooling, and would be supportive if we (or anyone else) felt it was in the best interest of a child to home educate them rather than attening a public or private school.

 

I know a lot of teachers, including some whose spouses home school, I have not met one yet who is "anti-home school."

 

Bill

[gentlemango]

My sister teaches middle school. She was against home ed when she started teaching. Several years later she is burnt out and frustrated. She's still not a fan but the anti home ed rhetoric has been subdued lately.