Isn't this an example of tail wagging the dog???

[Alicia64]

School districts have gotten way too big for their britches:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-dc-a-12-year-old-piano-prodigy-is-treated-as-a-truant-instead-of-a-star-student/2014/09/08/58962746-3727-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html

 

Alley

[shawthorne44]

That is sad.  

[Alicia64]

Good 'ole dh. He said, in fact, this is not a case of the tail wagging the dog, but he did say, "this is bureaucracy running amok."

 

Our country is getting really weird.

 

Alley

[lexi]

And I just how they painted homeschooling as a picture of misery. Sigh...

 

I get that the parents don't want to HS her but goodness!

 

And yes. It's ridiculous!

[Rebel Yell]

I dunno. If these contests are for children, can't they be held when children aren't in school?

 

I see the parents' point- I really do. But when would it end?  Would travel/club sports be OK? Dance competitions? Religious activities? And what if a particular school had dozens of children with legitimate needs for excused absences?

 

I didn't like all the misery thay attached to homeschooling. I get that they aren't intentional homeschoolers- they are just trying to keep their child out of trouble- and I'm guessing she'll do OK academically. And many people with talented children in the arts and sports do homeschool to accommodate their traning/performance schedule. Public school attendance and activities are somethign they understand they have to give up for their training. I'm surpirsed this is news to the family in the article.

 

 

 

 

[Harriet Vane]

I dunno. If these contests are for children, can't they be held when children aren't in school?

 

I see the parents' point- I really do. But when would it end?  Would travel/club sports be OK? Dance competitions? Religious activities? And what if a particular school had dozens of children with legitimate needs for excused absences?

 

 

 

It's not always practical to only hold large events (especially more than one day) on evenings or weekends.

 

As for your second paragraph--who cares? If the students have legitimate activities AND are maintaining their grades, there is no problem.

[Alicia64]

I dunno. If these contests are for children, can't they be held when children aren't in school?

 

I see the parents' point- I really do. But when would it end?  Would travel/club sports be OK? Dance competitions? Religious activities? And what if a particular school had dozens of children with legitimate needs for excused absences?

 

I didn't like all the misery thay attached to homeschooling. I get that they aren't intentional homeschoolers- they are just trying to keep their child out of trouble- and I'm guessing she'll do OK academically. And many people with talented children in the arts and sports do homeschool to accommodate their traning/performance schedule. Public school attendance and activities are somethign they understand they have to give up for their training. I'm surpirsed this is news to the family in the article.

 

I think this is news to the family because they assumed that if a child rose to this level of excellence, an exception would be made. No, I don't think every kid should get out of school for every game, religious event etc. But when your kid is performing at this level?

 

It's sad that schools can't figure out any way at all to engage with a child who has reached this level of prominence in her field. It's a cookie cutter world in the schools.

 

Alley

[ErinE]

nm

[Butter]

It's extremely common for high-achieving kids to have to be homeschooled because of their achievements.  My cousin had to be homeschooled for a few years because of her gymnastics schedule.  They expected an exception, they were denied, so stop whining about homeschooling and enjoy it.  It gives her more time to practice and travel for performances and competitions, so bonus.  The article made it sound like homeschoolers are all so isolated and miserable.  They live in DC.  It's a short walk to friends' houses.  Isolation is not a requirement.

[Teachin'Mine]

Alicia, my apologies.  I read the article and then searched here to see if anyone had started a thread, but with the search words I used, this didn't come up.  I'll direct everyone over here with their comments.

[Jen500]

Alicia, my apologies.  I read the article and then searched here to see if anyone had started a thread, but with the search words I used, this didn't come up.  I'll direct everyone over here with their comments.

 

But I liked your title better as it makes it easier to understand the topic of the thread. :)

[Teachin'Mine]

But I liked your title better as it makes it easier to understand the topic of the thread. :)

 

I tend to put whatever I'm thinking as my post title and not necessarily anything that grabs attention.  lol  I changed my title from the original as it wasn't clear what the heck I was talking about. lol  

 

I like the title of this thread!  It just didn't come up when I had searched for piano, homeschool, truant or something like that.  I've had problems many times when trying to figure out if a thread has already been started on a particular topic.

 

Butter I agree that DC is about as good as it gets for a place to homeschool.   There is so much available and much of it for free.  From the tone of the article, it sounds like they'd rather fight the public school, maybe bring up a suit?, than work on making a great homeschool environment.  There's no reason for her to be missing her friends and she should be meeting new ones who homeschool.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

OK, we are from this area and it infuriates me that DC public school did not use their discretion in this case which legally they are allowed to do. I do not think it would be difficult to accommodate this student at all. DC public schools are just being thick headed enforcing truancy laws with this student and then doing virtually nothing for the thousands of DC students who really are truant. :glare:

 

Our family has homeschooled and loves homeschooling FTR. Currently we are in a great public charter school. I would love to homeschool but with an only child I would find it hard to replicate all of the activities and friends he is getting at this school despite a great area for homeschooling (if you have a car though since many homeschool activities for older kids are outside DC and I cannot drive around here). So I do sympathize with this family since the school they go to is considered the best regular public middle school in DC by everyone in DC. 

And the follow-up gets curiouser and curiouser: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/petula-dvorak-no-misrepresentation-of-piano-prodigys-treatment-by-dc-schools/2014/09/09/8d19659e-385f-11e4-8601-97ba88884ffd_story.html

 

Apparently, the public school administration admits that it sent out emails and letters to the family threatening truancy and explusion (perhaps from an automated system that they somehow can't quite control?), but someone told them in person "not to worry about those", so (according to the school), the parents are just making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

You can't make this stuff up.

[Serenade]

From the article, "I guess common sense isn’t on the curriculum this year."

 

You can say that again!

[Rebel Yell]

Rebel Yell Posted Today, 05:55 PM

I dunno. If these contests are for children, can't they be held when children aren't in school?

 

I see the parents' point- I really do. But when would it end?  Would travel/club sports be OK? Dance competitions? Religious activities? And what if a particular school had dozens of children with legitimate needs for excused absences?

 

I didn't like all the misery thay attached to homeschooling. I get that they aren't intentional homeschoolers- they are just trying to keep their child out of trouble- and I'm guessing she'll do OK academically. And many people with talented children in the arts and sports do homeschool to accommodate their traning/performance schedule. Public school attendance and activities are somethign they understand they have to give up for their training. I'm surpirsed this is news to the family in the article.

It's not always practical to only hold large events (especially more than one day) on evenings or weekends.

 

As for your second paragraph--who cares? If the students have legitimate activities AND are maintaining their grades, there is no problem.

 

If a student is tremendously talented or their parents have the means to travel or whetever it may be and the child can keep up academically, it is no problem for the child.  But public schools aren't about individualized education, so it can become a problem for the school. I think the school should have excused the absences for this child for this particular event. But if they don't change their mind I'm not going to get upset with the school.

 

[Tracy]

I dunno. If these contests are for children, can't they be held when children aren't in school?

 

I didn't get the impression that the competitions were specifically for children.  If she is a prodigy, then wouldn't she be playing with/against adults?