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As a homeschooler, how can I help revitalize public schools?


pehp
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This question is weighing heavily on my mind these days.  I initially decided to homeschool our children because it just sounded like fun--not being chained to a school schedule....not being told what to learn and when....it was a good fit for my independent streak. And we continue to homeschool because it seems to be working out so well.  I truly enjoy the lifestyle we've developed. 

 

But I'm a supporter of public schools.  I believe that all children are entitled to a quality education, as well as to an environment where they can develop social skills, problem-solving skills, creativity, etc.  I come from a long line of public school teachers (my mother...my great-grandmother...aunts and uncles...my husband's uncle was superintendent of a local school system....etc) and believe in the nobility of the teaching profession, which seems to me is becoming less about teaching and more about test-prepping.  It's disappointing to witness my teacher relatives' frustrations  (with the political control of schools that seems to be growing harsher) and also the frustrations of my friends who have children in public schools. I care deeply about this, especially as we get more and more entrenched in an educational experiment that is so rewarding and rich.  The reality of schools is falling too short of the ideal. 

 

I want to somehow support the teachers and students and do what I can to support educational reform, but I'm not in the trenches.  I don't attend PTA meetings, of course, and don't have my finger on the pulse of what's happening, except to hear secondhand what's going on via friends/relatives. I don't plan to send my children to school anytime soon.  I vote in every election.  How can someone who cares deeply about education, but has opted out of the public school system, help mend what is broken?  (Other than voting?)

 

Here are two things that are unhelpful: 1) arguing or debating or starting some sort of crossfire debate over politics; and 2) cynicism. 

 

Does anyone else have ideas about this, or experience? 

Edited by pehp
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I know you said that you find cynicism unhelpful, but cynicism is the inevitable emotion in parents who learned they were entirely unable to help their beloved teachers and public schools from within, so had to pull their own kids to give them the education they deserve.

 

As long as the principals involved -- students, teachers, parents, administrators, school boards, and even taxpayers -- keep repeating the mantra that public schools are wonderful and enabling or tolerating poor practices, there is absolutely nothing that can be achieved by outsiders such as ourselves.

 

There is the long view, however. We are raising children who know what real education is, and who will value it for life. If we are also raising children of character, they will care when other children are denied the education that they received in our homes. I've seen my children grow to help raise the learning level in our church's Sunday school, and to tutor peers in academic subjects. I look forward to seeing what else they might do to help others learn.

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Not my job.

 

And if all the people who are actively involved in trying to reform public education, from parents to clear-thinking professionals, have not been able to make the necessary changes, why would you think that we hsers could do anything?

 

You are right, it's not your job. I have changed the title of the post from "we" to "I" to be sure that anyone who is not interested doesn't feel obligated to respond to the "we" I initially included. 

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I know you said that you find cynicism unhelpful, but cynicism is the inevitable emotion in parents who learned they were entirely unable to help their beloved teachers and public schools from within, so had to pull their own kids to give them the education they deserve.

 

As long as the principals involved -- students, teachers, parents, administrators, school boards, and even taxpayers -- keep repeating the mantra that public schools are wonderful and enabling or tolerating poor practices, there is absolutely nothing that can be achieved by outsiders such as ourselves.

 

There is the long view, however. We are raising children who know what real education is, and who will value it for life. If we are also raising children of character, they will care when other children are denied the education that they received in our homes. I've seen my children grow to help raise the learning level in our church's Sunday school, and to tutor peers in academic subjects. I look forward to seeing what else they might do to help others learn.

 

This is what I haven't seen, at least not personally.  The teachers, parents, and administrators that I know are almost all dissatisfied with the plight of the public schools. 

 

But I do appreciate the long view!  You are right that seeing what a good education is will enable them to see what's lacking, and perhaps over time this will lead to a larger societal change. 

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Vote informed in local elections.

 

I think that's the number one thing most people should be doing anyway, no matter if they have kids or not.

 

You can volunteer. The schools around me take afterschool volunteer tutors.

 

I do agree with others to some extent though that achieving much is impossible. Even if you're a teacher or parent you can only do so much. Sometimes a good principal, good teachers and a good parent community can make a school a much better place than it would be without those resources, but my experience is that even the "good" schools are often deeply flawed.

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We do a few things to support the kids we know in public school and some of their programs.    I buy plants at the FFA plant sale each year, our family attends some of the high school football games and plays, and we sometimes buy from their fundraisers.  It may not be helping towards the big picture of educational reform, but it helps to show that we  care. 

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What I have done for public schools:

1.  Told them why I didn't want to send my daughter to their schools.

2.  Talked with other parents about empowerment and being ultimately in charge of their children's education, in a subversive manner

3.  Advocated for parental choice in education

4.  Helped support the formation of two public charter schools

5.  Volunteered weekly to teach literature and vocabulary via an after school 5th grade girls' club for two years after DD was finished homeschooling

6.  Attended and bid in and sponsored auctions and fundraisers benefiting access-oriented public school support charities locally

 

What good this all did:  Both charters failed.  No one cared why I didn't send my daughter to their schools.  Fellow homeschoolers were happy to be advocated for--other parents not so much.  The girls I met with did directly benefit, quite a bit I think.  The fundraisers enabled 'even the poor kids' to participate in team sports, and added a pole vaulting feature to our local high school track offerings for the first time--making them able to host track and field events.

 

What I think about it:  Working with individual children is fun, and it does actual good, in spite of the system being so bad.  Everything else is more of a grass roots effort--sometimes it can help individual children, but not always.  In general the bigger the school system is the less focussed it is on the good of the students.  Small ones focus on students, medium sized ones focus on the good of the teachers, and large ones focus on the good of the administration.  Unfortunately our local one is large, and that means it's not even possible to talk meaningfully about the good of the students there.

Edited by Carol in Cal.
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I would be aware that there is nothing that one single person can do. It's a team effort. So you have to be ready to stick it out and be a team player for years and years and years. No one person has ever actually achieved anything for society. It's always a group effort. It's always long term. And there's always a passionate opposition telling you to give up, nobody can change it, you're so naive, why do you even try, nothing can change it.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend the public sector to anybody. I've worked my entire life for change and  not big change but little changes, one by one. Helping children, widows, the displaced, one at a time.

 

I think my heart has broken at posts like Tibbie's so many times: "Don't try, it's hopeless, it will never work, you're wasting your life, give up! Give up! Give up! Serve yourself, not community, they're hopeless, it will never change, you can't do anything..." And thinking "do people really think like that? Am I so stupid? Am I so useless? Is everyone so unkind that they give up hope? Why can't I stop hoping? Why can't I stop trying?" It is very difficult, psychologically, to continue to work for a better future while half the country ridicules you for your "naive hope and change" or "stupid" belief that maybe, just maybe, you can improve something.

 

Because not for that one kid in five years, so not for any kid, ever. Right?

 

I would never send my children into that, and I would tell you also... guard yourself. There are people that get no greater joy than telling others that the entire project of social justice is a failure, that their life's work is a joke, and that there is no hope. Getting involved in social change and the public good means putting your heart on the line, your hope on the line. You have not faced the cynicism, the anger, the sheer passion of hatred against those who continue to hope against hope for a better future for all children in this country, not merely their own, until you've worked in public education. Until you've seen programs paying for assistants snapped out from under you by politicians who claim that "one child failing is too many". Until you've heard tens of times, "Those who can't, teach." And all of a sudden it occurs to you, "They're talking about me. They're talking about me. I'm teaching. I'm not even getting paid for it! They think I'm doing this because I can't." 

 

It is not for the faint of heart.

 

Honestly, anyone willing to go in there, and by sheer force of will, determine that they will stand by the kids and speak up for what's right, whether as an instructional assistant, or ESL tutor, or after-school program person, or someone writing grants for equipment and following up on its use... that person can have a tremendous impact because what is missing most in the public schools is a feeling that society supports them. Just showing up again and again and saying, "We'll do this one little thing, and I'll stand by you, and it will make a little bit of difference in these little lives, and all together, the little drops will form a river..." You can't imagine what a difference something like that makes.

 

 

 

Instead, I was relegated to a storeroom twice to three times a week to cut out things from laminated cardstock. I did this for hours upon hours each week. I finally realized (duh) that they really didn't want my help or interference.

 

I don't know why you don't think that helping teachers with materials is help. :(

 

That's 90% of what I get asked to do and I'm the flipping secretary of one PTSA and was on a curriculum committee for another.

 

Schools don't have ANY money for extras. ANY help is appreciated. Your work keeps a teacher in her job for five more years because she can go pick up her kids on time. She can go in, pick up her kids and think, "Thank god for Kinsa... it's nice that I get this support... I don't think I could take this salary if I couldn't at least pick up my kids from school." Or say she doesn't have kids. Still, just knowing that parents support her, that's a big deal. Yeah, I get it, the PTSA may be comprised of moms who play politics and do blah blah blah. I get it. Deal with it. It doesn't mean that material support to teachers doesn't make a huge difference.

 

Indeed, involved parents doing things like laminating and stapling is a major indicator of school success. Yes, laminating  card stock.

 

It ain't sexy, people. I once spent four hours gluing paper on to socks. Afterwards the teacher hugged me. It meant she could go home to pick up her baby from daycare on time. She is here this year. That experience makes a difference.

 

Literally, all the PTSA does even in the most well-off areas, is raise money for more warm bodies in the classroom to literally sit there with card-stock and review. Just that human interaction is a plus.

 

That said, if you want to change the system, go into politics. Don't go teach in a public school. That's a different job entirely. Policy change vs. service delivery. Let's not get these confused.

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I would be aware that there is nothing that one single person can do. It's a team effort. So you have to be ready to stick it out and be a team player for years and years and years. No one person has ever actually achieved anything for society. It's always a group effort. It's always long term. And there's always a passionate opposition telling you to give up, nobody can change it, you're so naive, why do you even try, nothing can change it.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend the public sector to anybody. I've worked my entire life for change and not big change but little changes, one by one. Helping children, widows, the displaced, one at a time.

 

I think my heart has broken at posts like Tibbie's so many times: "Don't try, it's hopeless, it will never work, you're wasting your life, give up! Give up! Give up! Serve yourself, not community, they're hopeless, it will never change, you can't do anything..." And thinking "do people really think like that? Am I so stupid? Am I so useless? Is everyone so unkind that they give up hope? Why can't I stop hoping? Why can't I stop trying?" It is very difficult, psychologically, to continue to work for a better future while half the country ridicules you for your "naive hope and change" or "stupid" belief that maybe, just maybe, you can improve something.

 

Because not for that one kid in five years, so not for any kid, ever. Right?

 

I would never send my children into that, and I would tell you also... guard yourself. There are people that get no greater joy than telling others that the entire project of social justice is a failure, that their life's work is a joke, and that there is no hope. Getting involved in social change and the public good means putting your heart on the line, your hope on the line. You have not faced the cynicism, the anger, the sheer passion of hatred against those who continue to hope against hope for a better future for all children in this country, not merely their own, until you've worked in public education. Until you've seen programs paying for assistants snapped out from under you by politicians who claim that "one child failing is too many". Until you've heard tens of times, "Those who can't, teach." And all of a sudden it occurs to you, "They're talking about me. They're talking about me. I'm teaching. I'm not even getting paid for it! They think I'm doing this because I can't."

 

It is not for the faint of heart.

 

Honestly, anyone willing to go in there, and by sheer force of will, determine that they will stand by the kids and speak up for what's right, whether as an instructional assistant, or ESL tutor, or after-school program person, or someone writing grants for equipment and following up on its use... that person can have a tremendous impact because what is missing most in the public schools is a feeling that society supports them. Just showing up again and again and saying, "We'll do this one little thing, and I'll stand by you, and it will make a little bit of difference in these little lives, and all together, the little drops will form a river..." You can't imagine what a difference something like that makes.

 

 

I don't know why you don't think that helping teachers with materials is help. :(

 

That's 90% of what I get asked to do and I'm the flipping secretary of one PTSA and was on a curriculum committee for another.

 

Schools don't have ANY money for extras. ANY help is appreciated. Your work keeps a teacher in her job for five more years because she can go pick up her kids on time. She can go in, pick up her kids and think, "Thank god for Kinsa... it's nice that I get this support... I don't think I could take this salary if I couldn't at least pick up my kids from school." Or say she doesn't have kids. Still, just knowing that parents support her, that's a big deal. Yeah, I get it, the PTSA may be comprised of moms who play politics and do blah blah blah. I get it. Deal with it. It doesn't mean that material support to teachers doesn't make a huge difference.

 

Indeed, involved parents doing things like laminating and stapling is a major indicator of school success. Yes, laminating card stock.

 

It ain't sexy, people. I once spent four hours gluing paper on to socks. Afterwards the teacher hugged me. It meant she could go home to pick up her baby from daycare on time. She is here this year. That experience makes a difference.

 

Literally, all the PTSA does even in the most well-off areas, is raise money for more warm bodies in the classroom to literally sit there with card-stock and review. Just that human interaction is a plus.

 

That said, if you want to change the system, go into politics. Don't go teach in a public school. That's a different job entirely. Policy change vs. service delivery. Let's not get these confused.

Sorry about your broken heart, but that's not what I said.

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Yeah, I'm at cynical. I can't change the system, we can't change the system from this position, it is, currently, fundamentally broken. Politicians and Educational Administrators can change the system, and I am praying our little graduates work their way into that system in the coming decades.

 

I think there are two things we can do

 

Help individual children/families, through educating other parents about education/school policy, and helping to tutor/encourage/educate individual students where we have an opportunity. Help remedy the problems on a personal, one on one basis. Helping one child is still better than nothing, even if it is 'small fry'. 

 

And hope and pray that the failure of the current system, coupled with the success of many homeschool graduates, triggers change in the coming generation. My church sunday schools are completely run by homeschool parents/graduates and the difference is noticable, and this trend is continuing in a number of churches and classes I've seen. A number of homeschool graduates I know have gone into education or politics in the hopes of changing or helping things. Lobbies and groups are being noticed, charter schools and online schools are becoming more common, as are alternative education methods, all of which I believe are borne from the controversy of homeschooling and the issues it has brought to light regarding individualized education and attention. Getting involved with any of these secondary things brings homeschooling, and in turn the issues it highlights, to the surface and gets people asking questions.

 

And most of all, homeschool well, and display the faults in the school system by example. People notice, people are already noticing and change is happening simply by our presence in the community. We are opening peoples minds.

 

But, to actually get in and help change my local school system right now? Nope, it can't happen. 

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Our local elementary school has a parent liason that I have formed a relationship with.  There is a great need to help teachers with the basic office jobs (the before mentioned cutting and laminating).  I am able to bring my kids to the fundraising night at the local skating rink, I also buy books from their Scholastic book fair.  I call at the beginning of the year to check if they need backpacks for kids coming in, and call at mid-year to see if any teachers are short on supplies.

There are many opportunities to do something simple like donate an outgrown dress so that another girl has something to wear to the father-daughter dance.

I am not making a huge difference, but I hope that I am communicating that just because it is better for our family to homeschool, I still care about all of the other kids getting a public school education.

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The public school system is a business and we're the customers all we have to do is stop buying the product and convince others to do the same.  Eventually the markets will falter and the producer will adjust his product to reflect the needs and wants of the consumer.  We pay for a product (education) every day and yet we let them dictate what that product looks like and how much of it we must consume, so IMO the best way to fix P.S. is to opt out, give no support to a failed and destructive system (yeah, I know property taxes are mandatory).  

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I think what some previous posters have suggested -- think in terms of individual parents and students rather than the school system as a whole -- is probably a good approach. In a way, some might say this is counterproductive because you are putting off the day of reckoning for public education as a whole by making the problems less obvious...  but I don't really think that day is coming. No matter how bad it gets we'll just move on to some other variant of the "new" thing.

 

My daughter goes to public school in a very well-regarded district. What I hear most from parents is that they need some kind of resource for the "new" math (a variant of Singapore). If you are strong in these methods and know the curriculum used in your school system, maybe just a facebook page where you answered questions would be helpful. I guess it depends on your school system though, they may not like it, especially if they *think* they already have mechanisms in place to handle those questions. Ours thinks you should just email the teacher, but the time lag before they get back to you is so long and the explanations don't always help. Really people just post a picture of their child's confusing math assignment on their personal facebook page and hope that some kind soul will help them out.

Edited by tm919
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You are right, it's not your job. I have changed the title of the post from "we" to "I" to be sure that anyone who is not interested doesn't feel obligated to respond to the "we" I initially included. 

 

It isn't *your* job, either.

 

I would love for public schools to be the place where our children could go to learn to read and write and cipher, and study history and science and literature and all that. It isn't. It is why so many people don't send their children there, choosing either private schools or homeschool.

 

The public school system is full of people who are trying to fix it, including the parents of the children who attend. They have been trying to fix it for a long time, and it's still broken. Why would any single homeschooler think she could do anything truly efficacious?

 

If you feel led to take time out of teaching your own children (I'm assuming you're a homeschooler since this is a homeschool forum), taking care of your home and family, to try to help a broken system, then feel free to volunteer at your local school. Or run for office. Perhaps you'll have more luck from the political end of things. For myself, there are other volunteer activities that I find much more beneficial.

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Our school district has a group of volunteer tutors who are available before, during and after school. Most are retired teachers. A student may meet with one of the tutors for one-on-one help as often as necessary. High school students who understand a subject well may also work as a peer tutor. It's all free. If tutoring might interest you, maybe you (and your children!) could offer to help students who are struggling.

 

Have you seen the movie Remember Me Sue? Here's a blurb from the link below that describes what it's about:

 

In 1961, Sue Duncan opened an after-school center for African American youth on the South Side of Chicago. With a combination of discipline and unrelenting devotion, she became a mother figure for thousands of children over the next 50 years. After she is diagnosed with AlzheimerĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s in 2011, families cope with the end of her career and reveal how her love will last for generations.

 

 

 

http://www.remembermesue.com/the-film/

 

On a similar tangent, my youngest took part in free weekend math sessions at UChicago that were taught by UC students and Paul Sally, the former director of UC's undergraduate math department. Sally would teach anyone interested in learning more about math -- elementary and high school students, undergrads and graduate students, and teachers of math. To my knowledge, everything he taught outside of UChicago classes he taught for free. My son had interviews with the directors of other undergraduate math departments and all of them admired Sally. One guy even had a big photo of Sally on his wall. He was a truly inspirational teacher.

 

So, don't underestimate the power of one person!

 

At this point, what might help you most is to identify exactly what you'd like to do and then try to find some way to do it. That might mean working with the school or somehow forming a group outside of school.

 

Good luck!

 

 

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Read Diane Ravitch's blog.

 

Check out Save Our Schools and see if there is a chapter for your state.

 

Keep informed about current state and federal legislation and write to legislators about specific issues. Save Our Schools often has handy form letters. Parents are fighting, often successfully, against standardized testing, aspects of CC, excess homework, etc.

 

Read books by Denise Pope. She is a much in demand speaker who has energized many parent organizations to take back leisure and family time for kids.

 

Watch the film Race to Nowhere.

 

Adding some links. (On phone, may take awhile.) Some are just for my state, but may give you an idea of what I mean. The links are by people who are deeply committed to public schooling.

 

http://dianeravitch.net

https://m.facebook.com/SaveOurSchoolsNJ

https://m.facebook.com/Montclair-Cares-About-Schools-151421161685482/

https://m.facebook.com/Ridgwoodcaresaboutschools/

http://parentingthecore.com

https://m.facebook.com/bobbraunsledger/

 

ETA. Valerie Strauss's blog for the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/27/principal-to-n-y-gov-cuomo-stop-spreading-a-false-narrative-about-public-education/

Edited by Alessandra
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I find the definition of a "good" school elusive. Our local PS pays in average $80k to teachers, far above private sector pay in the area. The school is full of volunteer parents. In fact every classroom has a teacher, an aid, and a parent volunteer. In addition reading specialists pull out kids who need help. This school is highly regarded by everyone who works there and all the parents. By any definition this is an excellent school. Yet we left it because we felt it didn't serve my boys well at all. I think what I am saying is if it's hard to agree what makes a good school, how can we fix it.

Edited by Roadrunner
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Would love to be able to read a thread without drama and unnecessary argument. Anyway, my 2 cents? If I wanted to go out of my way I'd probably directly help a teacher, ask her what does she need and if I can financially support her somehow I would (supplies for the classroom? Or even just a gift card to let her know she's appreciated in the community). Yes, voting is extremely important, but I always wonder how much of a tax increase directly impacts the classroom, or how much just gets tangled in the mess of government and politics. Just a small example... school districts are constantly complaining of lack of funds, but one around here changed ALL their hand soap dispensers a couple years ago (in all their schools). A friend who works for them and her kids go to that district was just in shock! She had been to many of the schools... there was nothing wrong with the prior soap dispensers, so it really seemed a waste of money. I am sure it's not the case all the time, but every time a district complains for lack of funds I can't avoid but wonder how much money is being wasted in unnecessary projects.

Edited to correct spelling.

Edited by mamiof5
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My kids and I have adopted a 1st grade class at an inner city school in our city.   We collected clothes and hygiene supplies for these kids at the beginning of the school year, and go there once a month to do an activity with the class.    Every time we visit, we bring the kids each a book to take home (that we purchased from used curriculum sales and thrift stores, and collected from friends) as well as a snack to take home, because there is a lot of food insecurity in this community.

 

Will this change the system?   Nope.   But these 23 kids (and the 19 kids in last year's class) know that we love them, that we care about what happens to them, and that we want to help them succeed in school and in life.    I would love to be able to spend more time there, and eventually hope that my kids and I can go once a week to be mentors or tutors to individual kids, so we can have even more influence, but for now this is what we can do.

 

My 11 year old DD has always wanted to be a teacher.   She now says (and of course, LOTS could change between now and then) that she wants to teach at this particular school.

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Our school district has a group of volunteer tutors who are available before, during and after school. Most are retired teachers. A student may meet with one of the tutors for one-on-one help as often as necessary. High school students who understand a subject well may also work as a peer tutor.

 

after-school center for African American youth

 

On a similar tangent, my youngest took part in free weekend math sessions at UChicago that were taught by UC students and Paul Sally, the former director of UC's undergraduate math department.

 

I think we are talking about different things here.

There are  a lot of things people can do to remedy the shortcomings of the public schools. The bolded examples you mentioned above are exactly that. There, one person can find many ways to make a difference for children- but I do not think this is what the OP asked about.

Improving the school itself is a completely different issue. No amount of parent volunteering, after school tutoring, or out-of-school enrichment opportunities fixes the underlying problems of the school system.

 

Edited by regentrude
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At one point, I worked in one of the "good" schools and I think part of the disparity here is the understanding of what makes a good school. I know there are schools out there that are "good" by the conceptualization of most Americans. They're just not at all my vision of what education can and should be. And I think most people have fooled themselves to a large extent. With very few exceptions, your "good" school has cut recess, has increased drilling for tests, has increased sheer time spent on testing, and has implemented some sort of zero tolerance. Even if the school is affluent and rich enough that these policies don't encroach as much as at poorer schools, it's there. That's not my vision of a good school. 

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I don't know.  I'm not anti public schools.  I haven't always had the best attitude from teachers when they discover I homeschool.  I get the impression that they may not want me bothering with them. 

 

That said, locally the super asks for public input regularly and it does not matter if one has a child in the school system or not.  They specifically say so.  I've found that information on the district's website.  Have you looked at your district's website?  They often have public meetings.  You could start by attending them to find out what sorts of things they talk about.

 

 

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I absolutely think voting is a gigantic help...especially in local elections.  Have you ever considered running for the local education board?  That might be an eventual goal.  If there are public meetings on issues related to schooling, show up.  Speak up.  Talk about why you left and what has worked better at home.

 

I've shared resources I used when homeschooling with my kids' teachers when they returned to school.  I've bought supplies for classrooms through Donor's Choose.   We've bought books at local school Scholastic Book Fairs, because we know that the school receives some funding.  

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This. Exactly this. And on the flip, I don't want teachers bothering me ;)

 

My math instructor at the local CC also teaches high school math.  It came up in conversation once that I homeschool.  He wasn't a total jerk about it, but he went on and on about how he knows of some homeschoolers who struggled in public school and some of the curriculum homeschoolers use is lousy and he wanted me to tell him what I use.  Good gravy.  Like he is so heavily versed in homeschool curriculum options?  I said I use a bunch of things.  I guess he imagines everyone just buys some prepackaged thing. 

 

Like I said he wasn't a total jerk, but I suspect he was trying not to be because that would just be awkward. 

 

And then he seemed taken aback that I wasn't going to have my kids take the regents exams in high school.  If I'm going to do that then I need to teach to the test.  That defeats the damn purpose of why I homeschool in the first place.  Some people are just so heavily stuck in their narrow minded view of how education is supposed to be.  And that fact makes me not want to get involved with what goes on in public schools.  Too many box checking narrow minded thinkers. 

 

To be fair, not all of them.  I have also met some great public school teachers. 

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I have nothing against public schools.  I have nothing against helping public schools.  I have nothing against being a responsible citizen who cares about the public school.  It's the word "revitalize" that trips me up a bit.  Do you mean help out?  Support?  Or do you mean to revamp the system?  The former two will be welcomed (to varying degrees).  The latter might be met with a "who are you and why do you think you are qualified to tell us what to do"?  Unless perhaps you are part of an organization like Save Our Schools which seeks reform through community activism and marches (based on what I see on their website).  Different people will have different opinions on whether their agenda is really what is needed to revitalize the schools.  You would want to do your research 

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Why I think all citizens, especially homeschoolers, should care about and consider working on what happens in public schools:

 

1.  Of all the arguments against homeschooling, the only one that I find credible is the criticism that it takes parents who would be very involved if their kids when to public schools out of that arena completely.  So in the back of my head I always figured I would work on some kind of public school project that would make a genuine difference FOR A KID (not so much for a school) once I was done with homeschooling.

2.  Homeschoolers know a lot about education.  We study it, we try different things, we compare curricula and methods, and we like to give kids individual attention and honor their learning styles.  Plus we are good at teaching.  So, more than most parents, we have relevant expertise to see how schools could be improved and to teach that to others.

3.  Public school graduates are going to be our kids' coworkers someday.  They are going to take care of us when we are old.  They are going to vote.  

4.  Those of us who are Americans ought to stand for a right to a good education for every single child in our country.  This is pretty basic stuff.

5.  It can be fun.  Seriously.  

 

Why we shouldn't:

1.  It's darned frustrating.  

2.  We don't want to.  (i.e. we are not inherently obligated.  The fact that I felt an obligation doesn't mean that I think every homeschool should feel one.)

 

 

I don't think anyone is obligated to pour themselves onto an altar to serve a messed up system, but if we can help actual children in a way that is enjoyable and satisfying, and if we can keep an eye on education policy and provide some warm bodies at charter school votes or some good advocacy, why not?

 

ETA:  And regarding the argument that we should let the system fail so it can be rebuilt the right way, that means that there is a generation of kids, maybe more, that are really screwed up.  None of us would put up with that for our own children, which in many cases is a big factor in why we homeschooled in the first place.  I would argue that supporting actual children in doing actual learning is always a worthy endeavor, even if it prolongs a bad overall system.  It's the whole starfish on the beach thing--you can't throw all the beached starfish back into the ocean after a storm, maybe, but you can make a difference for at least some of them if you feel so inclined.

 

Edited by Carol in Cal.
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Where I am, the schools are only lousy because the attitude of too many parents is lousy.  They don't value education.  I wouldn't know where to begin with that.

 

And really, is it my business to tell someone else what they should or should not value?

 

To be fair though, a lot of people here struggle with just getting by.  That puts a very different spin on things. 

 

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As a former teacher, I'm well aware that teachers and even local administrators have little or no power unless they take the "shut the door and teach" method and actively ignore the mandates (I had one amazing principal who strongly encouraged that we do exactly that and ran interference for us-but he was also old enough that he would actually make MORE from his retirement income than he was getting from the school district-he was still working because he wanted to, so felt confident in doing what was best for the kids and allowing his teachers to do the same).

 

So, what I do is

 

1) vote

 

2) Join advocacy groups in your area.

 

3) Connect with teachers and help out if you can. For example, I have a good printer, laminator, and photocopier, and I'll HAPPILY make sets of Phonogram cards for teachers who are "supplementing" their horrific reading program with Spalding. My DD makes folder games and stations for kindergarten teachers-it's good coloring and cutting practice for her, since fine motor skills are a weak area for her, and we can make things that the teachers can use. I actually pass on a lot of my homeschooling materials to teachers. I'm part of a couple of local teaching groups and a national one.

 

4) Tutor-again, it will depend on the programs, but I've been able to take in my own materials and teach math as appropriate for the kids I'm working with as a volunteer, not follow their curriculum.  Which often includes things like taking little boys who struggle to sit still out to the playground to jump up and down a giant number line-where if they don't get the concept, at least they've had a chance to move a bit! The teacher has commented that I have more freedom as a volunteer than she does-and it comes down to the worst they can do is fire an unpaid volunteer.

 

 

Basically, I'm trying to be the kind of good neighbor that I would have wanted to have when I was teaching. It may only help one or two kids or a single classroom, but every bit helps.

 

 

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The average cost of educating a child in the ps system in the US = at least $10,000 per kid, per year.

 

The amount of money the ps system loses in tax dollars from me because I homeschool= $0 (AZ has no tax deductions or tax credits for homeschooling.)

 

The total number of kids I have not sent to ps at a cost to the taxpayers and ps system of $10,000 per kid, per year= 3

 

Number of years I have saved the ps system and taxpayers the cost of educating my children= K-12 years X 3

 

Seriously, you're asking what a homeschooler can do for the ps system?  I've saved them a significant amount of money by continuing to pay taxes in to them without taking any expensive services out and I've reduced each class size my kids would've been in. The more people who homeschool, the less the drain on the ps system.  They should send us hand signed thank you notes for our incredibly generous contributions each year we homeschool.

Also, I support a homeschool lobby group that is against tax breaks for homeschoolers.  We don't want a single penny in tax dollars because we don't want any government strings attached. It's worth paying the taxes to keep our freedom.

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I think we are talking about different things here.

There are  a lot of things people can do to remedy the shortcomings of the public schools. The bolded examples you mentioned above are exactly that. There, one person can find many ways to make a difference for children- but I do not think this is what the OP asked about.

Improving the school itself is a completely different issue. No amount of parent volunteering, after school tutoring, or out-of-school enrichment opportunities fixes the underlying problems of the school system.

 

I am reading her question differently, but if she is trying to change something fundamentally wrong with her school then I would say she has to first determine what that is.

 

The following link might have something that is useful. The Family Action Network (FAN) is a group in our area designed to connect families, educators and professionals so that students and the community can flourish. Many of the discussions were videotaped and can be found at the website. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot's lecture about what parents and educators can learn from one another might be a good place to start.

 

http://www.familyactionnetwork.net/#!pastevents/cd53

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Well, this isn't very altruistic, but I'm in the process of "volunteering" my dd to coach a MathCounts team at a local public school.  Here's the dealio:

 

MathCounts is insanely popular and competitive in my region, but the public schools in my own district do not participate.  Not even the magnet school with high state test scores.  IMO, this is a huge missed opportunity.  

 

Older dd participated on my homeschool team for 3 years and now has aged out as a high school freshman.  Looking for an opportunity for her to get out into the community and do volunteer work that aligns with her interests and skills, I think it will be a win-win for the schools and for her.  

 

Just last week I've been pinging local email lists and friends with kids in public schools to see if we can start something, and I have one lead that's proving fruitful, but it isn't easy.  One underperforming school (our own neighborhood school, lol!) that largely serves Mexican immigrants already has an afterschool math program and I suspect it's just trying to keep their students at grade level.  But I have interest from a parent at the high achieving magnet school, so it's a start.  

 

I'll report back in a few weeks/months and let you know how it goes.  It's hard when you are on the outside.  

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The average cost of educating a child in the ps system in the US = at least $10,000 per kid, per year.

 

The amount of money the ps system loses in tax dollars from me because I homeschool= $0 (AZ has no tax deductions or tax credits for homeschooling.)

 

The total number of kids I have not sent to ps at a cost to the taxpayers and ps system of $10,000 per kid, per year= 3

 

Number of years I have saved the ps system and taxpayers the cost of educating my children= K-12 years X 3

 

Seriously, you're asking what a homeschooler can do for the ps system?  I've saved them a significant amount of money by continuing to pay taxes in to them without taking any expensive services out and I've reduced each class size my kids would've been in. The more people who homeschool, the less the drain on the ps system.  They should send us hand signed thank you notes for our incredibly generous contributions each year we homeschool.

 

Also, I support a homeschool lobby group that is against tax breaks for homeschoolers.  We don't want a single penny in tax dollars because we don't want any government strings attached. It's worth paying the taxes to keep our freedom.

 

Crazy thing is here they spend almost 20K per student and they don't have the awesome results to show for it. 

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Public schools used to be better before the progressive education movement of the 1900's. If you are familiar with school books and teaching of public schools around 1900, they appear remarkably similar to the "classical" method many homeschoolers employ now. Research and documentation of this can be found starting with ED Hirsch's books including The Knowledge Deficit. The main reason public schools are failing is because they follow the ideas of progressive educational philosophy.

 

Another related and valuable resource is Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School?, which was written for K-12 teachers to apply current education research to real life classrooms.

 

My strategy is to follow the evidence from the sources listed above in teaching my own kids through homeschooling. I am seeing some results already in that my children are demonstrating better academic performance than their peers. If enough homeschoolers and private schools follow the evidence to educate students who will surpass their public school counterparts, people may notice, and motivation may arise within the community or country at large to change the public school system.

 

In other words, opting out of the system to prove that there is a better method may be the most effective way to affect change.

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I was in the trenches for a longtime; DD and DS went to public school and I donated tons of money and worked my tooshie off to make the educational experience better for all the kids.  My efforts were just a hair above worthless.  My efforts made a small dent in whatever was going on in the classroom on that particular day, but they made no lasting difference because the really difficult issues to address and the really deep problems with public school must be addressed the state or (mainly) federal level.  For this reason, I honestly believe that the most effective thing a family can do is walk away from the public school, thus forcing real change if public education is to remain a viable option (and I agree that it is a worthy goal and that all children should have a top-notch education that is governed at the local or state level).  IOW, helping isn't really possible, but *forcing* change can be much more effective over a shorter period of time.

Edited by reefgazer
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In other words, opting out of the system to prove that there is a better method may be the most effective way to affect change.

 

Maybe.  I think some public school teachers, officials, and their supporters won't ever see it.  Some of them assume homeschoolers are not doing a good job.  If what we are doing is too different looking than a public school education then surely it is not going to work because they are the experts. 

 

Just like my instructor going on and on about some former homeschoolers who enrolled in public school doing poorly.  Because ya know, that is unheard of when we are talking about public schooled students (that they perform poorly). 

 

Ultimately though I don't really see what I'm doing as some statement with greater purpose.  I'm just nutty enough to think I can pull it off myself.  It's not terribly practical though.  I've given up a lot to do it.  I don't regret it, but yes there have been trade offs and sacrifices I have made. 

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Our friend was forced into homeschooling for a year because a new principal implemented some new changes that disrupted school extremely for one of her children.

 

He husband then made it his personal mission to bring about a change in the school board. He was successful, but there are many people who resent him because they liked the exact changes he hated. It was a good lesson in the fact that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to schools!

 

One thing he did was to network with all the private school families who lived in the neighborhood, let them know the problems with the changes at the school, and show them why they needed to become involved the next election. Basically, he told them your house prices will decrease if this principal's changes become permanent. They turned up to vote for the "change" school board.

 

This same family has volunteered in the school, but quit when they were relegated to sharpening pencils. (They figured that they had sharpened their own pencils as kids and that kids ought to be able to sharpen their own pencils.) They organize a yearly outside speaker to come give a talk at the school about science, but the talk is open to people from outside the school, too, so they invite me. 

 

Our church does bi-yearly workdays at neighborhood schools, though my husband went to one and found there were too many workers compared to the number of jobs, so he just went home.

 

Emily

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Here they used to have a public on-line forum on the district website.  They quickly shut it down because they didn't want all of the negativity.  Now I get not wanting only negativity without anything constructive, but it also made me mad.  It's like they really weren't that interested in hearing about the issues.  I never posted on it, but I did read for awhile and really at no point did I think it got out of hand.  You'd be surprised by the stuff that bothers people though.  For example, a lot of people complained about any kind of honor or gifted programming (and there isn't much) because they felt those kids don't need anything.  *sigh*

 

 

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For example, a lot of people complained about any kind of honor or gifted programming (and there isn't much) because they felt those kids don't need anything.  *sigh*

 

And this goes directly to one of the root causes for the crummy school system. As long as "elite" is a dirty word and it is politically undesired to have differences in performance, the schools will continue to march at the beat of the slowest drummer.

The biggest problem I see with public education is the one-size-fits-all approach. All the parental engagement, voting, volunteering, tutoring etc is not going to change anything as long as society refuses to accept that different students need different challenges and require differentiation.  Which we had, once upon a time, as I am told by my older friends. But of course, that would be harmful to tender self-esteem... so let's lower the bar so everybody can feel good about non-accomplishments. Which means it is not fixable until society accepts a major paradigm shift. I'm not holding my breath.

Edited by regentrude
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I think we are talking about different things here.

There are a lot of things people can do to remedy the shortcomings of the public schools. The bolded examples you mentioned above are exactly that. There, one person can find many ways to make a difference for children- but I do not think this is what the OP asked about.

Improving the school itself is a completely different issue. No amount of parent volunteering, after school tutoring, or out-of-school enrichment opportunities fixes the underlying problems of the school system.

This.

Define the problem(s), very specifically, that you think need to be addressed. Are they controlled by the federal government, heavily influenced by popular culture, (political or otherwise) or by the education establishment (education colleges/university programs) or by educational publishers?

I think all the major issues are a yes to that, and so largely beyond the ability of one family to impact.

I agree with those who say, help the kids you can, be informed and vote and take care of your own kids' education. For me, right now my kids come first and there is no time or energy for volunteering or tutoring.

Edited by ScoutTN
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