I went to a public school meeting, happy to home school!

[Janeway]

I was really wavering. I was thinking I should send my children back to public school. 

 

Then I went to this meeting at the public school. It was for the entire school district. Our distract spans several towns so it is a very big district. The superintendent was speaking at it and it was supposed to be an open forum to ask questions and such.

 

ok

 

Ummmm..the collective IQ of the superintendent and the staff members he had there was probably about 100. I ended up asking about the gifted program. They have a gifted program at the high school level. You can only qualify prior to high school it seems, but there are no guidelines published for qualifying. It seems as if the teachers just pick who they want in the program. If a parent wants their child, they can submit to testing, given by the school, but even if the child scores 99th percentile across the board, the staff can nix the person. All the teachers kids are in the gifted program. Some other kids are there too. So it says on the transcripts and in the course catalog...gifted AP World History and AP World History. Each AP class has a Gifted AP class and a regular AP class. I asked if that was perhaps not a good idea as all AP classes have to follow the same AP/college board guidelines. And that it set things up to look like GT/AP was for smart kids who should be taking AP and AP was for the dumb kids who were wannabe's. The superintendent did what many public school administrators do...he started talking in circles and had no clue what he was talking about. Then he summed it up by saying that the law says that GT kids cannot be mixed with regular kids and they only ever mix gt kids with regular kids when they are forced to due to scheduling. Ummmm....there is no law like that. Years ago, our district got rid of the GT at high school program because they felt that by high school, students should have full access to classes and those who want to take on AP should be allowed to. There was no need for separation and it caused more harm than good. For the record, the GT math program still has kids in geometry in 9th grade, no sooner. So it is hardly a GT program. It just has the label. 

 

Another person stood up and wanted guns in every classroom, and another person would fly off the handle at anyone who made a sound in the room (that none of the rest of us could hear). Eventually, when he got his turn to speak, he told us all how he "dropped acid" and a variety of other things in junior high and how he did not try to get clean until he was 25 yrs old and had several friends die. Now he wants the public school to air some gritty videos about drug abuse (these are full length movies apparently, and even he described them as gritty) to all students in the district, by the time they start middle school, and make it mandatory viewing. The entire rest of the time there was devoted to this. Aside from this, in the beginning, one issue brought up, which I have seen too, is teachers tend to be attached to their cell phones, staring at them and on them all day long, and ignoring the kids. I saw this. I used to be at the school all the time. The district has issues iPads to all the kids and the teachers rarely would teach and would let the iPads do the work for them. Or "collaborative learning" which really meant, in this district, one kid in a group does all the work but the entire group gets the same grade. Also, then that child would present his work and that is the only source of teaching the class would get about that topic. For example, when they covered the America Indian, each group was assigned a tribe. Then the teacher went on her merry way while the children did their research and projects on the iPads. A few days later, each group would present their research. That ended up being the only education the class got about the American Indians. These were 4th graders. I saw my child's work. It was inaccurate and it was about 4-5 pictures long, each with a couple sentences. It was on a power point type video, except on the iPad. He got an A, as well as his entire group, since it was a group grade.

 

OK, so.....as I was leaving this meeting, some school staff members were standing there. They were not interacting with anyone at all. I knew who these people were. I actually used to work in this district, but it was long ago. But I said hello to them. I introduced myself and asked who they were. The assistant principal told me who he was. He was in charge of half the 9th grade. Great. I told him I have a child going in to 9th grade. He asked where. I said "well, he does not want to go to public school next year, but we are zoned for <name of school>." The AP then says "if he doesn't go to public school, where would he go?" and I said "he would home school." Then the AP actually said "he can't do that. That would be a disaster, it never works out." SO I came back with "actually, he wants to remain home schooling because he is way ahead of grade level and your 9th grade center will not allow him to continue his Latin and you do not even have algebra 2 there so he would not even have math. He already earns 99th percentile on all standardized testing and the feeling is that he would be bored and lacking academic challenge." The dumb @ss just stood there looking at me with shock. I said then "since you have no foreign language at the 9th grade level, and you are in a completely different campus now, do the students even have access to the classics club? Is there even still a classics club at the high school." He just said "I don't know." That was it. I left. 

 

And the whole way home, and still now, a few days later, I am feeling great at still home schooling! There are tons of more details, but everything else left such a bad taste in my mouth. One person who was assaulted on campus and got told she should have stood in a certain square because that is where the camera is aimed. Another person got off on to a tangent about vertical learning vs horizontal learning. Every time an administrator had to respond to anything, they spoke in circles and never addressed anything. I heard a lot of "that is an excellent question. We are working on it and we will continue to look in to it."

 

hmmmm.....

[Peplophoros]

I had a similar experience at a local private school open house.  Talking to the 5th grade teacher there, my resolve to homeschool for middle school was absolutely solidified.  From over-reliance on technology to burdensome parental involvement, I've never been more sure in our decision to homeschool!!  And the Latin...it would be hard for us to give that up, too :) 

[TranquilMind]

I would have loved to have been at that meeting!  Good for you for speaking up.

 

I had one who cajoled and demanded to go to a "classics" high school, so we (really my husband more than me!) relented.  This kid was so far ahead of everyone else, it wasn't even funny.  As a 13 year old, she was in AP Latin, and blowing away the others.  Such a waste of time. 

Some good came out of it.  The demands were so low that A's were earned in several difficult areas of study, so that went on the final transcript, when this one eventually went to an actual gifted school where all classes are college level (and this one actually completed college Latin at the university while still in high school).  So those on the transcript didn't need to be taken at the difficult school. Relationships were developed with a few teachers, who later wrote glowing recommendations. 

 

I know exactly what you mean by "collaborative" learning.  Mine learned quickly to take control of a project and even do all aspects, because half the time, at least half of the other students wouldn't even bother to do the work. If they did, and it was right, mine would never mention having already completed it.  If it wasn't done - which happened frequently - mine would produce the necessary work and hand it in.   If it was wrong, mine would have to diplomatically show how some areas were incorrect and would the person mind if X or Y were included?   Awful system.  I was emailing the Physics teacher on a regular basis, as mine got hurt by the first round of "collaborative" assignments, in some of the others simply did not do the work, and so they all got a C.   This teacher knew what was going on eventually, and allowed mine to do some extra credit to make up for that undeserved grade. 

 

Thereafter, mine did it all on several occasions in many classes and the others benefited from the A. 

Stupid, stupid system. 

 

Even if you are terrible at home schooling, you will most likely do a better job, I eventually decided. So I stopped worrying about it, farmed some stuff out, for sure, and my kids did very well overall, even though I sure don't know everything.  My husband is strong in areas in which I am weaker though, so it all worked out. 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2016 by TranquilMind

[Ellie]

Sheesh.

 

Your tax dollars hard at work. ::rolls eyes::

[TranquilMind]

I was lectured by a ps grandma the other day about the GT program in our schools. Um, a 30 minute a WEEK pullout is not a GT program!

 

You are to be commended for sitting through that meeting without screaming!

That's hilarious. Thirty minutes a week. 

[Bluegoat]

That sounds awful.

 

I will say though, that when our local system, (not in the US) used to have a gifted program, it wasn't particularly accelerated for grade, and that seems to be more common in gifted programs outside the US.  Giftedness isn't so much associated with being ahead.  And while there was testing it was largely about teacher recommendations, they wanted kids who they felt would most benefit from that kind of learning.  There wasn't however the nepotism you are describing which sounds awful.

[MotherGoose]

It's so nice when God, or whatever if you're not religious, confirms that YES you are doing the right thing, no matter how hard it may seem sometimes. Yay mama!

[Ellie]

That sounds awful.

 

I will say though, that when our local system, (not in the US) used to have a gifted program, it wasn't particularly accelerated for grade, and that seems to be more common in gifted programs outside the US.  Giftedness isn't so much associated with being ahead.  And while there was testing it was largely about teacher recommendations, they wanted kids who they felt would most benefit from that kind of learning.  There wasn't however the nepotism you are describing which sounds awful.

 

At one time in California, GATE didn't start until 4th grade. A friend's dd began acting out in 3rd, after having been an excellent student, and my friend threatened to occupy the school office until her dd was tested. Turns out that her dd had an I.Q. of 200. She was bored to tears in class. But GATE didn't start until 4th grade, so she just suffered through. Her education after that wasn't all so awesome, and she never made good grades, because she refused to study stuff she had already learned.

 

I had a homeschool friend later whose dc had been in GATE before they started hsing; none of the dc had the least idea of grammar or other things we usually consider basic. Apparently, TPTB didn't bother covering that stuff because it was assumed that the children already knew it all, because, you know, they were gifted and talented. o_0

[JumpyTheFrog]

Just remember, these are the parents and teachers that care enough to attend the meeting!