Feedback from WHA parents and teachers

[CCMom914]

Hello. My 6th grader and 7th grade children currently attend a brick/mortar CC school in Austin. I have been told that WHA was started by some of the former teachers from our brick/mortar CC school; also I noticed that some of the teachers from my current CC school also teach as WHA. My children are doing very well with the virtual/online learning at their current (brick/mortar) CC school; my son is very introverted and homeschooling seems to be less stressful on him and overall he seems happier learning at home. I find value in the CC teaching models (trivium, socratic methods, heavy Latin content, and occasional/appropriate uses of the Bible). But what I do not like is the amount of scripture that is being taught in science and how much time is devoted to memorizing scripture in science; secondly, I have heard my son's  history teacher use his platform to grandstand his opinions on race and politics to the students. My son is 12, and his history teacher told the class that Democrats participate in civil disobedience by killing babies through abortions. My son had no idea what an abortion was, and I was not expecting to have that conversation with him when he was 12 yrs old. My son thought his teacher was describing Democrats killing babies in their cribs. This same teacher also gave his opinion on the BLM. I reported my grievance to the head of school as well as the head of SOL; both leaders instructed me to discuss my grievance with the teacher directly. Yesterday, I spoke with the history teacher and he apologized/asked for forgiveness and said that he will never speak about mature subject matter with the students. But now, I feel like I have to watch over and video tape what is being said in several classes.

Has anyone ever had a WHA teacher use their job as a teacher to grandstand their personal beliefs? If so, what was the outcome? Can anyone provide feedback on the Science SOL curriculum?

I'm impressed with what I see on the outside of WHA (videos from their website, facebook). But I worry that WHA is the online version of my current subpar CC school.

[cintinative]

Bump for you.

 

We  only did one year at WHA--GC1 in 7th. We had a good experience and there was no grandstanding.  However, since the course was focused on ancients, and we didn't do science with WHA, I can't answer the other questions.

I think they have quite a search process for their teachers, and I would think since they pull from a nationwide pool, you would have less of the issue you are describing. 

I think there are some high school moms that use WHA so you might want to cross-post in the high school board. 

[ScoutTN]

Never any issues with WHA for us, but my student has only taken math there. 

My student had Mr. Dwelle and Mr. Reini and we would commend them both to anyone. Eric Reini is one of my Dd's top two teachers ever! 

Edited November 1, 2020 by ScoutTN

[SoCal_Bear]

We've been happy with WHA for the last 3 years, but we only do Latin courses with them. Grammar II, Latin 1 and now Latin 2. The two teachers we used were very willing to work with me as my son is below the age range for those courses. My son is also 12. I haven't seen any of that in the courses, but it likely would never come up in Latin anyways. WHA is more expensive than other providers and they have the least accomodating cancellation/refund policy, so please familarize yourself with that. We were perfectly happy with Schole for Latin but the class times did not work for us for our time zone so here we are. 

I am fairly certain a lot of WHA teachers in the beginning also came from Veritas Press Academy.

[ScoutTN]

Calbear is right, WHA did begin as a split from Veritas, but they have had a fair amount of teacher turnover in the last few years. 

Of online classes in general, I find teachers to be very focused and unlikely to ramble onto rabbit trails. They have such limited time and every minute is precious. Also, there is some built-in accountability bc they do not know if parents are listening in (not all students wear headphones) and the classes are recorded.

[fourisenough]

We have had great luck with math classes at WHA, from Algebra 1 through AP Stats. 
 

Latin was a bit more average. We left after Latin 2 and moved to a much, much better provider. My DD was a bit behind, but new teacher helped her catch up. New class  is better organized, more rigorous, and more fun. DD is so happy we switched.
 

We had only one WHA class in which the teacher’s very strong, very right-wing political views created a terrible learning environment. Dropped that class and replaced with an excellent alternative from PA Homeschoolers.

So, in my experience, WHA can be a solid source of homeschool classes, but I’d look into each class and each teacher to determine best fit. 

[RootAnn]

On 11/2/2020 at 12:47 PM, fourisenough said:

We had only one WHA class in which the teacher’s very strong, very right-wing political views created a terrible learning environment. Dropped that class and replaced with an excellent alternative from PA Homeschoolers

Was this Art or something not really leading to such views being expressed? I remembered someone mentioning something like this but couldn't remember who mentioned it or what exactly it was. I just remember it was surreal.

My eldest who is in college now took upper level Spanish, upper level math, and WHA's former Honors English (freshman) class. None of the teachers are there anymore & the non-math classes are either not offered or substantially reworked. So, no help here except to say there has been a lot of teacher turnover.

[fourisenough]

11 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Was this Art or something not really leading to such views being expressed? I remembered someone mentioning something like this but couldn't remember who mentioned it or what exactly it was. I just remember it was surreal.

My eldest who is in college now took upper level Spanish, upper level math, and WHA's former Honors English (freshman) class. None of the teachers are there anymore & the non-math classes are either not offered or substantially reworked. So, no help here except to say there has been a lot of teacher turnover.

Yes, it was Art History. And WHA’s refund policy makes any class that is not a good fit a very costly mistake!