My family and I recently made a decision. We pulled my son from his elementary school to homeschool him this year, and most likely many more to come.
There are a variety of reasons why we made this decision fall into a main issue, my son isn't the average kid. I know, I know, every child is a genius to their mama. But honestly, my kid is a little different. After finally gaining the privilege to pass through kindergarten, my son sat bored through first grade. I know he learned something. He had to. Still, it wasn't enough. His reading level was dropped after he entered first grade. He spent twenty minutes a day with an interventionist doing 3rd grade math, yet his report card showed items like "M" for "met expectations" on things like "understands the concept of an equal sign." Did you hear my palm hit my head? My son spent an entire school year doing math above and beyond what was required of him, and barely got credit for the math his classmates did or did not do. Frustrating? You could say that. I want everyone here to know, this is not an attack on public schools. You got that? I went to public schools, as did my husband. He teaches at the same public high school that we met at 9 years ago. I am for public education. However, things around here are a little screwy sometimes. First, teachers' hands are bound. I mean, zip-tied, duct taped, handcuffed to a wall, bound. There is so much bull crap paper work, meetings, and "trainings" that teachers do not get the opportunity to teach like they used to. Yes, all those teachers that inspired us didn't get the crapload of junk dropped on them like teachers today, which is how they were so inspiring. Second, the testing! My son hasn't gotten to the point of the continual testing, but I have tutored quite a few. Teachers have been forced to teach material that will be on the tests, verses teaching to the class at their individual levels, like they would prefer. I have seen kids break down into tears because their brains are so overworked by the hours at a computer screen. On the other side of it, teachers are told that they can be fired if their test scores are too low! How ridiculous! So now, teachers teach in fear and they wish, hope and pray that their students show up ready to pass the test just to keep their jobs. Have you ever been a teenager? Could you imagine if you knew how your score would effect that teacher? Let it all sink in for a moment. Third, we are backing GWB with the "No Child Left Behind" initiative all the way. Schools are bending over backwards for children that are falling behind. Any child not up to par - for whatever reason - gets full attention. The children that can do it on their own get a pat on the back. The children that can do even more? Who knows. They get corralled in there with everyone else and go unnoticed. My son got moved ahead because I started fighting the battle a year before he entered school. And it was a battle. I begged and pleaded for special testing. Nothing. It was long fought. It wasn't the school's fault or anyone within those walls. It was the district. The school district had hoops to jump through that took far too long. Around here, the school districts are crazy. When I grew up, the town was in charge of the schools for the town. Here, the district has multiple towns - which are 3 times the size of my hometown easy - and every school within those towns. How can a district function well trying to run all of those schools? Again, things aren't necessarily the district's fault. The state is over the district. The district has so much to handle. How can they focus the proper attention to each school? Knowing all these things, we chose to keep Caleb home. He will be able to handle his curriculum at his pace. If he needs to test his way through 2nd grade math so that he can get credit for the 3rd and 4th grade math he does, let's do it. If we need to have more time learning how to write sentences well, we will. He can learn the way his brain needs to. In the last five days, I have been amazed by his brain. I have been shocked by his ability to do math in his head and solve word problems designed for nine year olds. We made the choice not to seclude him from the world, or take a stand against public schools. We made the choice to do what is right by our son.
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May 2023
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