This diary started as a comment in reply to this open thread post by Meteor Blades and then grew in length beyond a comment and took on a life all it's own. So I put it here. It is a topic that is close to me and it tries to get written, in some form, every time I begin to comment on the subject of homeschooling or charter schools.
This by no means addresses everything I have to say on the subjects (yes, possibly more rants in the future) and it most certainly will make the Cranky Grammarians cry. My apologies in advance.
Maximum rant; minimum editing.
I'll just put it all below the orange cloven footprint.
I was unemployed and had the time. I am a huge believer in public school- it is the way it should be and if they could get a zillionth of the money we blow on weapons we will never use etc, etc. Bake sales for the Pentagon kinda thing. But I got frustrated because my son had come from a public charter elementary school- small classes, year round schedule, etc- not the "evil" privately operated charters that get all the press. A small charter that my oldest attended- we literally set it up in a strip center eleven years ago. The kids played on the asphalt, it was all parent volunteers and dedicated teachers who wanted something different.
Largely liberal, forward thinking bunch of folks. Not abandoning the system, but working for improved alternatives. We scrounged supplies and hoped for students. We were a dumping ground for kids the mainstream system had given up on for what ever reason. It was a real struggle then and now the school has purchased their own building (a church facility- yay irony), expanded to include kindergarten through middle school; there is a waiting list and the vacant slots are filled by lottery.
My son went to mainstream public for seventh grade so he could do extra-curricular activities and so the culture shock of going from a 150 student population to a 2500 count high school in ninth grade wouldn't be so intense. My older son did that and it was not awful, but it could have been better, so we did the mainstream middle school as transition.
The charter had changed to a year around schedule because kids spend a bunch of the first months after summer reviewing what they had learned and what they had forgotten over the summer and that's what happened at middle school. My son was bored out of his mind and was light years ahead of what was being taught. And re-taught.
The emphasis was on attendance not education. My son did just fine in seventh grade, an A/B student in AP classes; he had a health issue that led to missed days. We had doctor's and parent's excuses, some absences were accidentally recorded as unexcused in the spirit of bureaucracy. It is in violation of state law to be registered in a public school and have more than x number of unexcused absences in a certain period. We were threatened with court etc. He successfully completed and was promoted to eighth grade.
Eighth grade, we have a one week illness. Doctor's slip provided, etc. I am talking to the school and getting pushback from the school at me focused on "potential attendance issues", never mind it was health and excused by their own rules. Threats again of not excusing future absences etc. Advised they would not accept my notes in the future- need a doc's excuse for a day out. I "discussed" the economic absurdity of paying a doctor bill when a kid has a stomachache. I am the legal guardian, less than three days, my note should suffice. They maintained their position.
After a certain threshold is missed, it is no longer in the financial interest of the school for the child to be there. At that point they turn it over to the judicial system to handle. The school isn't getting paid for him; let the judge deal with it. That's why so much emphasis and energy gets focused on attendance instead of education. Every time he had missed school, I went to the school to collect his homework so he could stay caught up. There wasn't any to pick up.
I withdrew him and educated myself on how to homeschool. Texas is very friendly to homeschooling; I know it's because of the fundie segment who want the church in the schooling and don't think having a daily prayer about the flag "under God" is adequate. But there are also sites like this.
This freedom worked for me because there is little required formal curriculum structure required other than math, civics, reading and writing. Once those aspects are addressed, you're on your own. Knock yourself out.
We did library trips twice a week and Khan Academy online. I had reading assignments laid out of philosophy, history and literature; college freshman level stuff I had on the shelf. Turns out the school had filed truancy charges with the state within days of my withdrawing him.
I wound up explaining it to a judge and showing her our curriculum. She appreciated the education he was receiving and gave my son a National Geographic magazine she had and advised him to keep on learning. We paid the fine and left. When my son entered high school there was a little bit of "where's his transcript?". I showed them where we had been to the judge and they registered him as a ninth grader.
My son is the most social young man imaginable. He plays in the band and does FFA; he is active in Key Club and he makes A's and B's in AP classes. He is socially more mature than his classmates; a trait one discovers is commonly seen among homeschooled kids. He is truly interested in learning and knows it is his job to learn not the teacher's burden to teach.
I understand there is a real problem with siphoning off the resources from the mainstream public schools for charters. But a broad brush characterizing the very notion is not the answer to that part of the problem. Working alternatives have to be created to broaden the dialogue. The Coke/Pepsi, fund/cut, test/don't test argument isn't working.
Blaming people who want to teach their children in an environment of their choice is problematic, at least. Whether it be secular, covered in Marx or religious, covered in Christ, it's the parents' right and should be respected. If a parent's situation permits homeschooling for their education, and a comparable or superior level of basic education is provided, it should be the parent's right. Until we get the de facto major emphasis of mainstream public schools beyond being warehouses for children where teachers struggle as wardens to maintain a minimum level of learning, society has to be open to alternatives.
The problem isn't homeschoolers or charters, it's a system that rewards teaching to the test; the damn NCLB legacy of Shrub at the national level. I'll be damned if I keep my son in a crappy learning environment with a bunch of folks who are there because the government threatens their parents with fines and imprisonment, just so he can get "exposure" to the rest of the world. He has the rest of his life to be exposed to the rest of the world, thanks.
The socialization "argument" was a concern of mine and it proved to be a straw man.
Read the stories of the high achieving socially adept home-schooled kids that are out there; they are not rare and it is not the exception. That's a progressive urban myth.
It seriously pains me when I see my "progressive" brethren chime in when someone misspells or misspeaks with a "home-schooled much?" comment. I get really sick of hearing about how screwed up home-schooled kids are. It's discrimination and it's an ugly shot at kids when it should be focused elsewhere. Cheap shots. Not funny.
A national discussion that cannot see it's way clear to pay teachers the value of their mission and brings up having students double as janitors to save money and teach life lessons, is the real problem, not the people doing homeschooling. My son was embarrassed to tell his peers he was home-schooled until he started academically and socially kicking their proverbial asses. He still doesn't advertise, but his friends all know the truth.
I really believe that this is another of the lessons of the emerging democratic dialogue discussed by our fellow Kossack, a gilas girl, here. There is a huge potential discourse developing with lots of room for real, progressive, change. It isn't smart to summarily squelch it without due consideration.
Until the democratic dialogue is played through and the real issues are addressed, this misdirected bullshit will continue.
Peace, ya'll.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 12:17 AM PT: Thanks all for all the comments. Yes, all the comments.
Nice conversation to be having and I really think it's time has come.
To begin, at least to discuss things and change what's broken.
Peace, now.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 12:55 AM PT: One more update before the melatonin kicks in. ;)
Please check out this diary by angelajean. Same topic, really good stuff- Especially a killer video- best exposition and explanation I have seen in a digestible form. Yay, good stuff.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 12:55 AM PT: Forgot the link.... ;)
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 1:34 PM PT: Edit to credit Meteor Blades' Open Thread and subsequent comments for initiating this discussion. Credit where it's due, and such.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 1:35 PM PT: Edit to credit Meteor Blades' Open Thread and the subsequent comments for initiating this conversation. Credit where it's due and such.