"Could Your Child Homeschool If S/he Wanted To?"

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I have just the opposite situation -- my husband really likes the idea of homeschooling. He doesn't think that my arguments are necessarily valid against homeschooling (and I'm not against it -- I'm just trying to weigh all the options). The thing is, he's not as involved with my son's education as I am, so I tend not to weigh his opinion as much as my own!

Kris

DW_a_mom, where in Northern California are you? We lived in the Sacramento area, and had a really awful time with the school district there. I grew up in Northern California, and I've always wondered what it would have been like to have my son in school there.

Kris

I'm in Marin County. Even within the county you can have differing experiences but quite a few schools are known for doing a top job with special education. Turns out our local school is one of them.

There is also a private school, Star Acedemy, strictly special education, that I have heard really good things about.

I am AS, ouinon, as is my kid. As was one of my parents.

I was not home schooled - my father was a school teacher, but my mother was uneducated. She never worked out of the home a day in her life, but she'd have been a hell of a task master. She'd have been the better of the two had she actually home-schooled us, as my father was very rigid (Aspie) and unable to vary his approach. But they were both very two-dimensional thinkers. I had absolute hell in school, but I think it was probably the right place for me to have been. At least in my early grades (before high school).

I was sent to a very old-fashioned, very strict catholic school.( Later I went to a public high school, a relatively good, but very large one (about 3,500 kids) - the only one in the town where we then lived.) I am not only Aspie, but I have a central auditory processing disorder. None of that mattered in that catholic school - I was treated no differently than any of the other kids. We were all treated exactly the same, held to the same standards, equally miserable in our own way. But you know what? We all graduated. And I learned how to navigate that world. Maybe not as well as some of the NT kids, or as easily, but I'm sitting here in my own home, with three university degrees and only a dissertation away from a terminal degree (that I walked away from). I'm functional, more or less. I had a damned good education - even if most of it was self taught after elementary school. The nuns did teach me how to use a library, thank whatever higher power you choose to name.

My daughter - if the school would have been a good one, if I could have found a catholic school like the one I went to and afford the tuition, I'd have happily sent her, even if she'd been less than happy there. She'd have gotten a damned good education, too. But that wasn't an option. And THAT'S why I support homeschooling if it's warranted. I know some kids can't function in the school setting, but, in many cases, it's the school that's not functional. If you have no other option, you gotta do what you can do. If that means pulling them out of a bureaucratic mess, then pull them out by all means. If you can....

Last edited by Nan on 19 Mar 2008, 8:39 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Oh, I think it does and should. You cannot possibly accurately interpret what someone is saying without knowing them, where they've been, what their lives are/were like. Otherwise, you just read what someone says of their life as if it's the same as your life - which is, I'm willing to bet, far from accurate a good part of the time. That is, if you've lived a basically middle-class, middle-American life - say someone from a middle sized town in Kansas - you can't really have an understanding of what it's like for someone who's been quite well off from birth from a major metropolitan city or a foreign country, or someone who's grown up in the ghetto of East LA. You simply don't have a clue. You see what you see on TV, which is pretty much fantasyland, and assume you do. But you don't. Therefore, you have to rely on those individuals' sharing their experiences with you. Otherwise, you condemn yourself to living in a wonderbread and mayonaise kinda world. And that neither furthers understanding or allows for growth. Of course, those may not be your priorities, hard to say.

Last edited by Nan on 19 Mar 2008, 8:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Wow, you are really fortunate, DW_a_mom. I've just wiki'd Marin County - it's got the second highest median household income of any county in California. No wonder you've got the resources you do! I do wish it was that way everywhere. Even here in San Diego County, what's available really does depend on where you live in the county - which district, which schools in the district.

I am wincing and wondering what the upcoming budget cuts will do? They just sent over 900 potential layoff notices to teachers in the San Diego Unified School district. The nurses, too, librarians, aides.... I hope your kids are insulated from all that up there.

Unfortunately, our district is not insulated, and will be affected. There are districts that receive no state money and will not have to make any changes, but ours is one of the poorest in the county. Still, they have learned to do a really good job with what they have, and I trust they will do the best possible under the circumstances. Right now they've got a really strong lobbying effort going on. The president of the school board has children currently enrolled in the district, so I know he is going to do everything he can. The school community has already been handed marching orders on some little stuff (paperwork and flyer distribution is being cut and streamlined, for example), but there are still some big, tough, decisions to be made. Our PTA is gearing up to find a way to fill in as we can, and so on. When you've got a community that believes in education, and parents willing to help, things can happen. It isn't the first money crisis we've faced, and it won't be the last.

I do, btw, consider myself REALLY fortunate, when it comes to school. I am not sure how middle school and high school will play out, but we've done well so far.

Best of luck with that! There are always things that can be cut until it really gets tight, but there are some that absolutely have to be there. You can make do with less, you can substitute homemade things for professionally created, but the lessons themselves have to continue. If you can't find volunteer librarians, you have to have one on staff. Same with nurses.

One of my co-workers' kids' schools have gone electronic - flyers are now sent via email, their journalism classes are creating web newspapers instead of the old traditional hardcopy (which is really a smarter option, anyway, as it gives them something to put in their "work" portfolio for when they graduate), the science teachers are having the kids go back to the "coffee can and string" science experiments and they've quit ordering the higher-priced pre-made kits. But this school is in a relatively well-off community where they all have computers at home, etc. Won't work in SouthEast San Diego. I guess each district is going to have to get incredibly creative, given the task at hand and the resources available.

It can be a positive thing, if one looks at it that way - it's a chance for them to find out what it is they actually have to have to get where they want to go, rather than what they'd like to have. Or what they think they have to have. Could be an excellent chance to teach the kids the principles of economics and the financial systems.

Yes, Nan, there is only so far the creativity will go. But it is still a really good exercise. The truth is salaries are something like 80% of the budget. Right now they are hoping attrition will take care of a lot of the cuts needed there, and I already know some working in admin at the schools who are thing of taking this as an indication it is time to make life changes they have been considering for a while. I hope we can keep the teachers, but we may have to go the way the rest of CA went a while ago, and give up the bonus money we've been getting for keeping lower grade class size down at 20. We haven't had a school nurse for years, and counseling has been off and on already for the past few years, so I suspect it will fall to "off." Hopefully that can be picked up by organizations outside of the school. It is a shame, I think a lot of children can benefit from counseling, and having it at the school helps them access it, but I just know it's going to go.

We actually had a banner year this year, when it comes to funding. Our principal rushed out and put in orders for all sorts of things that had been on the wish list for years, and we got most of them. Capital improvements, equipment, stuff like that. Next year we won't get any. We also had some grants for special projects, which will not repeat. Too bad you can't just say, "no thanks, the picture looks bleak next year, so lets save that money until then." Doesn't work that way.

In the 6 years I've been involved in the public school system, I've learned a lot about how fickle the funding is, and how political, but I've also seen our principal do an amazing job of blowing with the wind and keeping all the core consistent from year to year. It truly is a shame that it works this way in this state, however. It takes leadership that is exceptionally talented to make it work without the kids feeling the swings.

Now that I've posted WAY off track, lol, I want to say: I want to encourage the homeschoolers on this board to keep advocating for the option. I am sorry you get frustrated and feel you are not heard, but you are. Just remember that this is not an easy transition for a family to consider. It will always take time and patience. But there most definitely are times it will be the right decision for the family you are talking to and, if it is, they will eventually figure it out, and enjoy your support in making the transition. Keep focused on the positives of this choice. Options are a good thing, and proper education about them is, also.

Thanks Nan for great insight.

This I do agree with - but I also think this can happen even when the schools are in compliance. Where I am there is currently so little by the way of emotional/behavioral support in school - this is something I want to see change.

The No Child Left Behind bus didn't think about stopping to pick up the children who fell through the cracks along the way...

I voted "Yes" on your poll. However, I would totally leave the decision to my wife because she would be the one to implement the program, even though I will help out of course. My wife stays home, doesn't work. She doesn't need to. I'm a good provided and we're comfortable. I'm very intrigued with homeschooling, but right now there's no need for it. Our kid has great services. But, I do retain the right to yank him out and homeschool if things were to change in the future. Right now, he's doing great in school and has friends there.

We've got several homeschooling sites bookmarked, but if you recommened some I'd love to read up. In a way, we're all homeschooling because we do play a role in our children's learning, development and intervention.

I'm happy for you, Ounion, that you've had success.

I wanted to mention something. We've heard of parents co-oping with homeschooling. Are they doing that in France? That's growing in popularity where I am.

I disagree completely. Homeschooling means children do not go to school. ( or only half weeks etc). That is the fundamental distinction. Please don't make the term homeschooling meaningless, thank you.

I have no sites bookmarked. Could you post yours on the "A day in the Life" Homeschoolers thread? Thanks. .

Co-ops: not in France, no; the tightening of the law last year made it illegal for parents to homeschool other people's children. So actually have to set up a fully incorp school if want to homeschool with other parents.

I went to public schools up until eighth grade and a private school in high school. I attribute my school success to having been introduced to books by my mother almost from the time I was born. I wasn't homeschooled, but I supplemented a lot of my schooling with my own research on subjects that caught my fancy at school, and quite a few that I was never explicitly taught there.