TexasCHLforum.com

stroo: Thank you for bringing up your 4th option. I would have included it in the OP if I had been thinking.

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All:

Public school teachers catch a lot of flak for the shortcomings of their students. Many of these kids do not have
any kind of parenting at home that allows for decent performance in the classroom.

When I lived near Atlanta, Georgia I knew a husband and wife who had been teachers in the Chicago, Illinois area,
then got jobs in the City of Atlanta school system. They were Christian folks who loved teaching and were looking
forward to teaching in the inner city. After some time being verbally assaulted, disrespected, and intimidated by
their students the both of them just kind of kept at it until they retired. They couldn't re-shape those youth and
point them in a more successful direction.

SIA

A homeschooling family that I know that lives in Irving (Dallas County) has quite an extensive network of other
homeschooling families in the area. They hold sporting events and social events with one another, and each
family's belief in homeschooling is backed up by their peer families.

No one has commented on "charter schools". Can anyone contribute on them?

TIA / SIA

Sometimes I like to throw out a topic to the forum and see what the collective experience of its members can bring to the table.

HOME SCHOOLING

Some parents have taken to homeschooling their children for a variety of reasons: religious/civil/different values than public schools.
I have seen some parents who do an exemplary job of this, but also have seen an example where the lone daughter that was "home schooled"
never seemed to be doing any work and was primarily a babysitter for her sister's kids.

Most parents have to work, so home schooling is not a viable option.

Homeschooling's PROS would seem to be: parents' values are taught. Bad influences from dysfunctional kids are not present. Field trips can
be taken any time to art museums, Holocaust museum (Dallas), or anywhere else.

Homeschooling's CONS: Claustrophobic social environment without mixing with a large number of children from different backgrounds.

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CHARTER SCHOOLS

I have never quite understood the place of charter schools in the educational world. If they get public money, why are they allowed to have
their own curriculum?

Are charter schools perceived to be "conservative" or "progressive/leftist"?

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PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The majority of students go to them. Supposedly in the old days, public schools' mandate was to educate on subject matter, but also to inculcate
into their students the social values/outlook that they would take to a top-down hierarchical working structure.

Now that self-employment is gaining more prominence in the working world, do public schools actually prepare their students for the work world?

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Please comment on any of the above.

TIA / SIA