Home schools/Charters: Pros, cons, education's purpose?

[surprise_i'm_armed]

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

[fickman]

I think the negative stigma that used to be attached to homeschooling has mostly vanished in the last ten years.

My wife and I are planning to homeschool, and we're surrounded by teachers (along with my wife, who spent a few years teaching high school math as a bridge between corporate life and being a full-time homemaker): my mom, my sister, my in-laws, my aunts, and several friends.

Ten years ago, they would've been really discouraging to the concept. Now, they are actually encouraging - usually saying that based on the trends they see in educational quality, lack of discipline, shocking social behaviors at younger and younger ages, and out-of-control kids.

I'll never forget the first day of fourth grade for me. My teachers said, "Over the next nine months, you'll actually spend more time with me than you will with your own parents." I was incensed at first, then realized that - tragically - she was right.

Voddie Baucham is a pastor that I really respect, and reading his book "Family Driven Faith" sealed the deal for me. Either I can educate my kids, instilling my values and worldview, or I can trust the government-run schools to do it for me.

I've found the curriculum in public schools in increasingly antagonistic to a Biblical worldview. I might allow my kids to go into that spiritual battlefield if they show the maturity and wisdom in high school, but I plan to at least equip them with what I view as a solid foundation. I do value education, and I plan to set high expectations in literature, mathematics, science, social studies, etc. I'm not a fan of the "unschooling" movement. I'm currently interested in mimicking a "Classical" education model where the kids will learn primarily in three phases: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Our oldest is four, so we're just dipping our toes in the water for ourselves. I'm doing research and talking with a lot of folks who homeschool and have older children. . . we are narrowing down curriculum options at the moment.

Texas is definitely a pioneering state for homeschooling. The support networks are elaborate and useful, and you can essentially choose your level of involvement from bring completely independent to using a coop where you're almost creating your own virtual private school. You can tailor the speed, depth, and topics to each kid based on their interests, learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses.

My wife and I are both products of public school (Different NE Tarrant county districts). My experience actually included a lot of great, inspiring teachers who I could openly speak with about religion, faith, etc. Her experience was far more antagonistic and secular, actually to the point of having teachers and a climate / culture that was hostile to Christianity.

[SewTexas]

We have homeschooled since our daughter was 4? she graduated this last year...so we did the whole thing with her! I have a 15 year old son also. We've homeschooled in times of blessing and times of...umm, want? desperate want? I managed to get a job at a childcare center where I was able to take them with me, sit them down at a table and have them do whatever work they hadn't gotten done at home...they liked to play, it was incentive.

My husband and I both come from long lines of stubborn people, teachers would not have liked my talkative, artistic, stubborn children...trust me, public school teachers throughout Texas are very thankful I chose to homeschool! When my son hit his teenage years however, he decided teenagers were strange and he likes adults better...okkkkkk, so he takes free art classes at the local museum...works for me.

My children are artistic in different ways, I was able to feed that. My daughter read on a 3rd grade level at 5 years old, but couldn't tie her shoes, and liked a nap!(thank you G-d) I could deal with that, a kindergarten teacher wouldn't have. My son didn't really talk much at all until he was almost 4...then there was no stopping him, he was just a slow starter, but once he got moving and talking...wow! and no ps teacher was going to deal with that...he was allllll boy, he needed to be able to run every hour or so. All the heavy reading is done with audio books for him, that's always been how he learns best. what PS teacher is going to be able to take the time and figure that out and then deal with it?

I would say the simplest way of putting it, is homschooling gives a family the ability to teach to the individual family and child's needs, does that make sense?

[Dragonfighter]

Each family must make their own decision. I have taught in public school, private school, and thus I homeschool my kids. I love the flexibility it fosters and the creativity. It also allows my eldest son to be himself and yet at the same time learn to read and write. He is not the sit still kind of a kid and though he has a great heart he just can't sit still for more than a few minutes. I am certain in a public school setting I would be getting notes home and demerits and then would be told "you have to give him medication"--fat chance. So he still learns how to read, write, add and subtract, but in such a way that he can still be himself. This fall (he is in 1st grade-ish) we get to study as a family the weather, Native Americans, and then the usual addition subtraction, writing, and reading. An additional advantage to this is that the younger children learn alongside the older (if they want to) so my 4 year old daughter can read almost as well as my 6 year old son, though he has a much better concept of math and numbers.

However I will say that if you don't want to homeschool, you shouldn't, because it can be hard and you have to always evaluate your methods, so you do have to be committed to the process.

Now on the socialization--which for the most part is utter nonsense. Do you know when I am asked the most about that--when I am at a park and my children are playing with the other's mom's children. Or while my son is at flag football practice running around with everyone else. When has public school ever been a model of socialization skills? Do I know some awkward homeschoolers--yep--I knew some awkward public school students too. The difference I have seen is that the public school kids take longer to get over their social ineptness because they are pecked half to death by their classmates and thus learn the only way to survive is to retreat into their own little world. The home school students I know that have that same awkwardness are not ridiculed, but are instead taught simple skills to overcome shyness. Could they be taught this in public school--maybe--but that was not what I observed as the SOP. Should the parents do this at home--yes, but the parents have to know that this is going on. If their kids are with someone else 8-10 hours a day, have 2 hours a day of homework, and then they sleep another 8-9 hours, there is not much time left for observation and education and oh yes we need to eat too!

For us the choice is homeschool. I support each family in doing whatsoever is best for their own family. Some it will be state school, some private schools, some homeschool. Consider what you need to then make the best decision for you and your children.

Now I don't have to post,.

[7075-T7]

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.

Also, many seem to forget or ignore that this is a job. How many of us would want to be put under the microscope in our professions?

You can lead a horse to 1,000 different waterholes and entice it as much as you can, but you can't force it to drink.