24 Hour Schools? Teachers Union Argues for it.

And thank you for daring to disagree

For the record, I am a former public school teacher. My husband still teaches in a public high school. Many of us are former educators, so we are VERY MUCH aware of the pressures on teachers to perform. I still have dinner on a a regular basis with the folks I use to teach with, and hear a lot from them. This is how I see it. First, as you state, some parents want schools accountable. But many of these parents are not willing to take any responsibility themselves for their children's education. Add to that are the dead-beat parents who really don't care if their children attend school or not. Then you've got well-intentioned parents, often single-parent moms, that really care and want the best for their children, but are so overwhelmed just trying to keep their head above water.

 

Handsome's asthma has hospitalized him. Mainly because he picks up a bug while at work. Even in his school days, he would be hospitalized and miss a lot of school. For this reason, and others, he is glad we homeschool. Although we can't keep Ems from all illnesses, we can at least keep her home while her lungs are acting up so she doesn't come down with something that will make her worse than necessary. I was reading in an asthma magazine that asthma related illness is the main cause of public school absences. Sadly, I do not think the system is interested in our children's health as much as they are interested in the funds they receive or do not receive.

 

I was dagnosed with asthma in 7th grade. The school I was at then didn't have a problem with it & let me out of activities in gym & never fought me on days I had to stay home due to it. High school was different. The school knew about it, but refused to make exceptions for me. One year, we were doing swimming in gym. I'd spent the 1st 12 year of my life in pools (my mom was a lifegaurd & swim instructor for a while & even sfter she quit they still let me use the pool for free whenever I wanted), and had never had a problem with the chlorine. The school pool had way too much chlorine, though (the swim team had to shave their heads because the chlorine had turned all of their hair bright green). SO, a few minutes afer getting in the pool I started to have trouble breathing. I told the teacher i needed to get & he refused. He stood right at the edge in front of me so I couldn't get out. I ended swimming to the other side (while barely able to breathe), got out, and walked out of class. I failed gym that year (truth be told, I only passed one year of gym in high school), because I refused to risk my health (or my life) just to get a passing grade. The school didn't do anything about it. I guess they figured that the teacher was a better judge of how well I could breathe than I was.

 

Public education has never been mandatory??? The first I heard of homeschooling, maybe twenty-some years ago, was when parents in Nebraska were serving time in jail for homeschooling. Yes, in this country.

PS. I need to amend this to say that the incarceration had to do with them not registering their homeschools. So, technically, one could make a case that they weren't imprisoned directly because of homeschooling, but because they took a stand against the whole idea of governmental insistence upon regulating the education of their children--in government schools or at home. There was great debate about the wisdom of their stand years before we ever had children. Yes, laws concerning homeschooling have changed, but only because of much so-called "alarmist" pressure. Sign me as one grateful parent for those in that generation who had the perspicacity to sound the alarm!

 

ERRRRRRR!!!!!!!! How frustrating!!!!

 

This reminds me of when I was in school. The second HS I went to didn't have a pool, but the first did. When we did swimming in gym class, having your period was not a good enough reason not to swim. So despite countless notes from my doctor explaining that I could not wear tampons for medical reasons, I always failed that portion of gym class and had to work extra hard to suck up during the rest of the year so I could pass.

 

We had a young man die at my high school during PE class, because the teacher would not allow him to stop running during one of the timed tests. He was asthmatic and died of an asthma attack. The teacher was fired, but I don't think charges were filed.

 

Imagine if this was a homeschool parent. He would have been charged with abuse and neglect!

 

I can't believe charges weren't filed.