I'm sooooo hearing ya! Right now the two boys I have ... well, I got their records from all their previous public schooling, and it's a chronic pattern of super high absenteeism and tardiness. The last school they were in, they were just one step short of going to court over it (and jail! the parents, that is), and the mom tells me that the public school had told her to take them out and homeschool them. I couldn't imagine a PS telling anybody to take your kids home, but after getting the records, I can just imagine that conversation went something like "well, we have this problem and that problem and I just can't get them to school every day" and "If you have THAT much difficulty, lady, just take them home and homeschool them!" She told me she enrolled them in a homeschool academy, but she just couldn't get them to do their work - for two years. I asked her to bring me whatever materials they had left over that they didn't "get to", and she brought me THE PLACEMENT TESTS that were never completed! When I tested them for enrollment, I couldn't GET low enough to find a level! (But they can read, so I took a stab at placing them.) They left public school in the 3rd and the 5th grades, and I don't think they've made not one inch of progress in any direction after that!
Wow. It is a hard line to walk when on one hand you see educational neglect, but to report anything like that would bring about stricter regulations on the homeschooling families who are actually educating their kids. I know a family who did just what you are describing. They ended up "homeschooling" for a quarter and promptly sent them back to ps, now 9 more weeks behind their class. :roll:
... and then there are the people who have their 4 year olds in 3 different math programs, swear the kids are loving it because he's been doing college-level algebra since 2.5, and oh yeah did you see the 5 paragraph essay said kid wrote on the importance of accountability in the media? Said child will be starting Oboe next week, to suppliment the piano and flute he is already taking (because he NEEDS a stringed instrument to round him out!). Ugh. Seriously, though, I get what you are saying. I don't seem to see those people- I don't know any current homeschooling families IRL, and the web seems to be riddled with the uh... other type. I was a highschool dropout at 17 but gave up on ps years earlier. After I dropped out, I moved out, got a full-time job, and enrolled myself in night school. I graduated a few months late, but I did it FOR ME. ***adding- I hope it doesn't sound like I'm disagreeing with you. I promise I'm not! But it's a bit of a seesaw, isn't it? How much is enough? How much is too much? Where's the line between unschooling and no-schooling? Where's the line between rigorous and ridiculous? Hopefully, most kids do well in spite of (or despite) their education.
That is AWESOME!! I HATED public school! It was torture for me to go. Seriously. I wish I could've been homeschooled when I was in High school but that was totally not an option. My parents were the same type as my friend I wrote about above. They made no bounderies for us, didn't care about our grades or if we even went to school for that matter. They had us and that was it. Both my brother and my sister quit school. Actually,my sister quit in the 8th grade under the "homeschool" title. This was back in the 90's when homeschooling around here was unheard of. They did some sort of curriculum that they had to mail the work back to get graded and then they would get the papers back in the mail. My Mom and Step-Dad would do my sisters work for her!! That makes me SOoooo mad to think about now that I actually homeschool my kids. I didn't think it was right then anyhow, but now it infuriates me! My sister did end up quitting completely as soon as she was old enough to and got her GED a year later. She talks about that now and knows that is not the way it should've been. I think the fact that my mom homeschooled my sister that way left a bad taste for homeschooling in my families mouth. They are supportive, but my aunt made a comment the other day that she used to think that homeschooling was a lazy way to school, but now knows differently because of the way we school.
I'm generally of the opinion that everyone can homeschool, however, I've met people like you described, and I too do my best to discourage them for selfish reasons. It only takes one bad apple for people to make generalizations about the whole barrel!
Even if you were that would be ok. I do get what you are saying. It's a hard thing to figure out. What works for one may not work for another and maybe I'm being too judgmental on my current homeschooling "friend". I have some serious issues with her anyway. She is the one that I had posted about a while ago and decided to let our friendship go.
Completely understand. We live in a neighborhood where there are several homeschooling familes counting ours. One family lives across the street from us. Now hear what I'm saying....I'm all for unschooling as long as the child IS learning something everyday. We start our day early and school everyday but do take days when we need them. The family across the street do absolutely NO school work except for Fridays at a co-op.(the co-op is designed for other parents to teach someone elses kids so their not even teaching their kids) Their kids sleep all day! We have even had one of their kids over during a science lesson, he loved it. He had so much fun. According to the homeschooling laws in our state they have to have at least four days a week with four and half hours a day. It makes me mad and upset that they are depriving their children from learning. I work my butt off teaching my kids and she does nothing but reporting her would make laws to strict for me. What can you do? Bite your tongue and look the other way.
Just like with anything there is good and bad. There are bad teachers and bad homeschoolers. We do not shut down the schools due to bad teachers so I suppose a few bad homeschoolers will exist. lol. I totally understand and they drive me crazy as well..lol
Said child will be starting Oboe next week, to suppliment the piano and flute he is already taking (because he NEEDS a stringed instrument to round him out!). This quote from Meghan seriously made me laugh this morning. Not AT you, but Meghan, an oboe is a wind instrument. I played the oboe in high school. When one of my friends learned that she thought I meant a tuba, because a tuba wraps around your shoulders like an "O". That was a silly joke between us for all of high school. LOL Sorry, distraction. That is a sad situation for those kids, that their education does not come first... THEY don't even come first in their parent's eyes. The easy way is what rules and that's difficult. I know two families here that are educating similarly. It's sad. One 14 yo girl was at a birthday party and struggled playing Apples to Apples with the group because she couldn't read the cards well. But if we point it out to someone it will bring more restrictions to the rest of us. MT3
Wow! I get what you are saying. And it is such a shame that someone like that could possibly ruin it for the rest of our kids. And worse yet, sounds like she is ruining things for her kids.
ROTFL! Sorry- that's my ps coming out. How about.. Banjo? (did I even spell that right?) or Cello? What the heck was I thinking... hmm. :lol:
Well, I'm hoping that she doesn't follow through with the idea. But if she does then it is what it is..
Some people will use the term homeschooling loosely....and it makes me mad, but like others have said, if you report them you run the risk of more restrictions. What to do, what to do.....*sigh*
In that situation it sounds like she is wanting to not deal with anything and just wants to sweep it under the rug. So, if they stay in school, the situation will probably stay the same or get worse and the kids will know that they can do no wrong in their parents' eyes. If they come home, they will just have more free time and less hassle. Either way, they won't learn a lot most likely and might grow up to be the kind of people who expect the government to take care of them.
One thing that I have learned through my adventure is most (not all) but most home schooling parents tend to lenient. I have so many friends around here that their 7th grader is doing 3rd or 4th grade math. REALLY! I hear all the time, I don't want to push them too hard... Yikes.... I push.... I have made mistakes but I want them at least on grade level, if its something I don't know how to teach then, I find someone!
I agree with Christine, though most of the homeschooling families I know are very dedicated and if their kids are ahead for their age. I do here a lot of talk from others though about how homeschooling is great because you can work with your child on their level and you don't have to keep track of grades, etc. Ok, that's fine, within reason IMO. I know that you don't have to do 2nd grade math in 2nd grade, but being a little ahead or behind is expected with any child, homeschooled or not, in one area or another. I too feel that homeschooling shouldn't be a free pass to be able to lag in work!
I hope I don't come off as too judgemental towards you, but this is judgemental on your part. I don't know the circumstances, but some people don't even push formal academics until 8 or 10 years old. Does any one person know exactly what is right for another person? My son is doing algebra now and he should be in 11th, but we are still working on 10th grade. I hate the "grade level" thinking. Who knows, her children may not "hate" math, because she is being gentle about it. It is hard to figure out how much to push and how much to relax because either extreme can be detrimental.
This discussion reminds me of the new homeschooling study that came out recently. Have any of you read it? http://blog.denschool.com/2011/09/results-from-study-comparing.html
