Sick of Being Vilified
Just flying through blogs this morning, hitting sites randomly, when I came upon one by some homeschooling mom. She has the audacity to post 'Why I HomeSchool' and then link every story about stupid school teachers and principals who have sex or expose themselves to students. I had to comment on her page. I couldn't help it. I am tired of being the bad guy. I am working my butt off every single solitary day trying to help children and she is out there looking for the stupid people who are not only not doing their jobs, but doing other criminally insane acts.
In my state, you only need to have a high school diploma or a http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=GAGED to teach your kids at home. Check it out for yourselves. I had to jump through so many hoops to get where I am today, you wouldn't believe it. And yet, these homeschoolers are so holier than thou, you would think that they had created the world in six days.
This homeschooler from today stated that she pulled her children out of school because they were behind in math and then went on to state that they were having trouble getting through the math curriculum she had picked out and her husband wasn't going to let her buy anything else. She then went on to state that she doesn't know her multiplication tables herself and if she ever had a question multiplication question, she would just ask her husband. Good gracious. Does she realize that her tax dollars are hard at work paying for a math curriculum that differentiates instruction for children? That we require our students to master their multiplication tables? That we time them when they do it? All I can ask is what the hell? What do the homeschooling masses think is going on?
Do they have homedoctors and homedentists and homelawyers and homeplumbers and homehospitals and homegrocers and homecollege and home.... you get my drift. Life isn't pretty and everything you need to learn, you learn in kindergarten. I firmly believe that.
I believe schools would be amazing places if parents really believed in the triangle: students, teachers and parents working together. My students are Catholics, Hispanics, Muslims, African Americans, Protestants, Hindus, Middle Easterners, and Caucasians; they are what makes America America. All this in the salad bowl as BrownBear now says we are. Each of us learning about the other- getting stronger and learning how to get along with each other.
Now, let the good teachers alone and let them teach. We really do a good job. But who would know? Oh, I know. The kids know. Just ask them. They'll tell you. They really will.
posted by teachergirl at 1:03 PM
1 Comments:
As a former homeschooling Mom, I wanted to apologize for that woman's site. It's just so unproductive and, frankly, ridiculous.
She does not represent the majority of homeschooling families. In fact, in our last homeschool group, nearly a 1/4 of the parents were teachers themselves.
Yes, we complained about the school systems. But we all understood that while some of us had had bad experiences with adminstrations and individual teachers who were terrible, the vast majority of teachers are the good part of the system.
Those of us who were not teachers fully realized we were not qualified to teach a classroom full of children, but managing the education of your own children is a different thing altogether.
I only have a two year degree, but when my son chose to return to public school for high school (he didn't want to miss out on swim team and school dances, which, to my horror, he told the guidance counselor), he tested into all the pre-AP classes with no problem and aced all his first exams.
The lack of understanding of a subject does not mean that a person is incapable of figuring out how to help their child learn what they need to know. It just takes some creativity.
Kate
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