Posted in School Year Stuff

Like the previous post said, I was going to post about my meeting with our local Superintendent in a seperate post.

Meetings are not required here in MA, but because he is new to our district and has no clue to who I am, I decided to meet with him.

Now, in the past, all we had to do is show the Super the books/texts (is any) we will be using and that is that. I went to the first meeting my first year of homeschooling (after much fighting with the Super at the time) and never went back.

Well, for this meeting, things were very different. First off, they made me wait 45 minutes in the hall. I was 5 minutes early and I hate to be late as well as made to wait for a long time. I was getting ready to see what the hold up was (as my time is valuable to me and my son was at home not learning anything with me sitting on my butt twiddling my fingers), when the Super came over to me. I offered him my hand as a greeting, and he looked at it, then me before even shaking my hand. He did not havea good grip and had a weak shake. My father always told me that if a person has a good grip and a good handshake, then the person is excited and happy to see/meet you. My assumption fromthis guys shake was that I am a waiste of his valuable time and he just wants this over with (just as much as me by this time)

I head into his office and sat down at the conference table. He handed me this paper (more like a checklist) of the things he requires of homeschoolers in our town. He askes for my sons name and grade. He also asked for my reasons to homeschool. This is not required. I tried to tell him politely that the school system sucks, but he already is aware of this (see this article here. There is even a picture of the Super for you to see is normal facial expression). He also asked for my lesson plans, which have never been required before and are not listed as a requirement in the two case studies we follow for our homeschooling guidelines here in MA (see Charles and Brunelle).

So, I started to tell him about what we had planned to learn about in science (I have done this in the past with the former Super with no problems), when he rudely interupts me and was shaking his head. He went on to say that what I was tellign him was not what he wanted. Hello, I am not a mind reader. I told him that this is what I have done inthe past with no problems before. He sighed and asked to see what texts we will be using.

I showed him the Singapore math books. He looked at me and goes "You know that they teach differently in these books than in our school system". I felt like saying "Ya that is why a magority of Americains can't do basic math and why Asians and Europeans out rank us in math"; but I was a good girl and just said "I know". he is familiar with these books, so he said he had no problems with them.

The Pathway Readers were next. He was giving them faces as he flipped through them. He said that he did not like them and thatthey were out dated and told me I needed to pick something else. I told him I would think about it, knowing full well, I was not goingto do any such thing.

Here he is complaining to me that the copywrite date of one of the readers was 1976 (but there w as also another in 2005). Umm, Hello?!? Has he seen the history books in the high school recently? They most recent president in those books are CARTER! He was president when I was born 32 YEARS ago!

He also had nothing niceto say about the Climbing to Good English book, but I hoenstly don't care what he thinks.

History was up next and the reaction was the same as the readers and English. We are using Story of the World Volume 1 with the accompaning activity guide. I also have a ton of extra books to suppliment as I already used this book with Chantelle. The Super told me that this book was above Matt's level (and how does he know what Matt's level is? He has never met my son). He also said that I have to follow what the schools are learning so that Matt will not suffer should he go back into school. Matt lvoes this subject and is doing well, so we are not changing anything. Not only that, but we do not have to follow what the schools are doing.

The meeting lasted 1 hour and it ended without any approval until I submit my detailed (with goals and scope & sequence, which are not required) lesson plans.

When I got home, I ventedto my husband and then I called a local homeschooling mom to see what he asked of her. She was kind enough to send me a copy of the "lesson plans" she submitted for her son last year (he is one year ahead of mine). I recreated my "plans" using her format and some of her wording (I hope you don't mind B). I have it all typed and printed out and ready to be certified with return reciept. I hope likes this as I am not doing anything else.