• Jul. 26, 2006 - Public School? Benefits? Where?
As a mom of 2 publicly schooled kids, I have to say that I am not terribly impressed. Both of my children qualified for the gifted and talented programs, but I never felt that they received much of anything for that 'honor.' The only exception to that was the Young Scholars program, offered by the BOCES program, which was a pull out program, one day per week, for enrichment activities. Lots of vocabulary work, lots of writing, and great projects. But the program was only for grades 4-7, I believe...
In the regular classroom, the teachers were WAY too busy teaching to the test, and trying to bring the low achievers up to a minimum level. The smarter kids were left to their own devices, either to excel on their own, or to coast by, and get just Ok grades. I happened to have one of each...a very high achiever, and a coaster. My daughter claims that being labelled gifted and talented had no positive results for her...it just put her in higher level classes, with WAY more work, but not more of anything interesting...just work!
And for those people who claim that socialization is such a crucial part of a public school education, they obviously never worked in a school. After 7 years of being a teachers' aide, I can tell you that there is precious little time spent on socializing. Because of the number of children given to each instructor, and the number of accompanying behavior problems, most of the time is spent telling the kids to be quiet and listen, in classes and in halls. Lunchtime? YOU try talking to your friend in a echoing room full of 200 screaming kids, and getting and eating your lunch in 20 minutes.
SOOOO, enter child number 3, I finally decided to take the plunge, and I am homeschooling him. OK, he only just turned 4, but he has the vocabulary of a 5th grader. He can only count to 13 accurately, but is now trying to figure out the 20's and 30's....he works on his own computer, loves magic schoolbus, and is an avid bug collector. Bet you can't tell that I am proud of him! How many 4 year olds can talk to you about nail beds and fingernails...and understand that they are made of the same stuff as your hair? Or, be able to tell you what anthropomorphism is?(Or even say it?) After thinking about it for 16 years with my first 2, I think I'm ready to home school. I'm still working out the details, but I think that we'll be fine.
|
Post A
Comment! ::
Send to a Friend! ::
|
Comments
|
|
|
|
Posted by 
Posted by Krystal 
• Jul. 27, 2006 - Good for YOU!
I'm glad that you are taking charge of your son's education. You'll be amazed at how much more he'll learn just by simply being at home and having the freedom to
do so! :)
Michelle