Posted in General Musings

So, I am wide awake (see previous post about my love of coffee ). I decided to Google some homeschooling forums and check them out. Wow. I have just totally re-affirmed why I've decided to homeschool. Some of the stories of parents who have sent their children to public school and ultimately pulled them out are incredible.

Damaged children. Little ones left to figure out how to defend themselves, how to respond to being picked on, told to stop being a tattletale when trying to tell an authority figure what was going on... little ones. Children (little ones!) upset and crying every day because they did not want to go to school and face the social pressures. Parents kicking themselves for making their children go because the school and the teacher (!) told them there weren't any noticable problems. Children who didn't have any problems until they went to public school! Damaged self-esteems and parents trying to rebuild them. Not just in the larger cities - all over.

I am not an over-protective parent type. I want my children to experience some adversity so that they know how to handle it. But they WILL NOT experience it unarmed. To toss a little one in with the crowd, before they have had a chance to develop an adequate amount of self-confidence can be completely disastrous. "They have to learn to deal with these types of people because they will encounter them as an adult." you say? Encountering the types of things I read about that happen on the school playground and the cliques that ultimately form are much better left to an armed adult who has already developed a sense of self and a sense of confidence and worth. Not an impressionable and easily damaged 6 year old.

Good grief. It boggles the mind at how a few children in a classroom can influence and "make or break" another child's entire public school existence and that the fallout from the experiences with these children can last an entire lifetime. May God help the little ones!

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