Some time ago my dh and I decided that we would send our next child, Jillian age 4 1/2, to public school Kindergarten for a year.  There were many reasons for this decision, but the main ones were (1) we're moving into a new neighborhood and wanted her to make friends with the other kids her age in our neighborhood (she's a very, very social child), (2) there is a possibility that she may have some minor learning differences and I wanted to have a teacher's opinion on this.  So today was Kindergarten Orientation day at her new school, where the kids could meet the Kindergarten teachers and parents could tour the school with the principal and ask questions.

We've only been home schooing for a year now, but I could not believe what a different attitude I had toward public education.  At the end of our tour (during which we were told lots about the special deaf & hard of hearing program the school has, but very little about the regular Kindergarten classes for some reason), we had a chance to ask questions.  Here is a condensed version of how it went:

Me:  How long is their school day?

Teacher:  8:50am-3:05pm.  Seven hours.

Me:  When do the Kindergarteners have rest time?

Teacher:  They don't.

Me:  Do they have snack time?

Teacher:  No.

Me: P.E.?

Teacher:  Yes!  Once a week.

Me:  How many times do they go outside for recess every day?

Teacher:  Just once, right after lunch.

Me:  So, they're 5 years old, they're here for 7 hours every day with no rest time, no snack time and only one recess.  They must be learning a lot!  Can you tell me about your reading curriculum - is it whole words or phonics based?

Teacher:  Ummm....well, you can go online and look at the state curriculum guidelines and it will tell you.

Me (thinking it's strange that the teacher couldn't answer this simple question):  OK, I'll do that, because I plan to be very involved in what she's learning here.

Teacher:  Great!  Well, you'll love helping her with her homework in that case!

Me (ready to laugh or cry, hard to tell which one):  HOMEWORK?!  She's going to be here for 7 hours every day, with no rest time, or snack time, and only one recess.  What on earth is it that you can't finish with these kids in all that time?

Teacher (laughing):  Well, there are a lot of kids in the class, so there are a lot of birthday parties which take up time!

And this was all perfectly ok with all of the other parents standing there.  In fact, many of them were quite happy with these answers.  I never thought I would be a person who would be critical in any way of school, but after discovering home schooling this year it's amazing how much my perspective has changed!  So, we'll give Kindergarten a try because Jillian is very excited about the social part of it.  Luckily, I'm not going into it with any academic expectations whatsoever.  As far as I'm concerned, this is still "preschool" for her and she'll start a real curriculum when she comes home after Kindergarten.  But I won't hesitate to pull her out of school next year if I don't feel like it's working for her.

Lord, I am so thankful we discovered home schooling!!!