In the case of one school in North Carolina, they're learning that money can buy them better test scores.
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Maybe its the parent advisory council's way of saying that schools are underfunded and that relying on donations and fundraising from parents or advertising from corporations is the socially acceptable equivalent of selling test scores. Maybe the Rosewood Middle School Parent Advisor Council (RMSPAC (anagram Scam PR) are a bunch of left-leaning rebels with a strong sense of irony.
Or, maybe, they're a bunch of morons.
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Things like this have been going on for a long time.
Allow me to advocate for the devil on this one. Or at least explain what's the theory behind this (whether or not this particular school is doing it according to theory I don't know)
Like the principal says, the overall grade effect is minimal. At least, in theory. Not all classes are designed the same way.
Let's say that the student can purchase "up to 20 points" for any one HW assignment. In a class where there are dozens of HW assignments, not to mention tests that are weighted heavier, 20 points on one is no big deal. You've seen this kind of thing before: your math teacher used to let you drop your lowest HW grade. Your history teacher used to give you one "DOG" per semester (Day of Grace) to apply to one assignment. Whatever. Your teacher rounds up a grade. Or curves the grade by giving everyone 3 points.
The "selling" of points is to be teacher approved. In some classes there may only be 8 or 9 total grades and thus each one is very important. A teacher of that class would not allow points on one of those grades to be purchased for a fund raiser.
So, that's how the thing is suppose to work. I'll let you decide if it's a horrible thing or not.
On a side note I will mention that a school implements this not as a fundraiser for texts or copy paper but for school dances and stuff like that.
I have heard about stuff like this, and while at a distance it seems like a HORRIBLE idea, I think W E Ray's post might be the reality as opposed to the fantasy that's bouncing around in our heads.
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I don't see how it's presenting a lesson that's any different from the real world. People who have more money have more opportunities for success. As much as the American Dream purports that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, the fact remains that someone who can afford stronger or nicer bootstraps is going to have an easier time of it. While I think that allowing students to buy score improvements is unfair to poorer students who can't spare the $20, I don't think it's such a big deal as to warrant a huge outrage against it.
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I'm not sure if I agree with selling better grades, but maybe if it was a one time deal, then it wouldn't be so bad. I had a teacher in college who said he'd improve our recent test scores by a letter grade if we went and gave blood that day. Of course, I came down with a bad cold right after, and a buddy of mine found out he had Hep C wheb he went to give, so not many people were ever eager to give again.
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Among other reasons why this is a really bad idea is this ... The practice is ripe for discrimination lawsuits.
If the valedictorian for instance pays the 20 dollars and thats the reason for their win, the school system is open to a lawsuit from the ones right behind who can demonstrate financial lost in the form of scholarships. If one student passes a class and another with identical test scores fails... theres a lawsuit for discrimination. So yeah it may make no difference in the majority of cases but if it makes a grade difference for even one student, other students who did not contribute have a legitimate grievance.
While it is true that there are areas of life where money creates opportunity (and I'm actually fine with that), the school system should be a meritocracy - the place where hard work and native intelligence allows you to open up doors that might not otherwise exist.
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At least the kids dealing drugs in school will have something else to spend money on other than guns.
LOL!!!
Just one more reason why I am thinking hard about home-schooling the fruit of my loins.
I hope you're only considering this if you're qualified. Most home-schooled kids I've worked with (5 of 7) are considerably behind academically. So many parents feel that they're the best to teach their own kids. How well can the average parent (or better than average) teach Chemistry or Shakespeare or Calculous or Psychology? How many are trained in early childhood development and psychology?
I mean, I'm a considerably well educated guy; I could teach my kids literature and anything in the humanities and I am trained in education but I wouldn't pretend to teach economics or biology or analytical geometry, etc., etc.
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I should begin by saying that as an education teacher/ administrator, I do not promote any kind of curving grades (dropping a low grade, buying points, earning points by recycling, etc.)
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The chance to add ten points to a particular test is excessive. I could see about five each. Also, it should not be applicable to any failing test grade.
There is no way for one teacher to tell all other teachers this. In one teacher's class maybe ten points added to a grade ends up being significant -- a twentieth of a semester point, maybe. But in another teacher's class ten points may be only a one-thousandth of a point in a semester grade.
Each class is designed differently.
I hope you're only considering this if you're qualified. Most home-schooled kids I've worked with (5 of 7) are considerably behind academically. So many parents feel that they're the best to teach their own kids. How well can the average parent (or better than average) teach Chemistry or Shakespeare or Calculous or Psychology? How many are trained in early childhood development and psychology?
I mean, I'm a considerably well educated guy; I could teach my kids literature and anything in the humanities and I am trained in education but I wouldn't pretend to teach economics or biology or analytical geometry, etc., etc.
I don't know about your schools but when I was in Elementary and Junior High most of the teachers were teaching a subject they didn't have a degree or any special training in. Hell, I had some qualified teachers with Masters Degrees in their subject who couldn't teach a wall to stand up. I think a lot of it comes down to how much time, effort, and preparation you spend on home-schooling your kids and how much of a priority you make it.
From my experience it has been about 50-50 with the people I know who were home-schooled. For my one friend and his sisters they were doing college level work by high-school because their mother made their education a priority at home and had the benefit of being able to tailor the lessons to her kids. On the other hand, my wife and her siblings got the short of the stick with their home-schooling. They are all great readers and writers but their math skills suck.
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I hope you're only considering this if you're qualified. Most home-schooled kids I've worked with (5 of 7) are considerably behind academically.
You must be working with the oddballs. The average homeschooled kid is ahead of the average population academically. In West Virginia, for some reason, in fact it is the law that for a kid to remain in homeschooling, they have to test higher than average.
My own kids, who have never set foot in public schools, all scored above average last year when we finally had them tested.
I think a lot of the success of homeschooling comes down to how much support it gets from the state. I know in New Jersey home-schoolers are pretty much on their own as the state offers no assistance, information, or guidelines on education.
According to my wife (who was home-schooled) and my parents in NY (who deal with a lot of children who were home-schooled for religious reasons) there are a lot of educational co-ops and organizations being started by parents who home-school because the state offers little to no assistance or guidance.
It would be interesting to see if states that offer more resources and information for home-schooling have better grades per capita for home-schoolers than states that do no.
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I think a lot of the success of homeschooling comes down to how much support it gets from the state. I know in New Jersey home-schoolers are pretty much on their own as the state offers no assistance, information, or guidelines on education.
Almost all the homeschoolers I know, the main thing they want from the state is to be left alone.
I admit it might be nice to get some vouchers for school books but we've never recieved any help in any form from the three states we have homeschooled in (Oh, WV, and Pa) and we're fine with that. On the other hand, homeschooling groups in general are good to belong to (it has been our experience). It creates a pool of children with similar experiences and academic abilities. (The main problem my children have in relating to other children is that the public school children tend to think of education as something that is to be endured or avoided) It also allows the parents to have other parents to talk to who understand the specific difficulties one is going through at any one time.
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There is a bunch of people in my area that are home schooling (the area schools have failed 2 years in a row to meet standards) and under Umbrella schools they have some OK guidance, group social interactions and a certain amount of lesson plan guidance. Their kids from ages 6-18 are some of the most well-spoken, well-mannered, socially adept, and educated kids I've ever come across. I have better conversations with any of them than I do with most adults and the topics of conversation are very challenging and show a special affinity with intelligent topics.
I am a pretty sharp dude with decent overall knowledge and I am particularly good at math and science. I don't think it would be hard to educate my children at least to the High School level if not through until the end of HS. Of course I do realize that I would also be educating myself in this process which is a bonus and I believe that a good teacher can teach anything, whether they have a degree in it or not. It's a matter of learning what you are teaching and presenting it in a fashion that makes the info fun and easy to absorb.
The teachers in my area are a joke. I am sick of getting my 6 yr old's first grade teacher sending home report cards with "Meets Proficiency" in areas that I know she has a greater than or equal to ability level as an average 4th grader. The girl is 6 and she reads and understands novelettes, the bible, and any signs, books, papers she can see and enjoys her high proficiency at it.
I don't trust some lump of a teacher who is just shoving kids through an education system with my children (and it seems like a majority of them are from my experiences).
The teachers in my area are a joke. I am sick of getting my 6 yr old's first grade teacher sending home report cards with "Meets Proficiency" in areas that I know she has a greater than or equal to ability level as an average 4th grader. The girl is 6 and she reads and understands novelettes, the bible, and any signs, books, papers she can see and enjoys her high proficiency at it.
I don't trust some lump of a teacher who is just shoving kids through an education system with my children (and it seems like a majority of them are from my experiences).
Isn't this first grade, though? Comparisions to other grade levels seem a little unfair unless you have kids in there that you know she can run rings around- not just the class dope, but the best student in said class as well. Is there anything above meeting proficiency for your little girl, or is it a Pass/No Pass system?
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Isn't this first grade, though? Comparisions to other grade levels seem a little unfair unless you have kids in there that you know she can run rings around- not just the class dope, but the best student in said class as well. Is there anything above meeting proficiency for your little girl, or is it a Pass/No Pass system?The teachers in my area are a joke. I am sick of getting my 6 yr old's first grade teacher sending home report cards with "Meets Proficiency" in areas that I know she has a greater than or equal to ability level as an average 4th grader. The girl is 6 and she reads and understands novelettes, the bible, and any signs, books, papers she can see and enjoys her high proficiency at it.
I don't trust some lump of a teacher who is just shoving kids through an education system with my children (and it seems like a majority of them are from my experiences).
My son just gat his first semester report card. His teacher indicated that he has already passed all the material for his grade level at 100% He is in the third grade but all the tests that measure on a grade level routinely show him 2-3 grades above this. Unfortunately our district is more focused on Title 9 and ESL, and so they don't have any programs for gifted students.
My son just gat his first semester report card. His teacher indicated that he has already passed all the material for his grade level at 100% He is in the third grade but all the tests that measure on a grade level routinely show him 2-3 grades above this. Unfortunately our district is more focused on Title 9 and ESL, and so they don't have any programs for gifted students.Isn't this first grade, though? Comparisions to other grade levels seem a little unfair unless you have kids in there that you know she can run rings around- not just the class dope, but the best student in said class as well. Is there anything above meeting proficiency for your little girl, or is it a Pass/No Pass system?The teachers in my area are a joke. I am sick of getting my 6 yr old's first grade teacher sending home report cards with "Meets Proficiency" in areas that I know she has a greater than or equal to ability level as an average 4th grader. The girl is 6 and she reads and understands novelettes, the bible, and any signs, books, papers she can see and enjoys her high proficiency at it.
I don't trust some lump of a teacher who is just shoving kids through an education system with my children (and it seems like a majority of them are from my experiences).
Ah, memories...I was in a similar situation myself when I was a little kid. My mom desperately tried to convince me to leave the district via the school bus, but the idea frankly terrified me. I was a big fish in a small pond for a few years until maybe 5th grade when things began to even out(read: when I began to hate math) and other kids caught up. Can you bus him to another school?
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Ah, memories...I was in a similar situation myself when I was a little kid. My mom desperately tried to convince me to leave the district via the school bus, but the idea frankly terrified me. I was a big fish in a small pond for a few years until maybe 5th grade when things began to even out(read: when I began to hate math) and other kids caught up. Can you bus him to another school?My son just gat his first semester report card. His teacher indicated that he has already passed all the material for his grade level at 100% He is in the third grade but all the tests that measure on a grade level routinely show him 2-3 grades above this. Unfortunately our district is more focused on Title 9 and ESL, and so they don't have any programs for gifted students.Isn't this first grade, though? Comparisions to other grade levels seem a little unfair unless you have kids in there that you know she can run rings around- not just the class dope, but the best student in said class as well. Is there anything above meeting proficiency for your little girl, or is it a Pass/No Pass system?The teachers in my area are a joke. I am sick of getting my 6 yr old's first grade teacher sending home report cards with "Meets Proficiency" in areas that I know she has a greater than or equal to ability level as an average 4th grader. The girl is 6 and she reads and understands novelettes, the bible, and any signs, books, papers she can see and enjoys her high proficiency at it.
I don't trust some lump of a teacher who is just shoving kids through an education system with my children (and it seems like a majority of them are from my experiences).
It's the whole school district which covers the whole county. My wife and I would have to drive him at least 45 minutes each way to get to a school that has such a program.
Okay, adding a new post because the reply feature is getting a little wonky..
Here's an idea that worked for a cousin of mine- private charter bus. It was easy to put together because we were in NY(brooklyn specifically), but it might work for you if you find enough parents who felt the same way you did and could prove that their kids deserved/could make it into a more challenging program.
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Okay, adding a new post because the reply feature is getting a little wonky..
Here's an idea that worked for a cousin of mine- private charter bus. It was easy to put together because we were in NY(brooklyn specifically), but it might work for you if you find enough parents who felt the same way you did and could prove that their kids deserved/could make it into a more challenging program.
So a kid in school for 8-9 hours a day with a 1-1/2 to 2 hour ride daily plus homework is a better solution than homeschooling?
I ended up hating school too. Because it was a grind. I was so far ahead of the material and every damn teacher just wanted to make everyone into an average student. 9 hours a day hearing someone drone on about how to do stuff you already are good at, 1-2 hours of homework a night that is nothing more than busy work. I barely graduated high school because I grew to hate the education system and refused to do homework for a class that I got 95-100 grade scores in on tests.If an adult had to put up with 10-11 hours a day of that crap at their jobs they would quit. But this is what is expected of our children? Education can be fun but not the way it is being approached in schools.
And my daughter does run rings around most of the 4th graders in the school in most subjects. There are more than half that are better at math, but in reading there is only a couple even in her range. There is a Needs Assistance, Meets Proficiency and an Excels At grading for her grade. I have been lobbying to get her into an Advanced Reading program but the teacher "hasn't had time to test the whole class in that area yet". If you haven't tested her skill level in reading then how do you judge her on a report card? I am getting nowhere with this teacher and her previous one in Catholic school was no better. By 4th or 5th grade kids have decided if learning is fun or if it is something to just grind through and I've seen too many talented people left to die in the education system to leave my daughter at their hands. School in general (unless you toss 5-10K into the equation) isn't geared to make people into the best they can be, it's geared to teach to the average which makes everyone in the system gravitate toward that average.
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Come to the dark side Fake Healer - search your feelings. You know you want to homeschool.
Seriously, my wive and I have been very happy homeschooling our children. We have got to know them very well and can take real, direct pride in all of their achievements. They are better rounded, better read, and more mature than most children their own age. My wife, who for years doubted her own reading abilities, is quite proud of the fact that she taught all four of our children to read. If we fall down in one area here or there, we know that they have the ability to learn whatever they want on their own, and they have a desire to learn as well. In my opinion, the desire to learn is the single most important aspect of education a child can recieve.
The main downside to homeschooling, and it needs to be faced up front, is that it is a real investment of time, limiting the freedom of the parents. But as far as I am concerned, if you can't sacrifice time for your children, why have them. I have trouble relating to parents who view time spent with their own children as a burden.
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My situation is similar to David's. If the school just says, "We have nothing to teach him because he's too far above his grade level. Have you considered private tutoring?" then there's something seriously wrong with the school.
Homeschooling appeals to me but my wife worries about the lack of broader social interaction.
I point out to my wife that she always complains about 1 month into the school year because the boy that comes home from school is less polite, less academically oriented, less interested, less happy, etc. than the boy we sent to school a month before but she isn't sold on homeschooling yet.
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Come to the dark side Fake Healer - search your feelings. You know you want to homeschool.
Seriously, my wive and I have been very happy homeschooling our children. We have got to know them very well and can take real, direct pride in all of their achievements. They are better rounded, better read, and more mature than most children their own age. My wife, who for years doubted her own reading abilities, is quite proud of the fact that she taught all four of our children to read. If we fall down in one area here or there, we know that they have the ability to learn whatever they want on their own, and they have a desire to learn as well. In my opinion, the desire to learn is the single most important aspect of education a child can recieve.
The main downside to homeschooling, and it needs to be faced up front, is that it is a real investment of time, limiting the freedom of the parents. But as far as I am concerned, if you can't sacrifice time for your children, why have them. I have trouble relating to parents who view time spent with their own children as a burden.
My wife and I have been researching this for a couple months and have pretty much decided that it is going to happen after this school year is over barring any weird developments. I plan on staying part-time in my handyman business(maybe 3 days a week) and teach them on the days I am not working which will be set days. I've been researching different teaching techniques and am leaning towards a mix of eclectic and structured learning techniques, probably breaking up the days into the different styles to see what works best and is the most enjoyable for the kids. The biggest concerns right now is finding the right Umbrella School to work with and whether or not my son is going to be released from his Autism school to begin learning in a normal school, in which case I would need to begin educating him also. My wife plans to help out 1-2 days a week also but we can't afford for her leave her work for this (she is the breadwinner by quite a large margin).
A lot of my research is turning up some real surprising numbers in favor of home schooling. Colleges are practically falling over themselves in scooping up homeschooled students and the percentages of homeschooled students going on to college is ridiculously higher than those of a more traditional education. Anytime I meet a kid over 9 that I can really have a good conversation with, 8 out of 10 times I later find out they are being homeschooled.Believe me, I am part of the Dark Side, brother.
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I am more than willing to teach your son, for money. :)My situation is similar to David's. If the school just says, "We have nothing to teach him because he's too far above his grade level. Have you considered private tutoring?" then there's something seriously wrong with the school.
He avidly read the notes you sent him on the history of communism's decline. (He's become a really anti-communist since he heard how his Korean great-grandfather died.)
He also loved the chance to write something for the first Wayfinder (thanks Lilith) and the chance to enter the RPG Superstar contest.
Playing in PbPs gets him writing dialogues.
Seriously, when is his teacher going to send him home with classwork that presents the same level of challenge as the things the Paizo community has given him?
What do you teach David Fryer?
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I am more than willing to teach your son, for money. :)My situation is similar to David's. If the school just says, "We have nothing to teach him because he's too far above his grade level. Have you considered private tutoring?" then there's something seriously wrong with the school.
He avidly read the notes you sent him on the history of communism's decline. (He's become a really anti-communist since he heard how his Korean great-grandfather died.)
He also loved the chance to write something for the first Wayfinder (thanks Lilith) and the chance to enter the RPG Superstar contest.
Playing in PbPs gets him writing dialogues.
Seriously, when is his teacher going to send him home with classwork that presents the same level of challenge as the things the Paizo community has given him?
I'm glad he found the notes useful. Perhaps I should start preparing a paper on the Paizo philosophy of education.
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Homeschooling appeals to me but my wife worries about the lack of broader social interaction.
The socialization fear is a real red herring. Everyone not familiar with homeschooling worries about it. But anyone involved with it knows that the fact is that the average homeschooler turns out to have better social skills than their peers. Or perhaps, it is better to say they have broader social skills. When I first started looking into it (10+ years ago now) one of the things I read was that homeschoolers tended to interact better with a broader range of ages and public schoolers tended to interact better with those in the exact same age group. Which means that homeschooling is actually better preperation for an actual job environment in which you are most often going to interact with people who were not born the same year as you were.
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I have thought about moving my son to the charter school here but I don't like the extreme to which they take Montesori. They literally take the approach that a student doesn't study anything they don't first express an interest in.
Heh. Yeah, I can see how that could lead to problems. I think it would be better to have a set baseline of skills regardless of interest and then allow the student to add to that.
That's more or less the approach I want to take with my sons next year when they start a 'high school' curriculum.
I'm glad he found the notes useful. Perhaps I should start preparing a paper on the Paizo philosophy of education.I am more than willing to teach your son, for money. :)My situation is similar to David's. If the school just says, "We have nothing to teach him because he's too far above his grade level. Have you considered private tutoring?" then there's something seriously wrong with the school.
He avidly read the notes you sent him on the history of communism's decline. (He's become a really anti-communist since he heard how his Korean great-grandfather died.)
He also loved the chance to write something for the first Wayfinder (thanks Lilith) and the chance to enter the RPG Superstar contest.
Playing in PbPs gets him writing dialogues.
Seriously, when is his teacher going to send him home with classwork that presents the same level of challenge as the things the Paizo community has given him?
I have no words for how awesome this idea is. And it's feasable.
Best of luck to those of you considering homeschooling in your endeavors. I'm all for it for the reasons already listed repeatedly by others.
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One thing to remember is that, at least around here, there are two types of homeschoolers. You do have the ones who keep their kids at home and isolated in a bubble. My neighbor down the street is that type. The more common type, again around here in Utah, is the co-op homeschool. Basically the way that works is that several homeschool families get together and run a joint school that is very much like a normal school with tests and curiculimns and such. Some of them even hire teachers for their co-ops.
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My situation is similar to David's. If the school just says, "We have nothing to teach him because he's too far above his grade level. Have you considered private tutoring?" then there's something seriously wrong with the school.
Homeschooling appeals to me but my wife worries about the lack of broader social interaction.
If you find an Umbrella school or a local home schooling group to attach to you will find that they tend to organize field trips and social gatherings for the kids that really makes them very well-rounded from what I've read. The kids that I've met that were home schooled in my area were well-spoken, courteous, knew how to converse well and a true joy to engage in intelligent conversation. I usually asked them how they got that way and that's how I found out they were HomeSchooled. Meanwhile if I try to talk with all the other kids of similar age within the family or outside, I get sarcastic, shy, limited vocabulary, rudeness, "Like, I'm, Ummm, whatever!" type of phrases and no respect for people in general.
Sure there are exceptions but when you toss your kid in a class with 25+ other kids that are being ignored at home, verbally abused, taught all the flaws of their parents ranging from racism and other intolerances to disregard of ethics, of course the kid is gonna gain some of those traits.Even if you work hard at it. If you take them out a few times a month on fun or educational outings with kids of parents with a mindset geared to raise up their kids then you are gonna have a kid who sees his peers doing and acting differently than what happens in a classroom.
Home schooling is probably hard, but watching my brilliant child turn into an "average" person is way harder IMO.
Things like this have been going on for a long time.
Allow me to advocate for the devil on this one. Or at least explain what's the theory behind this (whether or not this particular school is doing it according to theory I don't know)
Like the principal says, the overall grade effect is minimal. At least, in theory. Not all classes are designed the same way.
Let's say that the student can purchase "up to 20 points" for any one HW assignment. In a class where there are dozens of HW assignments, not to mention tests that are weighted heavier, 20 points on one is no big deal. You've seen this kind of thing before: your math teacher used to let you drop your lowest HW grade. Your history teacher used to give you one "DOG" per semester (Day of Grace) to apply to one assignment. Whatever. Your teacher rounds up a grade. Or curves the grade by giving everyone 3 points.
The "selling" of points is to be teacher approved. In some classes there may only be 8 or 9 total grades and thus each one is very important. A teacher of that class would not allow points on one of those grades to be purchased for a fund raiser.
So, that's how the thing is suppose to work. I'll let you decide if it's a horrible thing or not.
On a side note I will mention that a school implements this not as a fundraiser for texts or copy paper but for school dances and stuff like that.
I'm ethically opposed to it because it sets a precedent to solve grade problems with money rather than increased effort. There are enough examples of this behavior in everyday life (lobbying, legacy schools, etc.) without setting the groundwork for it in the primary education system, in my opinion.
Also, what about children from low-income families? A family living from paycheck to paycheck already has enough problems without hearing form a child that its the lack of money that caused them to fail their last math test.
And to think I had to hand over a 1/2oz to get my scores raised ;)
One thing to remember is that, at least around here, there are two types of homeschoolers. You do have the ones who keep their kids at home and isolated in a bubble. My neighbor down the street is that type. The more common type, again around here in Utah, is the co-op homeschool. Basically the way that works is that several homeschool families get together and run a joint school that is very much like a normal school with tests and curiculimns and such. Some of them even hire teachers for their co-ops.
I've known some children from the former type. Intelligent and well-educated, but socially awkward, to the point of having significant problems with interpersonal relationships outside of the immediate family circle.
I have a friend who has her 7 year old daughter in an alternative school where she only spends half the week in school; the other half she is home-schooled. It seems to be working very well for her.
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Based on what I've seen here in Texas, homeschooling can go either way... but I am definitely on the outside looking in. When I was working with archaeology, I gave fairly frequent demonstrations to homeschool groups. You could see the gamut of how engaged the parent was in the process with how well the kids were. Engaged parents seem to breed and nurture engaged children. Parents who looked like they were just there to get themselves and the kids out of the house for a couple of hours typically had kids who seemed like they had never been let out of the box before.
And, not meaning this to sound snarky, but it might, people who were homeschooling for completely religious reasons tended to stick out. I had one 8 year old girl put her hands over her ears because I said the word 'evolution' in a presentation. The mother snapped at me saying "We don't believe in that nonsense! That sacriligious hogwash is why we're homeschooling in the first place!" Fine, you have your reasons, but why bring them to have a presentation on prehistoric archaeology?
All that being said, and again in my outsider point of view, I think you could very successfully homeschool, Fakey.
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Based on what I've seen here in Texas, homeschooling can go either way... but I am definitely on the outside looking in. When I was working with archaeology, I gave fairly frequent demonstrations to homeschool groups. You could see the gamut of how engaged the parent was in the process with how well the kids were. Engaged parents seem to breed and nurture engaged children. Parents who looked like they were just there to get themselves and the kids out of the house for a couple of hours typically had kids who seemed like they had never been let out of the box before.
And, not meaning this to sound snarky, but it might, people who were homeschooling for completely religious reasons tended to stick out. I had one 8 year old girl put her hands over her ears because I said the word 'evolution' in a presentation. The mother snapped at me saying "We don't believe in that nonsense! That sacriligious hogwash is why we're homeschooling in the first place!" Fine, you have your reasons, but why bring them to have a presentation on prehistoric archaeology?
All that being said, and again in my outsider point of view, I think you could very successfully homeschool, Fakey.
Yeah, I don't know that many homeschooled people, but the few I have met haven't given me the best impression.
I've known some that have trouble in the workplace because they have difficulty negotiating the office politics that is a reality in so many companies and is necessary to get ahead. Let's face it... "office politics = playground politics."
But I will concede my sample size is very small. It sounds like there are a lot of people out there who do it right, and maybe I see them all the time and don't know it because there is nothing about them that cries out "homeschooled" to me.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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We're thinking the same thing Fakey. My son is in kindergarten now, but there is a good chance we will homeschool him next year as well. It's too bad you aren't in Southern California - my wife is a special education attorney and knows the ins and outs of the local school districts like the back of her hand. She found us a good program which allows for some class room activity and is specifically geared for kids on the spectrum.
The big challenge we've encountered in schools is bullying. It's really hard for a kid with autism to make friends and fit in. And the worst part is there's not much you can do as a parent to help the situation. We have a shadow aid for him and a small class, and those both help a lot, but at the end of the day, my son just isn't invited to playdates/birthday parties/etc. My hope is that once he gets a little older, he'll find a peer group of D&D players to give him some friends.
BTW, how are you finding the resources in your neck of the woods? Are you getting ABA or any of the other therapies? How is your son doing?
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My son gets bullied too; he's just a short kid. The other kids in his class are about 3/4 of a head taller than him. I think also in Texas they put their kids in kindergarten at the oldest age they can for football or something...
He's in a charter school, it's a pretty good school, (they actually use PHONICS) and he's kinda charming so at least all the teachers love him, so they try to look out for him.