Saturday, September 22, 2007

So, what can be done about public schools?

I am sorry it has taken me so long to write this response. (Not like anyone was waiting around on pins and needles for it, but oh well.)

I started and stopped on this post so many times. I researched and quoted and dug for answers. I wrote several long posts and made lots of cases for lots of different causes and solutions.

But, for me, it all boils down to three things:
  1. Throwing more money at public schools won't fix them. The problem isn't the school system. The problem is that broken, hurting kids are being sent to school and the school suffers for it.
  2. I cannot change all of those kids. I can only love on mine and raise them the best way I know how. My job/duty/privilege is to care for my kids and make sure I do my best for them.
  3. My kids are better off academically, socially, and emotionally being homeschooled by me.

I do the best I can with other kids that are in my circle of influence. I try to help them all I can, but putting my kids in the war zone called "public school" is not good for my kids. So I won't do it.

4 comments:

Ginene said...

It will take teamwork from the parents, teachers and students. People need to show that they care and volunteer if they have too. Come to the PTA's and make a difference.

FlavaOfBlog

Shay :o) said...

Ginene -

Make a difference how?

How can going to a PTA meeting help those kids who have the type of home life that cause them to bring guns to school and shoot other kids?

Or the ones who are so starved for affection that they join gangs?

Or the kids strung out on drugs?

Or the ones that are simply hurting?

Or to stop bombs from being planted in schools?

Or the sexual assaults, the academic failures, etc.?

I ask this not to be argumentative, but to ask for more information. :o)

jackandleah said...

Great blog! I just found you through the lighthouse website.

My opinion on the problem with public schools is that the school system is a fall guy for society at large, and the problem is cyclical. People aren't focusing on raising their children to be respectable human beings, and send them to school without basic social skills or manners or even basic toddler educational skills (alphabet, counting, reading two and three letter words, etc). The teachers end up with children unprepared for their own grade level, and each grade spends too much time playing catch up. Meanwhile, parents are still apathetic at best, and the children continue to receive a total lack of support, contributing to their own apathetic attitude on education. They graduate (how? I don't know) and repeat the cycle.

Yes, more money might be nice, but it does nothing if not applied in the right ways. How do you bang it into a person's head that if you bring a child into this world, you have a responsibility to aid that child in becoming a productive member of society?

This is a great debate topic! You should continue to flesh it out.

Shay :o) said...

jackandleah -

Welcome! Glad to see you here! :o)

One thing that has made a strong impression on me is how much we can cover in such a short period of time homeschooling. We can easily cover 2 or 3 lessons for each subject each day and still be done before the kids would have gotten out of regular school.

I used to be amazed at how homeschoolers would graduate so early, but now I completely understand - they can cover more material more quickly!! I can go at whatever speed my kids need to go - and not wait for the "other" kids to catch up - because there are no "other" kids, just mine!

I have a cousin who used to teach first grade. She had kids come to her class that did not even know their shapes, for Heaven's sake, much less the alphabet. Some kids had never even had a book read to them! Some of them did not own a single book!

How can you ever hope to get those kids caught up? It breaks my heart.

However, I don't want my kids to suffer because someone else's parents did not do their job. :o(

So I homeschool.