Hello all,
Any time education comes up, my ears perk up. Just wanted to comment briefly. For parents who home school your children, you have my respect. You know the difficulty of educating your child, but also do remember that public educators have problems which interfere with their ability in teaching sometimes. The previous poster who has been trying to defend public schools deserves some credit. Every year, public school teachers are asked to do more with less. We have integrated students with learning disabilities into regular classrooms and while on paper that is commendable, teachers are now expected to keep up with the IEPs of up to 30 individual students. IEPs are Individual Education Plans, which state how that child should be taught. When I was teaching, I had a student with severe ADHD placed in my class with a student with ADD. The student with ADD was fine if I kept the classroom quiet, but the ADHD student was prone to outburst which would then disrupt the ADD student. On one occasion, the behavior became problematic as the student was running around the room and their IEP stated that during outbursts I should ignore the behavior and continue teaching... while a student screams and runs through the room.
And I did this all for the lovely sum of around 20k a year.
In some places, public schools are called PS... which is appropriate, because they are usually treated as an afterthought.
Consider that every politician promises to help children and education, but most states are cutting back. Our governor in my home state promised to help children during his campaign, something his rival, he said, failed to do. Upon his election, the budget was cut. Now teachers are rationed on copies and staples... Hard to teach without hand outs.
It is not just my state either... even in Florida, they are having to cut class sizes in some colleges because they can't get enough funding to help students attend.
I left teaching because I could not help anymore. I was paying out of pocket for stuff, I had parents asking me why I couldn't do more, and the final straw came when a student who had not turned in any homework all year had his parents come with two days left and ask why I was failing him. I don't think I failed him... I think he did it on his own.
So, I respect the homeschool folks! You are invested parents! But I equally respect the public school teachers, because they deal sometimes with parents who are not invested, politicians who overtake school policy with no background in education, and a host of other myriad problems most only here about on the news.... believe me, the first time your a teacher and you find a weapon, it changes everything.
By the way... I still work in education... if anyone needs me, I work at a college now.
In the end, just remember, no one has it easy. Life doesn't work that way... it would be boring if it did. So, homeschoolers and public educators... remember, we're all in it for our future... we want our children to have it better than we did... and that seems less and less likely, so we stress.
Just remember, we're all on the same team when it comes to children... just sometimes we are limited by policy, funding, and bureaucracy.
(Not looking for a fight, just wanted to support education in general. Again, Life isn't easy, so we all need to remember that other people walk other paths.)
I'll shut up now... I'm long winded.
No really he can't handle that kind of heat.
as some i've seen on this board!!!
