Why Do We Home School?

I have been asked for years why we home school our children. We are a secular family and most home school families are Christian. I am happy to see the secular home school groups sprouting up all over the United States recently. Have you seen the state our public school system is currently in? Our math and science is sorely lacking, as is our grammar! Very few students can remember what they are taught from week to week, once they pass that test, the slate is wiped clean. I am a product of public schools and I think it is safe to say I had four very good teachers who inspired me and pushed me to do my best in my twelve years of school. I never really learned anything in school during those years, most of my learning came after school when my father and mother would take time through out the evening to talk to me, read to me, tell me about history, show me how math is used in the real world. I wish home school had been legal back when I was young. My years spent in school was spent in complete agony. I was constantly in the bathroom hiding out from emotional bullies, more days then not I could be found somewhere crying. I hated school, and worse, it hated me. It wasn't enough I got it from a lot of the students, but some of the teachers were emotionally abusive as well. I decided I would not put my kids through that. Twice my son was enrolled in public school, both times it was a nightmare, for him and us. The first time the teacher refused to let my son go to the bathroom and he came home daily with urine stained underwear. Then something major happened, he started defecating in his pants. Seems the teacher had made it a point not to let him go, and he held it day in and day out that he became impacted! He was referred to a gastroenterologist who told me it was a common thing among teachers and it made her angry to no end. He was on medication for a year before it was straightened out, and still suffers ill effects of that first 6 months in 1st grade many years ago. We filed a lawsuit against the school district and the teacher. They settled out of court, paying all of his medical bills and medications as well as monetary damages. The teacher told me what a huge mistake I was making when I pulled him, I would never be able to home school. How wrong she was! I had as much, actually more education than she did, I had his best interest at heart, I could not possibly do any worse than the public school did with him. We tried again in high school only to watch him fall further behind, or repeat what he had already accomplished.

I bought secular curriculum, same as you find in the public schools, and got busy. We found home school social groups, co-ops, and nearby universities who offered extras such as science lab, classes in robotics, speech and drama, and world history. We had him in Earth Scouts, drama classes and art classes at the local Art museum, and 4H and Irish dance. He took years of Taek won do. We taught him music and let him play in sessions locally so he could learn about his favorite music. We went on field trips both as a family and part of our home school group. We contacted universities and asked for dvd's of professors who gave lectures on subjects on which we were covering. we traded "tutor time" with other parents who had expertise and degrees in areas that we did not. I would teach their children Languages and world history, they would teach mine Algebra. It was a well rounded education. If he was interested in a subject, we could let him run with it, spending more time on it and then we would move on.

Socialization was an issue until we realized or children's social skills far outweighed their public school peers. They could socialize with people of all ages, carrying on an intelligent conversation with a 40 year old, or a 10 year old. We had more socialization than public school kids, because we had more time! when you home school, you find that you do not need 8 hours a day to teach all subjects, and that learning is an ongoing process and goes on long after the books and workbooks are put away.

My kids are read to on a regular basis. they are encouraged to help build things with their father, using that opportunity to give math drills, to cook in the kitchen with me or dad again, using math skills. They learned to balance a checkbook, and do their taxes before the age of 10. They love to read and our little ones are just as likely to read you a story as they are to ask for a story. Our older son is involved in reading classics right now, and is animated as he describes what he thinks the writer was trying to say. He is very aware of the political goings on in the US and around the world and is free to form his own opinions. I like the way this is going, I am glad we decided to go the route of home schooling. Now when people ask why we home school, I can sum it up in just a few sentences:

We home School because public education, as currently implemented, is designed to systematically drive the joy of learning out of children as early as possible: tedious homework; fixed class periods that are rarely just the right length for learning the material; disjoint subjects that obfuscate the relationship between information and useful real-world applications; stressful tests and quizzes; segregation by age and ability; severely limited selection of potential friends, typically 12 years of the same group of 30 kids; limited control over such basic functions as when to awaken, eat or urinate; KIDS SITTING, for HOURS. It's amazing anyone learns anything at all, despite this contrived, convoluted, Byzantine environment. I admire teachers, but they are just as limited and victimized by the strictures of the system as students. The only moderately legitimate purpose school appears to serve is to warehouse children during the day, so parents can work more hours, thereby facilitating payment of school taxes and summer camp bills.