Michelle in MO
04-11-2008, 07:21 PM
OK, this might be a little long, so please bear with me. BTW, the two topics in the subject line are related! :)
I went to our investment representative to put $$ in our IRA's for 2007--taxes, you know. We talked about changes in our families, and I mentioned that we may be enrolling the girls in school next year, but were undecided about where, exactly. (The reason behind this possibility is that my husband had heart trouble in the fall, and he and I both feel I should go back to school to get my master's degree. He's doing well now--:)--but we also feel we should be wise.)
Anyway, I told him that I get up at 4:15 to 4:30 every morning to listen to the girls' math lessons on DVD's, plus I review the lessons in the book and generally get prepared for the day. His jaw dropped open and he was utterly amazed! Then he proceeded to tell me that his daughters, who attend public school, have virtually NO textbooks! When he has to help them with math or other subjects in the evening for homework, he'll ask them, "Where's your book so I can look at it?" and they'll tell him, "We don't have any textbook." So, he has to get on the internet to help them with their homework. I told him, "Well, if we enroll our girls in school, I'm saving their books."
Now, someone please tell me how on earth our public school system, which in our area averages probably $7500-$8000 per student in income received from the government through taxes, cannot afford textbooks for their students!
:eek:
Let me tell you another story: About 10 years ago, when our daughters were little and in a local private preschool, I was told by the preschool teacher that she had received a phone call from a church member who was also a teacher at one of the local elementary schools. This fellow church member told her, "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but if you come to XYZ Elementary School, there's a whole dumpster full of readers that you can get for free, and they're brand new." Apparently the elementary school teachers decided that they didn't like the brand new readers the district had ordered, so they threw them away and ordered new readers!
:thumbdown:
So---how can THIS school district not afford math textbooks for their students! What we have is a situation where, more and more, students are NOT being required to READ their textbooks and are relying almost completely on the lectures. Thank God they're getting THAT, at least! However, they're not learning how to read a textbook, how to struggle with difficult math or science or more difficult literature!!!!!!!
My oldest took the PSAT in the fall and really did fairly well, although this is only her sophomore year and this wouldn't count towards National Merit anything. But next year---perhaps. We'll have to see how she does. Nevertheless, I'm convinced that one of the reason why she did as well as she did is because, as INEPT as I feel MANY times as a homeschooling mother, she still has to READ the books! We may not use as rigorous of a science program as some do (we use Apologia) or math. We do use Omnibus, which I believe is pretty rigorous---but all this reading of the Larson Geometry text or the Lial's Introductory Algebra Text (yes, they watch the DVD's BUT they read the text too!) and Herodotus, Plutarch's Lives, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, The Canterbury Tales, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Shakespeare---etc.----they have to read and think about what they're reading in order to understand it!
There are many weaknesses in what we do. We need a foreign language (we finished Latin in the fall), my girls need to write more fluently, etc. However, somehow I'm getting the feeling that my weaknesses and lack may still be more than the public school!
:rant:
To be sure, there are still quite a few students who graduate from there who go on to good schools---MIT for the valedictorian of a couple of years ago, for instance. Their "honors" program is really the community college classes that are done at the high school, and it sounds like the history teacher does an excellent job of challenging the kids in American history and Western Civilization. There is an English teacher who----SHOCK!----MAKES the kids read The Scarlet Letter and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other American literature.
Back to the second part of my subject line: the prayer request. I wish we had better options where we live. We live in a small town of about 15,000 people south of St. Louis. My husband is self-employed, and we can't really move and drag clients around with us, plus he's only about 5-10 years from retirement. We believe it's the right decision for me to look at going back to school, and I already feel stressed enough with homeschooling that I'm not sure if I could add on any graduate-level work on top of what I'm already doing. Plus, our homeschooling group is virtually non-existent, and my girls are sometimes very sad and lonely, not having very many friends. My oldest doesn't have any friends her age, other than another homeschooled friend who lives in St. Louis whom she talks to on the phone occasionally. I'm frustrated by our choices, or lack thereof. There is a very good Catholic high school about 45 minutes north of us; otherwise, the closest classical Christian school is a good 1-1/4 hours' drive away from us. Like I said, our local p.s. may be fine, if I can steer the middle daughter towards the honor classes.
Please, if you think of us and our family, please pray for us, for God to give us wisdom on what we should do. I'm obviously not excited about the local p.s. and I'm very uncertain as to what we should do. Please be praying for us over the next few months as we try to make the best decision for our families.
I went to our investment representative to put $$ in our IRA's for 2007--taxes, you know. We talked about changes in our families, and I mentioned that we may be enrolling the girls in school next year, but were undecided about where, exactly. (The reason behind this possibility is that my husband had heart trouble in the fall, and he and I both feel I should go back to school to get my master's degree. He's doing well now--:)--but we also feel we should be wise.)
Anyway, I told him that I get up at 4:15 to 4:30 every morning to listen to the girls' math lessons on DVD's, plus I review the lessons in the book and generally get prepared for the day. His jaw dropped open and he was utterly amazed! Then he proceeded to tell me that his daughters, who attend public school, have virtually NO textbooks! When he has to help them with math or other subjects in the evening for homework, he'll ask them, "Where's your book so I can look at it?" and they'll tell him, "We don't have any textbook." So, he has to get on the internet to help them with their homework. I told him, "Well, if we enroll our girls in school, I'm saving their books."
Now, someone please tell me how on earth our public school system, which in our area averages probably $7500-$8000 per student in income received from the government through taxes, cannot afford textbooks for their students!
:eek:
Let me tell you another story: About 10 years ago, when our daughters were little and in a local private preschool, I was told by the preschool teacher that she had received a phone call from a church member who was also a teacher at one of the local elementary schools. This fellow church member told her, "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but if you come to XYZ Elementary School, there's a whole dumpster full of readers that you can get for free, and they're brand new." Apparently the elementary school teachers decided that they didn't like the brand new readers the district had ordered, so they threw them away and ordered new readers!
:thumbdown:
So---how can THIS school district not afford math textbooks for their students! What we have is a situation where, more and more, students are NOT being required to READ their textbooks and are relying almost completely on the lectures. Thank God they're getting THAT, at least! However, they're not learning how to read a textbook, how to struggle with difficult math or science or more difficult literature!!!!!!!
My oldest took the PSAT in the fall and really did fairly well, although this is only her sophomore year and this wouldn't count towards National Merit anything. But next year---perhaps. We'll have to see how she does. Nevertheless, I'm convinced that one of the reason why she did as well as she did is because, as INEPT as I feel MANY times as a homeschooling mother, she still has to READ the books! We may not use as rigorous of a science program as some do (we use Apologia) or math. We do use Omnibus, which I believe is pretty rigorous---but all this reading of the Larson Geometry text or the Lial's Introductory Algebra Text (yes, they watch the DVD's BUT they read the text too!) and Herodotus, Plutarch's Lives, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, The Canterbury Tales, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Shakespeare---etc.----they have to read and think about what they're reading in order to understand it!
There are many weaknesses in what we do. We need a foreign language (we finished Latin in the fall), my girls need to write more fluently, etc. However, somehow I'm getting the feeling that my weaknesses and lack may still be more than the public school!
:rant:
To be sure, there are still quite a few students who graduate from there who go on to good schools---MIT for the valedictorian of a couple of years ago, for instance. Their "honors" program is really the community college classes that are done at the high school, and it sounds like the history teacher does an excellent job of challenging the kids in American history and Western Civilization. There is an English teacher who----SHOCK!----MAKES the kids read The Scarlet Letter and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other American literature.
Back to the second part of my subject line: the prayer request. I wish we had better options where we live. We live in a small town of about 15,000 people south of St. Louis. My husband is self-employed, and we can't really move and drag clients around with us, plus he's only about 5-10 years from retirement. We believe it's the right decision for me to look at going back to school, and I already feel stressed enough with homeschooling that I'm not sure if I could add on any graduate-level work on top of what I'm already doing. Plus, our homeschooling group is virtually non-existent, and my girls are sometimes very sad and lonely, not having very many friends. My oldest doesn't have any friends her age, other than another homeschooled friend who lives in St. Louis whom she talks to on the phone occasionally. I'm frustrated by our choices, or lack thereof. There is a very good Catholic high school about 45 minutes north of us; otherwise, the closest classical Christian school is a good 1-1/4 hours' drive away from us. Like I said, our local p.s. may be fine, if I can steer the middle daughter towards the honor classes.
Please, if you think of us and our family, please pray for us, for God to give us wisdom on what we should do. I'm obviously not excited about the local p.s. and I'm very uncertain as to what we should do. Please be praying for us over the next few months as we try to make the best decision for our families.