Homeschooling

[sanantone]

Goodness, I haven't checked in for a while, and look at all the shenanigans! (Woo! I needed to work that into a sentence today.)

Our family became a homeschool family when my special needs son was bullied relentlessly and the administrators made promises and spoke fantastically about how they were taking steps to prevent it, yet it continued happening. On top of that, it was becoming clear he was being "soft graded." (He came home with As but could not explain or show any of the knowledge that he was graded towards.) My sweet, happy kid turned into a scared bundle of nerves and terror the closer to the school that we got every morning for nine months of the year. After one particular bullying incident, we realized we could not keep putting him through it. We'd kicked around the idea of homeschooling each time something went wrong, but we finally had to do something. It was cruel to continue to send him to an environment where he did not feel safe, and we honestly did not know if he was since administrators made all sorts of promises but the issues would not have continued if they were actually being implemented.

Public school works fine for many people. I got a fantastic public school education. It just didn't work for my child. Withdrawing him was the best thing we could have done. He was two years behind in the knowledge he could demonstrate (we had him tested) and his self-esteem and stress level was at a point that a little kid should never experience. He's caught up to grade level after just one year, and tested above grade level on Science, Spelling, and History, and he's my cheerful boy again who doesn't hide behind me when a kid near his age comes around.

As far as sheltering, indoctrinating, and all that... As far as sheltering, we go out of our way to get our little guy around people other than immediate family. It's tough since we both work full-time, but it's a part of the program. As far as indoctrinating, to each their own. We live in a part of the Bible Belt where indoctrination was already being done in public school (there were a few incidents where we considered reporting them). We have our faith, but were not comfortable with others imparting their brands of faith on our kid. We're very much of the opinion that faith is a sincerely individual decision, and all individuals should have the choice to make an educated decision without others' influence. We answer our kiddo's questions when he has them but he's not pushed to believe what we do...which is good, because my husband and I actually have some slight differences in belief. Since we are not fans of indoctrination and we do not want to confuse or overly influence our son's decision, we use secular curriculums that are available and quite good. We've been focused on getting him caught up on standard academics, but are hoping to be in a position next year where one of his courses will be Religions, where all the majors will be touched upon. Part of the goal of most academic education platforms is to open a child's mind to the variety of knowledge and experiences in the world, and we see that as part of the package.

Anyway... Hope that at least sheds some light on the point that homeschool families do not all look alike. Religion had absolutely nothing to do with our decision, and in our community at least, there's an entire group of families that are solely in it because the education system in our area is lacking and they want their children to have quality educations; the rule of get-togethers are that topics remain secular in nature because the families come from such a wide variety of religions (and lack of) and we all want our children to learn to socialize with people different from them, not nitpick the differences because they're there. Pure academics and our son's well-being were our primary motives to make the change, and it's gone so very well, we are not looking back.

If I were to homeschool my future children, that'll be how I would do it. Bible study and secular academics would be kept separate. I'm not surprised that the teachers in Alabama would try to force their religious beliefs upon their students. Teachers in public schools shouldn't talk about religion at all unless they are talking about it in an academic sense.