I need to make a decision about school for the boys. I have been looking at all my options for the last 2 years, and nothing has me satisfied. I wish there was one great school in my area. One fabulous school worth popping a tent in the parking lot for overnight vigils come registration time. But, alas, nothing. Mediocrity as far as the eye can see. Sure, the school in my district has good test scores, but when I read the reviews online from parents (both good and bad) I start to sweat. For one thing, there is no art. None. Zip, zilch, nada, and GOOSE EGG. I can’t see sending Mikey to a school without art, not when he enjoys it so much and does so well. Aside from English/Reading, it was my favorite subject in school! There also seems to be an issue with the principal, but I hear they have a new one so that complaint may be moot.
I had my eye on what I had heard was a prestigious private school, but the emphasis is entirely on academics. That’s fine, of course, but at what cost? There are no extra-curricular activities and no art. The focus is on achieving high SAT scores. Um, it’s a K-8 school. Should we be worrying about SAT scores in kindergarten? Apparently so. They have a chart showing how much higher your kindergartener’s score would be compared to the national average if you enrolled them in their program. They us the StepMod program. Has anyone heard of it?
Every other private school seems to suffer from inadequate facilities, high turnover among faculty and staff, or uncredentialed faculty. Foiled again.
As you can see, I’m at a loss and I need to make a decision soon. I’ll be honest, homeschooling is looking more and more promising. I used to be against it for various reasons, but now I am not so sure. For those of you who home school (and I know there are many who do in blogland) how did you come to this decision and which curriculum do you use? I’ll be honest, I want to know but I am not entirely sure this is the way to go for my family. Right now I am in the hunter-gathering stage and looking at my options. My main concern is the social aspects, and how home schooled children adapt to high school. Mikey is already “socially immature” according to some, and I don’t want to make matters worse by removing him from a consistent social element. I have more than two brain cells to rub together, so academically I am not worried. I am worried about time commitments and organization.
So, lets hear it: to which education model do you subscribe? Public? Private? Home schooled? How did you come to this decision, and is it one you would decide in the same way given the benefit of hindsight? I’m interested in hearing from everyone, so I hope everyone feels comfortable chiming in.
p.s. I debated all day on posting this topic because, let’s face it, the whole public/private/home school topic is up there with the decision to breast/formula feed and stay at home /work debates that so easily whip everyone into a frenzy. I’m hoping for a civil conversation that includes all sides and doesn’t resort to inflammatory statements. Put it this way, when I broached the home school subject to a mom I know she promptly told me all home schooled children are socially inept and end up in psych wards. Another mom told me all children who attend public school don’t get as strong an education as ones who go to private school, which is funny because another mom told me she would never send her child to private school because they’re full of pedophiles. Basically I’m asking we lay off the hyperboles and stick to the facts as they pertain to you and your family, because right now in my family I’m looking at a whole bunch of evidence of questionable admissibility and I’m hoping you’re just the person to help me out.
To me, what would sound like a good option given the circumstances, would be to send them to the local or not so local public school. That way he does get the social aspects of school and your saving the private school money and that way you can put him into as many art programs outside of school that you want. As far as the education part goes, I think no school is perfect without an educated parent to back up both the teachers and their own student. 50% of your child’s intelligence hinges on how you help them out in all those years of school, so take advantage of your own intelligence and if you’re not up for home schooling, you can act as a tutor to them maybe?? Just my two cents.
I'll give you my 2 cents worth (that may be all it's worth – lol!). I have two kids: 16 yr. old girl & 13 yr. old boy. They have both attended our local public school. It's a good school district, but very large. Academically, their test scores are above avg. for our state. The schools offer both remedial and gifted programs. My daughter has benefited from the gifted programs – my son is an average student. As we near college decisions, ACT, SAT, PSAT's, etc., I'm learning more & more that a WELL ROUNDED student is just as attractive to a college as one that aces the SAT but never played sports, joined a club or participated in extra-curricular activities. I'm seeing parents spending $1,000's on SAT tutoring. That's not to say you shouldn't prepare your child for the SAT, but realistically, they are who they are. They'll achieve & grow at their own levels. In addition to their academic lives, provide opportunities for sports, art, theater – even if that means finding things outside of the school. Don't push – just provide. They'll find their niche. :-)
My girls go to a Charter school. The only private one is regligous. I thought about home school but even though I have a teaching background, I just personally couldn’t do it. We had the oldest at a local school but they had no art or music. So now they get up at 5:20AM to get to the Charter school.
You know my opinion : )
Curriculum answer for me was “none”.
My husband and I have a background in books, so it was easy for me to pick and choose workbooks and literature that would fit my children. I never really liked the one-stop curriculum sets, but that’s me.
I really highly recommend Singapore Math and “Teach your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons” by Englmann.
Art? Give them lots of different materials and let them experiment. Watercolor, pastels, blocks, paper.. you will have a blast too!
Oh, and the social question is moot.If you meet any homeschooled children, they will tell you them selves how anti-social they are, lol!
We do public school- but it’s a smaller school in a small town, so it works for us and the kids. My husband teaches so he works with the boys and has our eldest, who’s 7, doing really cool (and what I’d deem hard for a second grader) word problems and stuff like that (in addition to homework…though have the time he’s just throwing out random questions at random times and it’s become their “thing”). There’s no harm in supplementing your kids like the first poster wrote. There may be art programs in your area that are after school or on weekends- that way he can get school socialization and extra socializing through another program. I’m all for public schools as long as they aren’t terrible- I think having that social time, learning how to work with and around others is invaluable. I also know that I don’t have the patience or know-how to teach my kids the way I want them to do be taught (I’m an Ed-major dropout, LOL). But, I do know moms who’ve homeschooled, done all they need to in like three hours and then spent the day doing other activities. I think it really comes down to your temperment, your kids temperment, and if it’d work for the two of you to be home together all of the time. Just my .02.
I agree with go the public school route and use the savings to supplement with other activities.
Interesting topic Jules :) I really like the “don’t push, just provide” motto that Julie said. It’s so true… kids are so overscheduled with high expectations put upon them.
My oldest daughter just started in our public middle school coming from the private/parochial school my other 3 are in. We plan to move them all into public at grade 6 provided we are pleased which so far we are.
I think we’d all love to provide our kids with the best school money can buy (whether it be tuition or the county you buy your home in) but it is simply not possible for everyone. In the meantime you do what you can do and assist them to thrive and be the best they can be in any situation you throw at them. Isn’t that the ultimate goal? To be kind, well adjusted, thoughtful people ultimately? In my opinion there are lots of paths to that final result :)
Maybe you can send them to private school and have a tutor come to the home for private art lessons! I have it on my schedule of things to-do hire a kid from the art store to teach me how to watercolor (most of the workers have art degrees).
You might even be able to get a group of kids from the same school to help with cost and also to create a social environment for the kids to interact. Each semester try a different art-photography (never too young to start), ceramics etc. at a different parents home (so you’re not stuck with 9 years of responsibility (and clean-up).
I would have died if I was home-schooled (and may have turned out illiterate) but I went to a Magnet (I suppose it’s like a Charter school) it’s public school with very small classes and a specific directive-mine was zoo/biological science I had 4 classes at the zoo and 2 at the ‘normal’ school but they have these schools for the arts, computers, business, whatever you can think of. They are free and usually have the best teachers. The only ‘con’ would be the kids usually need to be bussed to a different area but you could drive them…Just my two cents…Good luck:)
I send my kids to public schools, I’m not cut out to do the homeschooling thing! We are fortunate to be in the best school district in the state and so far the kiddos are doing really well. They don’t offer art every day, they do electives (music, art, gym,computer lab) on a rotating basis, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do tons of art type projects in their regular classrooms.
Okay, I’m not a mom BUT I’ve attended every possible type of school (montessori, private, public, gifted and talented programs in public schools) as has my 14 year old brother (who is obnoxiously smart but super lazy) so I do know a little about school varieties. Based on my experience, and that of my brother, it doesn’t as much matter what type of school you go to (especially in elementary school) as long as your parents support you in a way that allows you to grow into an individual. So I say go with the public school (and why not see if there isn’t a public school that offers art and see if you can get permission to go to that one instead of your district school?) and, while not being that overly harpy parent, don’t be afraid to get involved. If they don’t offer a separate art class tell the teacher it’s really important to you and offer to come in for an hour once a week to help them with an art lesson (or something like that, you get my drift). And if the teacher rubs you the wrong way, really don’t be afraid to change! My parents (my mom was a pub school teacher) switched my brother into a different class with a better when he was in 2nd grade and it made a world of difference. And, ugh, don’t even think about the SATs for another ten years. Seriously. I got a perfect score not because my parents trained me from infancy (or, for that matter, even noticed that I had taken them until halfway through my senior year) but because they raised me with respect to the unique person I was and, by encouraging me to pursue the things I was interested in, imparted within me an internal drive to do well. Besides, the fact that you’re fretting so much over it shows that you care so they’ll turn out well no matter what you choose!
p.s. oh my god i’m sorry that was so long
I have 2 grown girls (Nicole – Making it lovely and Ashley) and two little ones now. My son is going to a private/parochial school for prekindergarten as it was the best Pre-school option for us, and it gave us a head start into a full day kindergarten (our public schools are 1/2 days). If I continue to stay home he will likely go to public school for kindergarten.
Fortunately, we live in a suburb of Chicago with a very good public school system. One thing to consider, and I don’t know if your state is the same as ours, but if ever there is any need for special assistance for your child – speech, hearing, ADD, etc. the public school systems are better equipped than private schools and better able to offer assistance to the child during the course of the school day.
My third oldest lisped a bit when she spoke and the school put her in speech classes for less than the school year and worked with her until she lost the lisp.
If you are up to home schooling and are really unhappy with your other options, playdates and other “kid group-type” settings should help with socialization.
Art, music and sports can always be supplemented, assuming you have good options near where you live.
Whatever you decide, the best of luck to you. I think, along with many of your posters, all in all the more involved the parents are -whatever the situation, the better the child does in school academically and just in general.
Wow. You all have such great points. “Don’t push, just provide,” “there are many paths to the end result,” these and more were all such great comments that make you really think. Thanks for all the feedback. I’m going to print out these comments (along with the great emails I received–thank you!!) and give it some thought. I’ve decided the best thing for me to do is schedule appointments with the schools and do some observations and ask lots of questions.
I would be happy with a rotating elective, like Chrissy mentioned (p.s. Chrissy! I’ve missed you!).
I’ll have to look into the Charter/Magnet schools Lillie and Miss B mentioned. Miss B, I am so jealous you spent so much time at the zoo! No wonder animals are so heavily featured in your designs. :)
Hannah–thanks! Did you really score a perfect score on your SATs? Wow! Thanks for your great perspective. Nice to hear from a student who has seen it all. I only have experience with private Catholic schools, and for me it was great–no complaints. But, that same school now is not so hot
This is a tough subject for sure! I will be struggling with you as well in the coming year. Particularly because I came from a public school system and I turned out just fine education-wise. But then that was years ago and I am sure things have changed drastically then, such as the no art class in public school these days.
I can’t even think about home-schooling because I have no patience to tackle that.
I don’t have children, so I can’t be much help! But here’s my personal experience. I went to public school in a great district. I feel that I got a decent education. If you’re judging by SAT scores (which I don’t recommend), I did really well. Although my GPA wasn’t outstanding because I was too lazy for homework. But look at me now, I’m sharp as a, uh, sharp thing.
Right before high school, I begged my parents for the opportunity to go to private school. Private Catholic school. Crazy, right? I had such a horrible middle school experience, socially, that I just wanted to go some place new, where my nerdy reputation would be wiped clean. But after a few tours and an entrance exam, I changed my mind because their music program was lacking. It was either public school with a band consisting of nearly 300 members, or private school with a barely 40 member band. And at this point in my life, where I assumed I’d be going to Julliard to become a professional flautist, it wasn’t going to work. I often wonder how my life would have turned out if I chose private school instead. But if I hadn’t survived through the juvenile caste system hell that was public school, I wouldn’t be who I am today! (Sorry that wasn’t helpful!)