Reason Number 4- Teacher Layoffs

As the state faces budget crisis it seems it's the local law enforcement and teachers who are taking the hit. I'm not really sure how less teachers teaching our students and less law enforcement on the streets is supposed to help property tax values, thus helping the budget....  but then, I'm not the one working on the budget.  What I do know is, today, as one local school district eliminates 550 teachers I am very glad that I have chosen to home school my kids.  I absolutely believe that the reduction of staff at the school level, the teacher level will have a negative impact on these kids.  I have several friends who are teachers and my kids were also once in public school, and what I believe is that the teachers (at least here around my house) are very dedicated, do whatever they can without really being given everything they need to teach the kids.  Many of the teachers work long hours and supply extra things for their classroom to make up where the district falls short.  These teachers are paid very meager salaries and deal with a whole lot.  I'll never understand why teachers get such a short end on the stick when they personally deal with our very most important "possessions"- our children.

To all of the local public school teachers- this is one homeschool mom who is praying for you and your fellow educators.  It is just plain wrong that we're taking money out of education in this state.

Read an article about this topic here:
ABC 13
Houston Chronicle

Reason Number 3-Diversity!

People have many assumptions about homeschooling.  Many people assume that only the religious weirdos homeschool, or only people with kids with special needs, or only the granolas out there.  The truth is there are people from all walks of life, all faiths, all social areas who homeschool their children and their reasons are as diverse as you can imagine.  When I started homeschooling I had a friend tell me my children were going to be weird.  I figured they might be, but they’d be weird in public school or they’d be weird homeschoolers…  Being homeschooled wasn’t going to change that

The truth is, if you’re willing, there are SO many opportunities out there for homeschoolers, that you can achieve so much. 

This is an article a friend of mine shared about some of the many reasons other families homeschool.  I like the way it lays it out there and celebrated diversity.  If you have a chance, it’s worth the read.

So why do you homeschool?  Or why don’t you?  I’d love to share!

10 Reasons Public School is Better than Homeschool

Got this in my email and had to share... 

Top 10 Reasons Public School is Better than Homeschool:

1.    Most parents were educated in the underfunded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.

2.    Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.

3.    How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

4.    Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

5.    Children in public schools can get more practice “Just Saying No” to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

6.    Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

7.    Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.

8.    The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.

9.    Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of “Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”

10. Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight. 

--Author Unknown

Reason Number 2

My younger son was bullied in Kindergarten.  Yes, Kindergarten.  Looking  back, I would actually call it sexual harassment.  Another Kindergartener kept searching him out and telling him "When you love someone you suck their balls" and showing him what that meant.  After multiple attempts to get the school to do something we ultimately pulled him out.  The teachers tried to empower him, but when you have as many kids as they did there is only so much you can do.  When there are like 300 kids on the playground at a time you can't see everything.  The administrative staff at Sheridan Elementary, where my son went to school, minimized all of my complaints.  At the end of his Kindergarten year I asked the principal to please make sure that he and the other child were not in the same class.  When class lists came out the next year they were in the same class again.  When I went to the principal about it she told me it was because they both tested into the gifted cluster.  Then she told me the only thing she could do was move Grego since I was the one complaining...  Um YEAH I am complaining!  So she moved him into a English as a Second Language class...  putting him at a disadvantage.  He ended up having a good year, but the more I volunteered at the school the more I saw how powerless the teachers were against this type of behavior among other types.

When will we wake up?  Now I've heard that the same child was bullying a friend of Gregory's and once again the school did nothing.  That child's parents are now homeschooling him too.  If I had it to do over I would have called the cops.  Don't let your child be bullied...  And don't trust the school to handle it.  It's not working that way.

Here's a story on 1 Ohio school, 4 teens dead....

Reason Number 1

Teacher Accused Of Soliciting Sex From Minor

Thomas Calvin Vickers Works In Conroe ISD

In Conroe, Texas  junior high school teacher has been accused of soliciting a minor for sex.

Thomas Calvin Vickers

The man's name is Thomas Calvin Vickers, and he is 42 years old.  Officials said an undercover officer posed as a 14-year-old girl during an online chat with Vickers.Vickers displayed lewd images of himself and solicited sex from a deputy constable he thought was a child, deputies said.Detectives said he also showed lewd images of what appeared to be juvenile females.Vickers teaches seventh- and eighth-grade history and is the head of the school's history department.  He was arrested Thursday outside of the school he teaches at on two accounts of enticing a child and one count of promotion of child pornography.

Welcome!

Welcome to the newest addition to my blog family :)  This idea has been in my head for a while, but I've never had the time to implement it.  I still don't really have the time, so I considered just adding a feature to my Nailing Jello Blog, but I really want that to be more of a cornucopia, so I decided to go ahead and just start this blog.

I really really want to say first and foremost that this is a blog that is about my feelings on homeschooling.  The most important thing I want you to know about that, is that I believe homeschooling is best for my family at this time, but I do not believe it to be the best choice for every family or even every child in said families.

I have a mixture of friends in both worlds, and I  have a great deal of respect for all of them, and their decision for their family.  I welcome (and love) comments on my blog, but I ask that you understand that this is not a blog intended to bash public schoolers, or their families, so be respectful.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this blog.  And I hope I'm able to update it regularly :)