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Funky Litt
I am a teacher in the UK, and I am interested in the popularity of home-schooling in the US as it doesn't really happen here. Could you tell me please, for what reasons would you choose to home-school? Do you think they get a better education, and in what way? Thank you!
Answer
Hello from across the pond!
I don't know much about UK schools or UK homeschoolers. I don't know why other people choose homeschool in the US, but I can tell you why my family chose homeschool. It had nothing to do with sheltering or overprotection. I had no religious motivation either. Our child had been in Head Start since she was three. We are a reading family and had read to her everyday since she was old enough to sit in a lap an listen. She was bright, vivacious, curious and intelligent. At 5 she went into kindergarten. That is when they began pushing us to drug our child. There were veiled threats. (If we refused to medicate, the school might be forced to consider us neglectful parents. We knew that a visit from a state social worker would follow.) There was refusal to seek any other solution to the schools inability to teach our child. By third grade my kid was on uppers in the morning and afternoon and downers at night to sleep. She could not read and she could not do simple math. She was not growing and was notably smaller than the other children in her class. She had perpetual dark rings under her eyes. She was terribly thin, because the medications killed her appetite. She wanted to eat, but could not. If you've seen a meth addict try to eat, you know what it was like to watch my child at mealtime. It broke my heart. Still, the teachers never stopped asking me to have the doctor up her medication. We begged for and finally demanded an IEP. Suddenly, the school began to tell us our child was making progress; we didn't need to worry anymore. Yet, at home we could tell she still had no grasp of the work that was being sent home unfinished at the end of the day. It was clear that the school just wanted my husband and I to go away. The last straw came when a note was sent home saying that all the students had been tested and out child scored as though she had only been in first grade for one month. The note contained a list of things WE needed to do to get our child up to grade level. We had had enough. It was useles to change schools. In our area this elemetary school is considered one of the best because the majority of kids score so highly on standardized tests. We decided to homeschool. My child is now completely drug free and learning. Apparently, the problem was never with her body chemistry, but with the way she was being taught. She had started to see herself as stupid before. She had been so withdrawn and sad that she never had a chance to play because from the moment she came home until the moment she went to bed, we were trying to get her schoolwork completed. She was never able to complete it in class. She's now confident and happy.
So here we are about two years later: She's put on a normal amount of weight. Her cheeks are pink and she is neither somber nor hyper. She is a normal, active child. She has discovered interests in; Sign Language, art, Shakespeare, Japanese culture, etc. Because of our flexible curriculum, she can explore these interests at her whim. This keeps education exciting, as it should be. She has a full and varied social life. Her PE consists of Yoga, martial arts classes, trampoline jumping and walking and biking with friends in the neighborhood. Where she was isolated before, now she is free to participate in a variety of community activities with a wider variety of people.
I'm rambling horribly, but anyway, that is why we homeschool.
Hello from across the pond!
I don't know much about UK schools or UK homeschoolers. I don't know why other people choose homeschool in the US, but I can tell you why my family chose homeschool. It had nothing to do with sheltering or overprotection. I had no religious motivation either. Our child had been in Head Start since she was three. We are a reading family and had read to her everyday since she was old enough to sit in a lap an listen. She was bright, vivacious, curious and intelligent. At 5 she went into kindergarten. That is when they began pushing us to drug our child. There were veiled threats. (If we refused to medicate, the school might be forced to consider us neglectful parents. We knew that a visit from a state social worker would follow.) There was refusal to seek any other solution to the schools inability to teach our child. By third grade my kid was on uppers in the morning and afternoon and downers at night to sleep. She could not read and she could not do simple math. She was not growing and was notably smaller than the other children in her class. She had perpetual dark rings under her eyes. She was terribly thin, because the medications killed her appetite. She wanted to eat, but could not. If you've seen a meth addict try to eat, you know what it was like to watch my child at mealtime. It broke my heart. Still, the teachers never stopped asking me to have the doctor up her medication. We begged for and finally demanded an IEP. Suddenly, the school began to tell us our child was making progress; we didn't need to worry anymore. Yet, at home we could tell she still had no grasp of the work that was being sent home unfinished at the end of the day. It was clear that the school just wanted my husband and I to go away. The last straw came when a note was sent home saying that all the students had been tested and out child scored as though she had only been in first grade for one month. The note contained a list of things WE needed to do to get our child up to grade level. We had had enough. It was useles to change schools. In our area this elemetary school is considered one of the best because the majority of kids score so highly on standardized tests. We decided to homeschool. My child is now completely drug free and learning. Apparently, the problem was never with her body chemistry, but with the way she was being taught. She had started to see herself as stupid before. She had been so withdrawn and sad that she never had a chance to play because from the moment she came home until the moment she went to bed, we were trying to get her schoolwork completed. She was never able to complete it in class. She's now confident and happy.
So here we are about two years later: She's put on a normal amount of weight. Her cheeks are pink and she is neither somber nor hyper. She is a normal, active child. She has discovered interests in; Sign Language, art, Shakespeare, Japanese culture, etc. Because of our flexible curriculum, she can explore these interests at her whim. This keeps education exciting, as it should be. She has a full and varied social life. Her PE consists of Yoga, martial arts classes, trampoline jumping and walking and biking with friends in the neighborhood. Where she was isolated before, now she is free to participate in a variety of community activities with a wider variety of people.
I'm rambling horribly, but anyway, that is why we homeschool.
How did Australian kids get to school in the 1950s?
Aeleriax3
did most of them walk, get driven, ride a bike or...?
and also, what type of cars would you find at a school car park in the 1950s?
thanks
Answer
They walked, got driven, or took public transportation. The "yellow school buses" one sess in the US and Canada are completely unknown in Australia.
In a 1950s school car park in Australia, you'd see lots of (FJ) Holdens (which are known as "Opals" in Europe and "Chevrolets" in North America), Fords, and a lot of UK and US imports ("Brit Flits" and "Yank Tanks") and of course, the Volkswagen Beetle, which was popular around the world.
"Hello" is quite right. Importing a car from the UK or Germany made that car cost easily 1/3 more than they would, which is why Holden did (and does) so incredibly well in Australia, though Japanese imports (like Toyoata, Mazda, and Subaru) are currentyl the most popular cars in Australia.
They walked, got driven, or took public transportation. The "yellow school buses" one sess in the US and Canada are completely unknown in Australia.
In a 1950s school car park in Australia, you'd see lots of (FJ) Holdens (which are known as "Opals" in Europe and "Chevrolets" in North America), Fords, and a lot of UK and US imports ("Brit Flits" and "Yank Tanks") and of course, the Volkswagen Beetle, which was popular around the world.
"Hello" is quite right. Importing a car from the UK or Germany made that car cost easily 1/3 more than they would, which is why Holden did (and does) so incredibly well in Australia, though Japanese imports (like Toyoata, Mazda, and Subaru) are currentyl the most popular cars in Australia.
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