Why We Began Home Schooling...part 1...public school

My daughter, C, always had a love of learning. I spent her baby months teaching her colors, ABCs and counting. By the time she was 18 months old she not only could recite the alphabet, she could recognize and find each letter. Through her toddler years we spent hours each day working puzzles, playing games, reading, and learning songs, shapes, and all the other typical "toddler stuff". When she was 3, I felt she needed to have a few hours each day to be around little children her age, and to learn more. So I sent her off to preschool, where I discovered she already knew all the things they were teaching. I still felt it was "good" for her to be with other kids, though, and I was very actively involved with her classroom, coming in and helping the teachers a couple times a week, going on all field trips, and daily helping the other little ones with pick up and drop off at the bus area.

Everyone praised me for such a smart daughter, but I really didn't think THEN, and I STILL don't think that she was really any SMARTER; she just had a mother who spent her days working with her from infancy onward, teaching her things. When I couldn't think of any more to teach her I bought C workbooks for math and spelling and reading and writing, and worked with her more. At that time I had never HEARD of home schooling, and I wouldn't have considered it if I HAD heard of it. Little did I know that I WAS home schooling.

C turned 5, and off she went to Kindergarten. And that's where it all fell apart. She spent the first semester crying and begging not to go to school. There were a couple of boys in her class who taunted her, poking her with pencils as she tried to do her worksheets, calling her very vulgar names (fat c*nt, and dumb b**ch the 2 most frequently used). These boys caused her to be afraid of going to school, and because of her fears I felt like a horrible mother forcing her to go every day to a place that was "good" for her. I spoke with her teacher, and her teacher said, " I know, these boys are horrible, but there is nothing we can do about it. They come from troubled homes, and we are supposed to give them leniency. They call ME those same names." Well, I couldn't believe THAT. There is no way a teacher is going to be told to ALLOW that kind of language and bullying, and I was horrified this was going on in KINDERGARTEN! So, I took my issues to the principal, and lo and behold, the teacher had not been misinformed, the principal ALSO told me these boys come from troubled homes, and need encouragement, not discipline. Well, I'm all for encouraging children, but not in negative behaviors that involve verbal and physical abuse! I wondered if these children were so abusive and vulgar at the age of FIVE, what would they be like in HIGH SCHOOL?!? What kind of men would they be? How would they treat their wives or girlfriends when they were older?

Well, I guess the teacher and principal got tired of me being a pest and not shutting up about what my daughter had to endure every day, because one day in January, they called and informed me that they were having a little problem with C. Since she was so unhappy in Mrs. C's class, they switched her into Mr. D's class. They didn't let either of us know they were going to switch her, they didn't prepare C, they just pulled her out of class one day and told her she had to go be in Mr. D's class. Mr. D was a brand new teacher. He had never taught before, until this semester. They gave him a class of 12 children. C had LOVED her "old" teacher, and while she had to endure abuses no ADULT should put up with, let alone a child, she was, quite naturally, scared and didn't know anyone in this new class other than....the 2 boys who had spent the first semester tormenting her. Yes, THEY were switched into Mr D.'s class too!!!! The principal told me C was having a little problem. I asked, "What do you mean?" And the principal said, "Well Mr. D can't get her to lift her head off the desk. She has been crying since this morning when we put her in his class. She wouldn't even get out of her seat to have lunch. " Mind you, this was at 2:00, just minutes before I was walking out the door to go pick her up.

After meeting Mr. D, and talking with him about a half hour with C included in the conversation, I decided to give his class a try. As this was his first semester teaching, they had only given him a small class. They gave him a few of the kids who caused problems. And C was deemed a problem causer for 2 reasons: 1.) because the other children picked on her, and 2.) because she already knew everything they were trying to teach the rest of her class, and so spent much of her time reading books because she finished her work so early, and they didn't know what to do with her. We agreed to have C be in his class for 2 weeks only. If, after 2 weeks, she still wanted to go back to Mrs. C's class she could.

Mr. D personally called me every day letting me know how she was doing. The first few days she refused to do anything but cry, and refused to eat lunch or go outside for recess. She, literally, would not leave her desk. However, by the end of 2 weeks, C began joyfully running to meet me when I picked her up, telling me all about new things she was learning, cool things the class was doing, and best of all....the 2 little boys who had been so mean to her all along and yet had been transferred into Mr. D's class...well Mr. D didn't tolerate their language, their bullying, and their disruptiveness. Somehow HE managed to run a class, teach the children, and keep the children under control. Mr. D felt so bad for C; he felt personally responsible for her being moved into his classroom, and being so sad, scared, and miserable. So, he made it a personal goal to make her LIKE school, make her ENJOY coming, and show her that no one would be allowed to hurt her in his class.

By the end of the school year, C had learned tons. She was reading fluently, waking up smiling, excited to go to school, and was only sad when she realized that finishing kindergarten meant leaving her beloved Mr. D behind. ALL the children put in his class loved that man, even the 2 little boys who had been so out of control. Well, heck, *I* loved that man...he gave me back my happy little girl who LIKED school. I thought so highly of his teaching and classroom abilities I wrote a letter to the administration and the school board on his behalf because they weren't sure they wanted to keep him on in our district,, because he was so new. Funny, how a tenured teacher and a principal couldn't figure out how to manage troubled kids, and one accelerated child, but a 23 year old fresh out of college not only managed just fine, he fostered respect, kindness, and a love of learning.

To be continued.....