I have a very specific opinion about public schools. What is put in front of me in the news does not help either. I am very aware that I am only hearing the bad news. I know there are great schools out there. I know there are heroic teachers out there. I think those are becoming the exceptions rather than the rule these days.
Two new tidbits of information that I have discovered that tells me what we're doing is probably the right thing.
1) Did a candle party last month for a group of women in the city directly north of me. All of them were teachers from the same school district in that area. They also were from all over the country. And they were all in their mid 20's. Young, vibrant, excited young educators. What caught my eye is one gal literally lives right around the corner from me. I asked her why she decided to not work in our school district.
She tried! What made her want to move here was her husband got a career making job here. Once that was established, she contacted the local school district and was told, "You really don't want to work here. If you do get hired, you'll be pink slipped after a year anyway." (Pink slip means laid off.) Wowsa! So my school district would rather not hire new blood or even let this gal put in an application.
This gal then took the next step and did a search of school districts within 20 miles of here. She found the district she works for now and called them. Much different response! "Oh we would love to talk to you. We have a booth at your upcoming job fair next week. Please talk to the recruiter there and give them your application!"
Big difference. My school district does not recruit, does not want new educators, and turns away new teachers. The school district north of me is actively looking for and paying for recruiting to other parts of the country. They want new, young, educators. They do not turn away people.
2) Okay, enough about the state of my school district. How about in San Diego? It has just been discovered that fluently speaking Spanish students are taking AP Spanish classes, and many are questioning such redundancy. Think about that for a second. Why? Well, click here to see what some are thinking.
I agree with all the points brought up by critics to this kind of education mentioned in this article. To pad GPA's because AP classes quickly raise GPA's. To pad GPA's so students have a good looking transcript for colleges, who perk up when they see A's in AP level coursework. Redundancy as well as complete misuse of such resources.
One person definitely brought up a point in this article that I think is worthy of note. This kind of hideous use of skimpy school resources teaches kids how to "work the system". How to abuse a system for their benefit instead of what it was intended for. Considering that California has lost about 8 1/2 million in their education budget, this is wasteful.
And to quote my good friend on this issue, "Even on my worst homeschooling day, my kids are getting a better education than they would in a public school."
We had a hideous week last week in school, and I doubted myself for a bit. "Am I doing the right thing? Is JM learning? Maybe he would do better in a classroom?" Well, a chat with the hubbie helped. We listed all the pluses that were happening. JM has good grades right now. His teacher was a huge support to me last week when I just dropped my head on the desk and cried. She gave me a shoulder to cry on and some new tools. JM would definitely use the classroom setting to dilly dally and get out of doing things. He would also be completely distracted by his peers. For sure, he would not have the grades he has now, and certainly would be at academic risk.
On our worst day, he still learns.
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