A couple days ago I was using that wonderful Internet tool called Stumbleupon (SU). If you are not familiar with it…basically you join, you choose the type of web sites you like to surf (aka parenting, homemaking, gardening, etc.) you download the SU toolbar and then when you hit the Stumble button on your toolbar you get taken to a random site or blog that matches your preferences. You can give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down and you can leave reviews. I get LOTS of traffic from Stumbleupon as people submit my blog posts for surfing (the SU link is at the bottom of every post).
As I mentioned, I like to surf using Stumbleupon because I like to visit new sites and find cool links. Primarily I surf sites related to homeschooling, parenting, homemaking, and environment.
Now of course you may be wondering what in the sam dickens this has to do with public school. Well, I found a ‘cool’ article that basically berates public education and talks about the author’s experiences and those found in the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin the cartoon despises school.
My first thought was that the author was being a bit harsh. After all I really liked school for the most part. I had lots of friends, I had nice teachers (including the dreamy Mr. Belden) and I got good grades. School was pretty much a cake walk for me. BUT as I was reading this man’s thoughts I started to remember my older brother who did not have such an easy time in school. Of course that has more to do with the fact that he is a clinical genius and was smarter than every teacher they could muster up and he was bored out of his mind.
Then I started to recall how my husband hated school with a passion and then some of the remarks about school making us compliant and docile started to hit home. When I graduated highschool (at 16) I went immediately into college so I could get a “good job”. I didn’t particularly care if I liked the job I just wanted a job that meant good money because school teaches that freedom isn’t free. Good citizens get good paying jobs like drones or worker bees. Basically public school encourages sheepism. If you want happiness you have to pay for it.
Remember what that CA judge said recently after he declared homeschooling to fall outside our constitutional rights as parents. He said the primary function of public schools is to teach “good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare”. Barf…
Fast forward several years and I was doing marketing and advertising and I was good at it. The money was good and I had financial freedom. But after only 4 years I wasn’t happy. I wanted to be home with my son and I was about to have another baby and I didn’t want to have my kids being raised by someone else. If I was passionate about my work that might make it easier but having to go to a place I was coming to dread every day while someone else got to see the first smiles and hear the first words was unbearable. Public school didn’t teach me to figure out what I loved and what I was passionate about. Not in the least.
Education should not just be about learning academically. It should also be about learning about yourself and finding what energizes you. Now after more than 4 years at home I have found what energizes me. I love to write, I love to blog, I love to design web sites and graphics, I love affiliate marketing, I love activism, I love community involvement, I love helping my kids figure out what energizes them and being there for them 100%. The pay isn’t quite what it used to be but I am free and happy. You can’t put a price tag on that. I wake up every day excited to be right where I am.
Looking back I can see how I could have seen the signs when I was in school but I had public school induced tunnel vision. I did what I was told…period…end of story. Well, I can’t say that applies to me anymore. ;) If only my mother had homeschooled me. She used to to tell me I could do anything in the world I wanted to do…that if I could dream it…I could do it. But I learned to not believe her. Now as she tells my kids that same thing I am right there beside her telling them more of the same.
If I had been homeschooled and allowed to pursue the things that interested me and energized me I can pretty much guarantee that I would not have done much math. And this would have been a-okay. Math doesn’t interest me…in the least. I walked away from public school thinking I was math challenged but all it took was a cool college chemistry teacher to show me that I could do math just fine….when it had practical application. My apparent inability to grasp math in school had a negative impact on my overall opinion of myself.
Now my seven year old son, who during spring break made a graph calculating the number of gallons of water that could potentially be held inside the Delaware dam near our home…is struggling with reading and writing. His teachers tell me I need to work him hard on those two issues but yet he wants to sit on the couch with his notebook and work with numbers. How long will it be before he starts to feel academically inferior simply because his strengths lay somewhere else?
Public school might work out famously for some but the reality is that for many others it is simply NOT a good option. My brother, my husband, Calvin, B.R. Merrick…public schools strangled them. School for them is drudgery. And even those people who think their public school experience was positive (like me), they might unexpectedly find that their schooling made them docile and they forgot to dream and find a life’s work that energizes them and actually makes them happy.
It also should make people realize that if homeschooling isn’t an option (and for many it isn’t) parents need to be on guard that their kids are not pushed and molded into something that just isn’t them. I think my son’s teacher thinks I am a bit “out there” with my advice to my son about not conforming. I have gotten lecture notes from her about why she thinks something I have “taught” my son is not appropriate, LOL. It is almost always about how I tell him it is okay to color outside the lines, so to speak. But yet when face to face and I explain MY view on this or that she concedes that perhaps that is the way things “should” be but it is not the way they “are” in public school settings.
But still I am letting my kids choose…public or home schooling. That is unless public schooling is proving to be harmful to their sense of self worth…either way I will be actively involved in the whole process.
Other points in the article I liked…Merrick gives ten life lessons that you learn from public school. Number nine is “stay away from the weird kids”. I had too laugh at that one but it is true. How many schools teach that diversity in appearance, attitude, and opinion is a good thing? They don’t. They want everyone to be the same….like sheep. The kid with pink hair and a dog collar who recites Tolstoy gets ostracized while in my experience they were the one most likely to be interesting.
Number one is “Learning, like work, is not meant to be enjoyable.” Ugh…I actually caught myself saying this essentially to my oldest the other day. We agreed that he would finish out the school year at public and then we would start our homeschool adventure. Well, I have been having a tough time getting him motivated to go.
Payton: Why do I have to go to school?
Mom: Because for right now it is your responsibility.
Payton: Why?
Mom: Well, it is kind of like a job. You know how Papa doesn’t like to go to work everyday but he does it anyway because it is his job and his responsibility. School is your job….even if you don’t like to go.
Somebody slap me! I just told my kid that learning is drudgery and not meant to be fun. Why don’t I just compare it to how I have to clean the toilets in the house. Maybe that would go over better. I think I need the homeschool experience more than he does.
Anyway, kudos to B.R. Merrick for an insightful article.
Be sure to see the excellent coments below!
Oooh… I loved this! You have summed quite nicely the problems I have with public school. I used to feel much the same way- I personally had a positive experience in school so I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I was blessed with a “crazy, out there” professor in teaching school of all places, in my educational philosophy class, who got me questioning the purpose of education. After that class, I had a hard time wanting to teach in public schools- where I really didn’t have much control over a lot of things, so now I’m homeschooling
Dawn’s last blog post..What’s Inside My Purse
Tiffany,
I am going to try not to be biased (as a public school teacher) because I am also a parent and I want my children to be where they will thrive and learn to their greatest potential. In fact, I have wanted this for every single student I have ever taught. I think what we have to do is not be so general because public school serves many very well and the children are not treated like a herd of sheep and to all be the same. I actually resent that as a teacher. Uniquness and individuallity is very important to me and many fellow teachers I know. Public school administrators, districts, individual schools, teachers and curriculum are not all the same and as unified as one might think. Private school, home school, alternative education, online school, and public school are all options and what we should be recognizing is how wonderful all of these options are. Not one is better than the other. Instead, they provide choices and give parents and children more opportunities to foster growth. When a parent chooses to homeschool that is their choice but if one is unhappy with the public schools pulling them out to homeschool isn’t always the only option.
One last comment, your discussion with your son, wasn’t that bad, in my opinion. Telling your son it was his responsibility isn’t telling him that school is drudgery or doesn’t have to be fun. It is being a realistic mom and pointing out that sometimes we don’t want to do things but once we’re there it’s what we make of it. I don’t like to get up and change diapers and wash sippy cups but I love to play with my kids and get hugs and kisses and teach them. Sometimes you might not like to go some place but you like to see your friends and you like recess and you like math, etc. Pointing out the positives changes the entire conversation.
As always, great post.
Sommer’s last blog post..Win a BPA FREE CamelBak Water Bottle (no fooling)!
I had a positive public school experience…mostly… but I also had teachers who allowed us to question the norm and encouraged us to think rather than recite. My husband was homeschooled and unfortunately has his mother’s academic weaknesses, which plagued him in college and continue to do so today. Our intent is to put our son in a private school with student-lead lessons (i.e. recognizing cues and introducing concepts/lessons around those cues) and multi-age classrooms.
That being said, if our son is not thriving in that situation, we will pursue other options. No need for him to hate school/learning/etc.
Maria’s last blog post..Basketball mourning….
Tiffany have you read John Taylor Gatto’s books? I just finished reading The Underground History of American Education and I challenge anyone to read it and not see HUGE gaping problems with the public school system.
I’m geting ready to write a review of the book on my blog soon. He puts into words what I feel, and much more eloquently than I can. And he was a public school teacher for over 30 years.
Carrie’s last blog post..Attachment Parenting Website For Sale
As a public school teacher, I completely agree with Sommer’s comment. While it cannot be said that all public school teachers try hard to teach to the individual learner and foster creative learning and independent learning, there are some out there that do!
One of our favorite books is “Better Than School” by Nancy Wallace. it is older, but it’s a great story about a family who created their home to be a place of learning for their children, and in doing so raised kids well ahead of their peers. It’s a book that has motivated us to fill our home with books, musical instruments, and other equipment necessary to engage our kids in a way that it fun for them.
Jessica
http://www.practicalnourishment.com
Sommer and Sara,
I don’t think the problem is the teachers or administrators for the most part. Often times they have to struggle with the same issues I mentioned above. In fact my son’s teacher doesn’t actually think my son is academically behind at all…but yet the standards she HAS to follow would require here to flunk my son out if his reading and writing doesn’t improve and fall in line with cookie cutter standards. That is her reality and she doesn’t agree with it. I feel for teachers who want to teach a certain way and can’t.
Maria,
I understand your point that not all parents are qualified to be their chidlren’s one and only teacher…kind of. But most homeschoolers I know…myself included…will outsource what we can’t do. My son loves math so if he wants to learn advanced algebra and calculus I know that I will not be the best person to teach him…although my hubby could. Sooo…I will get him a math tutor when that times comes. If he wants to learn to play the violin I will get him a voilin teacher. If he wants to learn Japanese I will hook him up with the resources he needs. MOST of the homeschool mamas I know would do the same.
IMO being a ceritified teacher doesn’t automatically make you qualifed to teach.
“IMO being a ceritified teacher doesn’t automatically make you qualifed to teach.”
Exactly. My husband’s mom is a college educated certified teacher in the state of Texas, and now that the kids are out of the house, she does teach in a school, and it FREAKS ME OUT! Super sadly, IMO, is that they were a part of a Homeschool Association, but they still did not get the help they needed in some subjects.
I have no problem with homeschooling. I know it does not work for me at this time, and those who can do it and do it well should be rewarded rather than chastised, but those who are not qualified and/or have weaknesses they are unwilling to admit create a bad image for those who are doing it well.
Maria’s last blog post..Basketball mourning….
First I would like to respond to Sommer and Sara. I am training to become a public school teacher. I am actually getting ready to do my student teaching. As I have gone through the program, learned about the public school system, and done internships in classrooms, I am more and more sure of my decision to home school my kids when they get to that age. Yes, I have run into a few teachers that try their hardest to meet each child’s needs and want to go against the grain. But realistically, I haven’t seen it to work very well. There IS a cookie cutter standard and if a child doesn’t meet that standard they are labeled. Which unfortunately can effect the way that child feels about himself and effect the way his peers think about him. I definitely believe that there are better options to public school. Let me backtrack to when I was growing up. I never particularly liked school. Didn’t hate it but didn’t like it either. I didn’t start going to school until 1st grade. My mom kept us home and we did projects with her. When people ask me about it now I can tell you the moment I stopped liking to learn. The moment I stepped into my 1st grade classroom. We were all doing the same worksheets and doing the same boring reading. When I go into a classroom I don’t find to many kids that actually want to be there. This just gets worse as the kids get older. Learning should be fun! I didn’t start to think learning could be fun until I met my husband and he showed me that I could learn things on my own. It took a while to start thinking outside the box of what I had been taught learning is. In the past three years I have learned more that I ever have, but only because I have made the effort to learn. If I had continued the line of thinking I learned in public schools I would still be under the impression that learning is boring. All that being said, I decided to go to school to become a teacher because I want to change the way public schools are now. We shouldn’t have a list of things that students have to have done by a certain age. We shouldn’t be teaching to the test. Every time I walk into one of my education classes at school I get frustrated because things seem to be getting worse and not better. As a person training to be a public school teacher, I would NEVER put my kids in public school. I am still going to be actively involved in changing the way public school is run, but until things actually change my kids won’t go there.
Ok…this is getting long so now I want to comment on the actually article. I loved it! I am going to forward it on to my friends. I thought that the 10 reasons to not like public school were very true. And Calvin is one of my favorite cartoons. :o)
Great post Tiffany.
Haven’t read it Carrie. I will put it on my Amazon wishlist!
Good post. I am a teacher who is a SAHM now. I have taught in both public, private and parochial. I considered homeschool, but have made the choice to not. I did fine in school, but I would have benefited from a more rigid curriculum that the public schools offer rather than the more loose curriculum offered at my parochial high school.
My problem is that I hate working, love being a mom, but is there is something to be said about having to do something even if you don’t like it.
My husband is one of those super smart people that was bored in public school, but his parents did not have any other options. So now he works a good job, but does not have a college degree and he does not know how to really be a good student and so he is slow to return to college. He wants a degree but does not want to play the game because he never played it in grade/high school.
I am rambling. My point? All options have pros and cons and I hope that no matter what a parent and child decide that they are behind it 100% and are there helping as much as needed.
blogversary’s last blog post..4 months old; my son… his presence
Pingback: EquMath: Math Lessons » Blog Archive » Eye Opening Thoughts on Public Education
I’m a bit on the fence about this issue. I hated high school and graduated early to weave in and out of community college to figure out what i wanted to do. I don’t think the blame solely falls on the school though. It’s up to the parents to encourage “coloring outside the lines” and believing in themselves enough to build their self confidence. Unfortunately our society is all about steps; you graduate high school, get a degree, get a job, climb the career ladder, get married, have kids. Those of us who do not fit in this box have a difficult time “conforming” and are then squished and prodded into the box, only to find that it does not fit. I have a 20 month old with my second on the way, so I can’t say I am experiencing the public school system yet but I do live in a town where the school system encourages well rounded academics including art, music, science, and math. I also attended private schools when I was young and I can tell you, they aren’t any better. Talk about conforming into a box. It’s a group effort, and a matter of parents talking with teachers and the school administrators about what they think is right for their child.
Linda’s last blog post..The Grape Debate
Tiffany,
When I took my kids out of public school (for a variety of reasons that did include the “cookie-cutter” reality although that was not at the top of the list at that point) I went ahead and let them finish out the school year. It wasn’t until later on that I learned that I didn’t HAVE to let them finish out the year – a child can be withdrawn at any time, for the most part (although you’ll want to check your state’s specific laws and requirements on this one). So if you find things getting too difficult with your son, you might consider early withdrawal. That would have the added benefit of giving him time to “de-school,” the process of un-learning the notion that math can only be done between 9:25 and 10:05 am in THAT particular building and that home is only for playing, not learning. We had to take a full 9 months of very simplified schooling before getting a solid homeschooling routine that worked well, because the kids were so accustomed to the public school way of doing things. I believe that a few months of decompression are very wise, and probably the very best advice I got when I took the leap and pulled them out.
All that to say, even in this simple thing, you don’t have to comform if you don’t want to! :-)
Good luck with homeschooling!
Jodi
For conclusive reasons that there are many problems in public schools, check out http://detentionslip.org. It’s a leading source for breaking crazy news in education.
Pingback: Finding Your Child's Strengths - A Book Review | Natural Family Living Blog