Around this time of year I always hear from parents or friends and even family about removing their child from public school. Again it sparks the debate on Home School Vs Public School. Not everyone fits into the cookie cutter public school mold however it does work for millions of kids. These parents come to me for all sorts of reasons that are quite varied: kids are being bullied, kids are being “dumbed down” and it’s upsetting parents, they find out the child is gifted only to learn the school has no “gifted program,” child is overwhelmed daily and so on….
Schools have become a battleground for politics with the implementation of Common Core (which I am against), liberal views being forced on kids by well meaning principals that decide it’s their job to help change the world “for the better,” federally mandated testing and scoring, and last but not least – budget restrictions. Talk to 90% of the teachers and if you get them away from the school to answer a few questions they’ll tell you about their frustrations with budgets being slashed and testing concerns.
I have several teacher friends as well as teachers within my family. I was amazed to hear one of them, practically reduced to tears. She, for several years in a row, was given an increase in special needs kids year after year. She was single at the time (no kids or husband of her own yet) so she spent easily 50 plus hours teaching and offering after school tutoring for students to the tune of having her class score highest in the school. How was she rewarded you may be wondering? She was then given so many special needs kids, and supposedly a reading specialist that was supposed to be in her classroom for X number of hours which she says happened only ONCE during the entire year, that now she admits that any gifted child in her classroom will not be receiving any special attention. It was impossible she said. So her reward was to give her so many special needs kids that she could no longer excel (too many in the classroom) and the kids that were not special needs were now suffering. She couldn’t tell the parents – they had no idea it would be a year of staying even and trying to survive for this teacher. That is a system failure.
I see more and more parents taking the education of their children away from the government and facing it head on within their own family and I applaud them. Although, amazingly the “system” works for some families it’s failing miserably for others.
Let’s assume, for the sake of brevity, that you have now decided to homeschool your child (ren). Where do you begin? Well in Maryland you need to notify the Board of Education in your specific county or your intent to homeschool. You are supposed to contact them 15 days prior to pulling your child out of school however I’ve never, ever seen anything happen at all to parents who showed up at the Board of Education one day and said, “I need to withdrawal my child.”
Next you’ll need to start figuring out curriculum, especially if your child is under 16 years of age. If he or she is age 16 or really close to being 16 then I suggest you prep for the GED and start your local community college right away. I have 4 kids and although only my oldest 2 are 16 or older, we place them in the local community college as soon as possible nearest to their 16th birthday. In Maryland any child will not be turned away for their local community college at the age of 16 or above. There is no acceptance process to go through unless they are applying to a specific program, in which case, they’ll need to prove themselves at college 1st in order to be accepted.
In choosing your curriculum keep in mind that you must also show that you “Include instruction in English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education; and Take place on a regular basis during the school year and be of sufficient duration to implement the instruction program” That was quoted from the guidelines for the State of Maryland. You’ll need to find the specific articles in your individual state.
Before you get too overwhelmed just remember that different families have different goals – and all are valid. Let me share our goal: to nurture and guide our children into being lifelong learners with a thirst for exploration and knowledge – a love of reading – and the ability to use math to explain and explore their world and to understand that anything can be accomplished. Further, my goals also change a little with each child – no 2 are the same! My 3rd son takes 5 dance classes per week and is a technological nerd at the age of 10. Clearly his passions and needs are different than say my eldest son that has always felt a calling to his country and to join the military.
For the record, we don’t “pick” a curriculum in our house. We make one. I’ve been homeschooling for around 10 years now and I have yet to purchase and entire curriculum that takes us from the beginning of the year to June. It is easier to purchase something like the Calvert Curriculum? Sure it is but I’m taking a very individual approach with each child an that won’t meet my goals so I don’t do it. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t….. There’s CLEARLY nothing wrong with that approach and I have several home school family friends that do purchase a set curriculum and are perfectly happy. It’s just not what I want for my family is all.
An important part of homeschooling is finding other homeschoolers – your children need to know they are not alone – and so do you! There are several homeschool cooperatives in every state in the United States. I’m working on starting one locally in my community as I write this article. A co-op gives the parents a chance to meet and chat and work with other homeschooling families in the community. It also gives the children a chance to make friendships, take classes and overall just benefit from other home school families in the community.
I hope this was enough to hep get you started on your home school journey! You’ll never be done learning and exploring – and that’s part of the fun of life here on earth! Enjoy!
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