We have been struggling immensely with Jeremy and need to make some fairly important decisions regarding educating him next year.
I’d like to ask a few questions and I’d love to get some feedback.
1. How were you educated? (K – grade 12)
2. What do you feel was the most important thing you learned from school?
3. Is there something(s) that you feel that can’t be taught outside of the “traditional education system”?
4. Did you struggle with any learning disability type issues? (Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, any other LD, etc.)
5. How did you feel that your school experience helped or hindered you?
6. What academic and social skills (that you learned in school) do you use every (or mostly) every day or even regularly, for that matter?
These are just some of the many questions that I have regarding school. I’d love to hear your thoughts and I’ll talk a bit more about what we are thinking about regarding Jeremy soon.
You’d also do well to talk with a few educators/teachers in both public and private systems. I’m sure they’ll have plenty of experience with kids just like Jeremy and could provide a few thoughts.
Me? Here we go:
1. Public school grades K-3. Small church school grades 4-5.5. Large public school grades 5.5-7. Small christian school grade 8. Another small christian school grades 9-10. Large public school grade 11. Small christian church school in the US grade 12.
2. Adaptation. Survival. Authority is corrupted. Authority is easily corruptable. Authority is easily manipulated. Girls are better then boys.
3. That’s a difficult question, because “the education system” is going to also teach all kinds of “other stuff” besides what is officially included in the curriculum. I’m talking about the social stuff that will be learned by the very aspect of being in group schooling environment. As far as academics go, if you have the smarts, and your kid is able to learn by reading/writing alone, then you could use the internet to teach them from online courses right through uni. MIT has all their coursework online…
My point is that traditional schooling (group) is more then just what is learned in the classroom. For better or worse, a kid learns a lot of very valuable lessons in group school which I don’t feel would be learned otherwise.
4. Boredom. And I struggled greatly with the idiocy of my teachers.
5. Helped, because I learned a lot about “life”. I learned there is more then just writing papers and getting good grades and doing what I’m told. Hindered becuase of the inverse of what I just wrote. When the “other things” besides academics become more important, then school won’t treat you well. Teachers will reject you, you’ll likely do poorly on homework (haha, because you don’t DO any.. ya?), and so traditional measurement standards will think you’re a loser.
6. Well, I wish I had actually paid attention in French. 🙂 Math and sciences I use, and is my hobby, so.. that came in handy. If I hadn’t have been exposed to a very wide breadth of academics then I wouldn’t have been able to “find” what interested me. With regard to social skills.. I use them all every day. While difficult, I would not trade my schooling years for anything different. The experiences made me who I am.
(My kids are not even in school yet, but for me.. I will likely put them into public school that is challenging as academically and socially as possible. Then we’ll “monitor” and watch our kids to see if they are struggling, coasting, or just surviving barely. If they need help (either academically or socially not working out for them), then we’ll consider moving them to another system. Sometimes, however, I think parents feel the grass is greener and they make decisions without truly understanding the consequences of pulling their kids from school, or NOT homeschooling, or NOT being actively involved, etc.
ALL school is going to be difficult for a kid. It’s not the schooling at question.. it’s the kid and the kids age. They’re at the age where they’re learning, sensitive to everything and everyone, discovering themselves, etc. No matter what environment or situation you put them into.. they’ll have a lot of struggles, failures, and successes. The trick, I think, is to make sure those three are balanced, and one or two doesn’t outweigh the others. When that happens.. it’s time to experiement with a change.
Or send the to work. Whatever. 🙂
You and jeremy are in my prayers.
My nephew had a particularly hard time in his early years of elementary. My sister put him in a Christian private school and his teacher really made a difference in his life which in turn helped his home life.
I was taught in the public system, but I loved school. I however, homeschooled my kids for 6 years. My son went to school for the first time in Grade 7 and his teacher caught him immediately with a learning disability and had the psych assessment set up for him. I had struggled all those years thinking that I was doing something wrong and homeschooling was going to “ruin” him…With an IEP he did well in middle school and this year he started Grade 9.
He is in a different setting, hands on learning…which is cool, but he is at the top of his class and is advancing to the applied (general) level. His teachers say he is done his work before everyone else and is bored for the rest of the class. All these years I was worried about him.
Some kids just learn better later then earlier…
(not sure I answered any of your questions…but it is late:)