As modern day homesteaders, we believe from our heads
to our hearts that we MUST reject a lot of what is taken for granted by
the rest of our society. Not just on a whim, or a curious fluke in
our personalities, but by the very real knowledge that our modern society
is not well in many ways, and if we continue to immerse ourselves and our
families in it, we will soon be ailing right along with it.
So we make the move from the city to the country, limit (or eliminate)
electronic mind-killers like the TV and the Playstation, and boot those
young’ns outside to run wild and free without the fear of traffic, or
kidnappers, or drive by shootings.
They rise early in the morning to the sound of the rooster, the smell of
the earth, and a breakfast of natural whole foods.
And then, they go... where?
If your children are between the ages of 5 and 16, they go to school, of
course.
Here in the U.S. of A., we have a ginormous monstrosity called the Public
School System. It’s a wonderful idea in theory, and the reality of
it is that MOST of the time, in MOST of the places, it works reasonably
well.
But, just like everything else, we as parents must do OUR homework
regarding our local school(s), for, beCAUSE our country is so big and so
diverse, and beCAUSE by the very nature of "federal control" things that
are supposed to be standardized in a good way generally get standardized
in a mediocre way, whether your family’s assigned public school is going
to be a great one, an acceptable one, a miserable one, or an outright
dangerous one is very much a crap shoot.
And here’s the funny part (if you are a fan of dark humor): WHERE the
school is located does NOT dictate what your children's experience will
be. There are many, many inner city schools populated by teachers
and parents whose dedication to their children is amazing, and many, many
schools in affluent communities whose children are routinely dying of drug
overdoses while their parents are chasing the next monetary goal.
The majority of public schools, like the majority of the rest of life,
fall somewhere in that huge grey middle area.
Chapter One - Our Public School Experience
Oddly enough (for a home-schooler), I’ve had good public school
experiences, both personally and with my children's education.
I attended public schools back in the day of small classes, teachers who
commonly came to dinner at the homes of the students, room-mothers there
almost daily to help with projects, and the ability to go to the bathroom
without needing a key to get into it. Oh yeah, and there was no such
thing as metal detectors at the front door, or school security.
Every door into the school was unlocked, all day every day. Up until
my older boy was in high school, this remained generally unchanged - even
in the dark days of the mid 70's race problems in high schools, there was
no lock down, and if you moved in an already mixed group (like I did),
there was no fear - only a sad confusion at the rest of the mess, but we
felt that most of the time anyway.
My daughter tested into our local public school system’s Gifted and
Talented Program. By that time we had moved out to the country, but
were still within the urban school system. The Gifted and Talented
Program had been set up in, unarguably, the most inner of the inner-city
schools, in a city of over 80,000 souls. They had set up the program
so that 50% of the students were those who tested into it, and 50% were
neighborhood children whose parents chose to have them attend their
neighborhood school, rather than be bussed out of the neighborhood to the
nearest "normal" school.
My 5-year-old’s bus ride every morning exceeded 45 minutes, and took her
all over the area to pick up the other Lighthouse students, but because of
where we were living, it would have taken her that long to get to the
nearest "local" school anyway, with the bus stopping at every corner and
farm.
Although my (then) husband was EXTREMELY skeptical of the wisdom behind
bussing our child INTO the very city we worked so hard to get OUT of, and
yea, verily, straight into the heart of the worst part of it, plus his
concern that the lessons would have to be "dumbed down" to accommodate the
"local" children, I felt that we needed to give it a try and see what
happened.
What happened was remarkable.
Of course, our own child blossomed in an environment that was geared
towards individual thought and learning. She’s a genius.
The remarkable part (at least to my husband), was watching what happened
to the neighborhood kids - none of whom had tested into the Gifted and
Talented Program via the pre-kindergarten testing process.
They not only blossomed, they were an explosive riot of veritable flowers.
When it was just assumed that ALL the children would be not only capable,
but would thrive under the Gifted and Talented Instruction, without
exception, they were, and did.
My daughter’s experience in the Lighthouse Program taught her at a very
early age that people come in all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds,
and that it is a mistake to label anyone according to what is visible on
their outsides.
My older son attended our "local" public school (although he's also
clearly a genius, little 5-year-old boys tend not to sit still and test as
well as little 5-year-old girls). This school was brand new, built to
service not only the rural families in the area, but all the new
subdivisions sprouting up in what used to be fields like so many noxious
weeds. Although the education he received was a good one (this
school was touted as one of Wisconsin’s finest grade schools), the lack of
social diversity in the students clearly colored his views (literally) -
and as a young adult he still exhibits some vestiges of that.
Although I’m aware that little boys tend to emulate their fathers and
little girls tend to emulate their mothers, and there’s a very real
difference in the way this particular set of parents viewed the world and
the people in it, I’m convinced that being exposed only to little children
of like backgrounds for his entire early-schooling years didn’t help.
Both of these children grew up healthy and literate and have gone on to
successful college careers and (in the case of the elder one) successful
professional careers, thereby proving that a lot of the time, public
school works.
