Home schooling in CA

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by MouseWife

And, it is upsetting that the kids who do that sort of thing {cutting, bullying, controlling the situations basically} usually aren't reprimanded. I've experienced that they would rather not deal with it as it is too much trouble. They don't deal with it and make the other kids suffer to 'keep peace'. . . . As for the PSs, every night I see on the news reports of budget cuts, problems with money, students, and staff. It is a business anymore, the focus taken off of teaching.

In our clean, middle class school, there was a fair amount of bullying that went unchecked. My sense was that our popular principal was not lazy or a fan of bullying; rather, he made his choice to foster a happy, happy school to maximize fundraising. Now that he has retired, the new principal is strong in her aspirations that the school and the home be safe and settled places to learn.

Originally Posted by MouseWife

And, those damn tests. Fun has been taken out of learning just so that they can focus on the tests. No funding for fieldtrips, no fun parties, nothing.

I disagree with this, at least on the subject of parties. At our school, there is no holiday too small to justify hitting the parents up for cash to pour sugar into our kids for an hour in the afternoon. Plus, we have post-Halloween pajama/candy/pervert day, other pajama/pervert days and extra parties that the kids can "earn" to bring dolls and stuffed animals to school.

As far as tests go, our school, though posting decent raw numbers, has been consistently in the bottom ten percent of our demographic in the region. This suggests to me that no one on either side is stepping up. Now, I always did well on standardized tests, so I have a "how hard can it be" attitude. We should be able to scratch all our itches: "teach to the test" to whatever extent necessary, teach beyond the test and have endless parties to foster unhealthy habits.

Originally Posted by MouseWife

I would tell the teachers that I bet that they celebrate the holidays
You know in the staff lounge they always decorate and have lunches. But, the kids can't. That isn't fair.

Here I agree. It was generally accepted that our American history teacher in high school drank in class (spiked soda can). We had to go off campus to do that.