Substandard Schools, and Why I Teach My Own Kids

 My kids both had to be held back a year due to poor education in the public school system. And I am confident that I did my part as a parent. In addition to running a house, working full time, and maintaining a life in my community, I helped my kids with homework every night for at least 2 hours. It was beyond frustrating. My son would come home from school telling me how stupid he was. And teacher that makes a child feel like that shouldn't be a teacher. So, I held him back, put him in a new school, a Title 1 program, and slowly watched him progress. It was heartbreaking to see him older than his peers, but in their class. It reminded me of my brother as a child. We moved out of state, and I thought maybe the change would be good for him. After enrolling them in their new school, I received a phone call telling me my children were not only to old to be in the classes I had put them in, but they were way advanced. I was a little confused, as this had not been the case, but after talking with the teachers, they were moved back up the the grades they should be in (1st and 2nd instead of K and 1st). When I got their first report cards I was appalled. My daughter was doing OK, average...but my son was flunking the second grade. My next concern was that there was no Science, no History, no Physical Education. What were my children learning. And this is when it went downhill. I scheduled a meeting with a specialist to test my son for ADD...I needed to know if he had a learning disability that was holding him back, or if it was just the school. The test results were devastating. He ranked the lowest he could have in EVERYTHING! The specialist assured me that he didn't need medicines, but instead, his structure for learning was so poor, he just got distracted to easily. I really started to delve into the school I had put them in. I sat him down and asked him what he had done the day before in class...he told me that he did Center, without direct teacher supervision (they were in another Center), and had watched Kung Fu Panda. So, after a family meeting, it was decided that we would put the kids on a structured learning course, until at the very least they were caught up with their peers. And we scheduled a meeting with the principle.

 The school that the children were in has 3-4 recesses per day. Maybe I am old fashioned, or call me mean, but I think this is to much. So, we bought a series of books for the kids to read, and told them that they were to read during two of their recesses, they could play after lunch, but all the other play time would be spent reading. We set up charts at home, I hand wrote math papers, printed off reading comprehension pieces from the Internet, and talked with them about science and history. We met with the principle and counselor from the school, showed them the test results from my son and explained why we were doing what we were doing, and wanted to know what the school would do to help. Apparently, we attacked their education system. So, they called Social Services on me, and requested that they take my children. That counselor convinced my son that he was being beaten at home, and locked in a closet to do homework. When the lady from Child Protective Services showed up at my door...I actually laughed at the allegations. I was so confused. I didn't understand what was happening at all. I am a good mom, and I love my kids. I went to the required meetings. I offered to take my kids to a hospital to have them checked (this was denied to me). I set up another meeting at the school to try and find out why this had happened. I invited Social Services with me to the meeting. It turned into a very defensive principle yelling at me....for what I am still not sure. And then he called Child Protective Services again! She called me and told me that she was getting a lot of pressure from the school to remove my children. I was terrified, I hadn't done anything wrong. All I wanted was to help my children succeed, and the school was unwilling to do anything about it...and then turned it around on me!

 I took my children to a doctor, and had them examined, and talked to...and oh, shock of shock, there was no abuse found. Child Protective Services closed the case against me after coming into my home, reviewing what I was doing with a structured learning system, chores, punishment and such. They then assigned a worker to the school, and informed them that they were no longer allowed to pull my children out of class and ask them leading questions. (My son is a people pleaser, and you could get him to tell you that purple pigs fly). So, I continued working with my kids, after school and on the weekends. Many people would say this was to much, I was advised my CPS to limit homework to 10 minutes per day, and add on 1 minute per week after that. However, after the last 4 months, both my kids are reading, neither are on medication for ADD, and my son scored 100% on his last 4 math tests of the school year. So, I have enrolled them in homeschool for this next year. My daughter starts cheerleading in a few weeks, and my son is joining a football league at the local community center. Social Interaction is still so important. Never mess with a Mom that cares about her kids. I have spent thousands of dollars keeping them safe, and educating them. And let it be known, that the test results for this particular school, are some of the lowest in the nation, my sons class ranks below the 30th percentile. I am so happy that this is all behind me, but I will never forget the terror of thinking I may lose my children. It was by far the worst feeling in the world.