home school parents chime in

[kranky]

Do you have the option of cyber school (online school)? Very popular here.

 

[RKS]

We live in a great school district where there is high parent involvement and I bet there is still bullying going on. The school is small enough where parents know each other and quash most of this crap before it becomes a major problem. My oldest actually goes to private school and I bet there is just as much bullshit there.

I would have an attorney put the principal and the board on notice regarding the bullying. I bet that perks up their ears.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

FWIW I was homeschooled after threat of expulsion for similar reasons (although in 6th grade). I'm pretty sure the reason I came out retarded was because I had literally no social contact outside of my family and internet forums. My other siblings seem to do fairly well socially. For the education aspect, it probably depends on the kid. My dad graded math tests with me and for a short while my mom forced us to practice Latin and Spanish, but otherwise I taught myself everything. However, my dad was self-employed and mom stayed at home too, so temptations of slacking off were destroyed by always having someone watching over me.

Lastly...there is no such thing as 'not provoking' it. Once in a blue moon there may be a freak situation where someone might decide to beat on a random guy, but if your child is continuously the subject of bullying, he is 'off-putting' in some way. He is attracting some sort of negative attention. Pulling him out of the general population will not mend that.

Yep. Glasses, acne, speech issues, cheap clothing, etc. Op, your child deserves it.

 

[Doppel]

If the bullying cannot e stopped thead private school or homeschool or change to a new district. Some, most, will be seriously harmed by bullying and most of us intuitively know.

 

[waggy]

Lastly...there is no such thing as 'not provoking' it. Once in a blue moon there may be a freak situation where someone might decide to beat on a random guy, but if your child is continuously the subject of bullying, he is 'off-putting' in some way. He is attracting some sort of negative attention. Pulling him out of the general population will not mend that.

wrong.

so wrong.

 

[tynopik]

Every home school kid I have ever met were complete spazzes. Sorry it just is.

I only knew one well, but he got married, had kids, started his own company and has more money than I ever will.

 

[Joseph F]

Please, for fuck's sake, don't do it. Homeschool was a nightmare for me, and I believe that if I hadn't been subjected to it, I wouldn't be half as fucked up as I am.

 

[tynopik]

Again the guy I knew was part of a fairly decent sized homeschool group. They would pitch in to hire teachers for certain advanced subjects and have all sorts of activities together.

You might want to consider how large/active the homeschool community is in your area.

 

[Rage187]

Private school perhaps. A decent 8-12 will run you $600+, which is pretty freaking reasonable and a good investment in your kid's future. My daughter has never had to deal with the typical mean girl nonsense and not having to deal with it is worth it.

 

[Exterous]

he got suspended because he fought back. because he did so he is guilty of fighting and has to be suspended.

If you are on his side, what was so bad about the suspension? I moved around a lot as a kid and had to deal with a bully heavy school once. After a tad too much being picked on I fought the kid. We didn't get too far into the fight before being pulled apart but we were both suspended even though the witnesses said I had been provoked. My parents sided with me and it was like a 3 day vacation from school. After a couple of weeks back someone else picked a fight with me and I won. I was suspended again despite witnesses again. Another 3 day vacation for me. Honestly after that it seemed to get around that I didn't put up with shit and I never really had any more problems.

As long as he doesn't get expelled there is no permanent record so who gives a shit?

Anyway - as for home schooling it typically goes one of two ways: Either the kid turns out great or really fucked up. To not fuck up you really need to be on your toes, pay attention and actually be able to appropriately relate the material to your child. You can be the smartest person in the world but if you can't relate the information in a way the kid understands you will fail them as a teacher and quite possibly fuck up their life.

There is a lot of time and effort involved. It can be done but this is not a decision to be taken lightly. Research the shit out of it and make an honest assessment of your abilities. Try a couple of lessons on for size. With summer coming up a nice 4-6 week summer home school attempt would be a good way to test.

Socialization is incredibly important and at least some disconnect should be expected as they are not around their peers nearly as often at home. We are talking daily and near daily activities. Kids social groups move quickly and out of date information can easily result in a social distancing. As another poster mentioned its very important to socialize with both sexes. We've seen some kids who were well socialized with kids only of the same gender and it resulted in some serious issues and tended to degrade the interactions with both sexes later on

Honestly combining the socialization aspect with the teaching aspect makes this something I firmly believe most people should not attempt

 

[Exterous]

Again the guy I knew was part of a fairly decent sized homeschool group. They would pitch in to hire teachers for certain advanced subjects and have all sorts of activities together.

You might want to consider how large/active the homeschool community is in your area.

Interesting. My experience has been with very small groups - typically just kids from the same family. I can see the benefits of a larger home schooling community - provided the environment is a positive and beneficial one

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

The only person I know that is home schooled is oblivious to reality (he's 35) and kinda fucked up in general. Biggest issue is that he will not adjust beyond the preconceived notions he was tought.

 

[shortylickens]

The only person I know that is home schooled is oblivious to reality (he's 35) and kinda fucked up in general. Biggest issue is that he will not adjust beyond the preconceived notions he was tought.

Whats his job? What does he do outside of work?

 

[PowerEngineer]

Sorry to hear about your son's problems at public school.

I served as a chess team coach for my son's grade school team years ago, and had many interactions with parents and children from the "home school" team. It seemed that home schooling worked out reasonably well for most of them, in part because they functioned more like an educational co-op where the more qualified parents often taught courses to several kids in ther group. It helped socialize the kids and raised the overall quality of teaching. Maybe there's a group like that in your area.

As already mentioned, the majority of these families had chosen home schooling over concerns that public schooling would somehow compromise their religious beliefs (lots of creationists, etc.).

I also found that most of the home school kids went back into public or private school after 8th grade. It's very tough for parents to competently teach high school level material.

It takes a close, harmonious parent-child relationship to make home schooling a success. You and/or your wife are going to be spending a lot more "quality time" with your son. That can backfire on you if it feels suffocating for you or your son. Given the natures of our own children, I never once thought that home schooling would work out well for us (and my wife was a grade school teacher!).

Lastly, I have also had an unsatisfactory dealing or two with the principal and administration at our local high school. I have found that taking matters to the district offices, and (better yet) directly to the school board worked out much better. Perhaps it would work for you too.

Good luck whichever way you go!

 

[OutHouse]

Do you have the option of cyber school (online school)? Very popular here.

yes, we have looked at a couple of those.

 

[OutHouse]

Please, for fuck's sake, don't do it. Homeschool was a nightmare for me, and I believe that if I hadn't been subjected to it, I wouldn't be half as fucked up as I am.

explain please, PM if you feel more comfortable talking about it.

 

[jhbball]

Lastly...there is no such thing as 'not provoking' it. Once in a blue moon there may be a freak situation where someone might decide to beat on a random guy, but if your child is continuously the subject of bullying, he is 'off-putting' in some way. He is attracting some sort of negative attention. Pulling him out of the general population will not mend that.

never have children.

 

[DrPizza]

he has been in taekwondo for 3 years and is one belt away from his black belt. he should be testing this fall if all goes well. he can defend himself and trashed the two punks that started punching him for no fricken reason in the classroom and hallway. video of both incidents prove it was unprovoked.

my wife and I have spoken to principal, dean, teachers... its like a brick wall. we are done with it, he is a good kid and i care about his future. when he is at that school it drains him because its every single day he gets picked on by groups of kids. his grades suffer because he does not want to be there, he wants to learn he wants to graduate but not at that place.

I'd alert the teachers, principal, and dean once more. And when I alerted them, I would have a pile of cases to put in front of them where people have gone to court to sue a school, teachers, principal, because they did nothing to stop systematic bullying of a student. If the bullying continues, THEN, you could home school, AND have enough money to pay for college. Not to mention, perhaps prevent other students in the future from being subjected to the same bullying in that school.

I'm not sure what state you're in, but in NY, as of July 1, some major legislation related to bullying is going to take effect. (You can google for details on that; it might be going a little too far, but should have a lot of positive effects.)

 

[Jeffg010]

here is PA's law on this.
http://www.bullypolice.org/pa_law.html

Check out your state here.
http://www.bullypolice.org/

 

[OutHouse]

I'd alert the teachers, principal, and dean once more. And when I alerted them, I would have a pile of cases to put in front of them where people have gone to court to sue a school, teachers, principal, because they did nothing to stop systematic bullying of a student. If the bullying continues, THEN, you could home school, AND have enough money to pay for college. Not to mention, perhaps prevent other students in the future from being subjected to the same bullying in that school.

I'm not sure what state you're in, but in NY, as of July 1, some major legislation related to bullying is going to take effect. (You can google for details on that; it might be going a little too far, but should have a lot of positive effects.)

i am in colorado.

i did not know you can sue the school for bullying. i dont know if this is the route I want to take but it would be interesting to look into what my rights are.

 

[sixone]

i am in colorado.

i did not know you can sue the school for bullying. i dont know if this is the route I want to take but it would be interesting to look into what my rights are.

You need to find out what your school's policy on bullying is. It's not just physical, it's verbal as well. If the school isn't stopping the verbal bullying before it escalates to physical, that's THEIR responsibility, not your kid's.

If they aren't taking care of their responsibilities, then they're denying your child the education that is his right, by law.

 

[alkemyst]

i am in colorado.

i did not know you can sue the school for bullying. i dont know if this is the route I want to take but it would be interesting to look into what my rights are.

This was part of the point of my earlier comment which I was infracted for.

If you aren't going to do your own due-diligence for your kid then home schooling will not help.

You can sue pretty much anyone civilly. That is the catch-22 of it.

I have known a lot of kids (mostly baptists) home schooled that ended up highly non-successful. Many end up getting in more trouble as well as they have to make their 'free time' / 'social events' count.

I'd say 90% of all education pre-college is socialization mainly and home schooling removes a lot of that.

It works well for the jet-setters/actors because they are bombarded with socialization already.

Not to mention most parents that try to home school are barely educated themselves.

Sure there are tons of reports and the like that show home-school kids do better/succeed but they also have hand-picked a lot of those stats and but them up against public schools with bad ratings.

In the end all of this is caused by the parents letting us all down, especially their kids.

We are raising a generation that expects to be never held accountable and spoon fed along the way.

 

[BoberFett]

My daughter was home schooled through 3rd grade. Her mom worked while stepdad stayed at home and home schooled her and took care of their other kids. I had my own issues with home schooling, but I trust her mother to do the right thing so I didn't stop it. During that time she took part in classes outside of school for things she couldn't do at home. She had gym class, Spanish (yes, she was learning Spanish by 1st grade) and a couple other things at a school/co-op that was specifically for those types of classes for home schooled kids.

Socialization wasn't the issue that some people make it out to be. Sure, I guess if you want your child to turn into a typical American spoiled, entitled, piece-of-shit kid that fill our society today, then yes socialization with the riff-raff at public schools is important. As it was, she had plenty of time with kids at her classes and had friends outside of school.

She's been in a private school since 4th grade and is now in 7th grade. The results of her recent standardized test put her in the top 15% overall; she struggles a little with English and social studies, but her math and science scores are out of the park. She plays the flute in the school band, and has the lead part in this year's school play. She's an amazing kid, and I couldn't be more proud of her. When it comes to home school you get out what you put into it. Yes, if the parents are crazy religious nutjobs and home school consists of reading the bible and praying for 6 hours a day, then the kids are probably going to be a little maladjusted. But if you're a normal person with realistic expectations you may do just fine.

That said, as others have mentioned, are you as a parent prepared to put in a significant amount of time and effort and teach classes at the level your child requires? If not, private school may be a better option.

 

[BoberFett]

Taylor Swift was homeschooled. Look what it got her!

Hot?

 

[alkemyst]

Socialization wasn't the issue that some people make it out to be. Sure, I guess if you want your child to turn into a typical American spoiled, entitled, piece-of-shit kid that fill our society today, then yes socialization with the riff-raff at public schools is important. As it was, she had plenty of time with kids at her classes and had friends outside of school.

wow, just wow. Do these kids die out like dinosaurs when they turn 18?