Education seems to be a touchy subject with so many people. I know for a fact it is one of my hot buttons. As a parent and former elementary teacher I often think about education and all the different forms. As a parent I struggle with what is best for my children. There are so many choices in education. So when you mix my hot button of education, my children, and the fact I like to write for fun. You get the following....
We choose to send our kids to public school. For a number of reasons. One of them is I don't have the overwhelming desire to homeschool. We don't send them to private school because we have three kids. Tuition for three kids at even a low costing private school can run over $15,000 a year. I also don't think that a private education always gets you the best education. I also feel this way about all forms of education. I don't think there is a perfect learning environment. All learning environments have there pros and cons. I am pretty liberal minded when it comes to how others choose to educate or how they have their children educated. We are free to choose that for our kids. I am not one to point fingers and take a stand on any form of education. What I value is learning.
I learned one of the hardest lessons in life my first year teaching. I taught at what I consider and inner city school. It was a well funded magnet school at the front end of a grant. We had everything at our finger tips. The latest and greatest. I taught upper elementary at the time. I had a student that was a good kid but just not able to do the work. Here is what I was told, "His IQ is allowing to work at his fullest potential and there are no special education services he can receive." Heartbreaking! A harsh reality in my first year of teaching. All kids can't be successful in the public school learning environment. There really was nothing we could do for him but push him down the line? I still struggle with this today. I believe he has a gift and I hope that someone in his life has shown him what that gift is and that he is successful today.
I view all of life as a bell curve. There are people at each end and if you know anything about the bell curve lots of us are in the middle. As a former teacher I see where the public school system is set up to serve the middle of the curve. Even with the special education services. In order to qualify for some special education services you have to have a "average IQ" with a learning deficit to get services. In other words you can learn but for some reason you aren't. Kids that have a low IQ that are performing within their skills are not served. Now that is one end of the bell curve and how many kids that affects I am not sure. Maybe something to research later. We know that at one end or the other of the bell curve there are fewer people.
Which all leads me to write or what I feel is bragging a bit about one of my kids. We have a problem. My first grader is reading with comprehension at a seventh grade level and is working on fourth grade math skills. I think it is safe to say she is at one end of the bell curve. Yet, she sits in first grade. Why? Well, in public education you have laws that you have to work within, or around, or through. One is birthdate. My child was born in early October. I should have planned that better (giggling). Which means she missed going into school by about a month. She was reading at 4, almost 5 but could not start school. Trust me when I say I tried to get her into school. She was ready. I was stoned walled. My only option at the time was send her to private school for two years.
Yes, two years. Let me explain. Kindergarden is optional in my state. Which means that I would have to find a private school to take her early. Not the only hurtle. The next law is that you have to start first grade by Sept 2nd age 6 no older than age 8 that school year. You have two year window to start 1st grade. On Sept 2nd she would only be 5 (almost 6). The old cliche comes into play, "almost doesn't count". The way I understand it is that she doesn't have to start first grade until next school year (2012-2013) so I would have to send her to both private k (a year early), 1st grade (still a year early) and then she would go to public third grade. How is that for confusion?
At some point you give in because although I want what is best for her she is not my only child. I choose not to afford private school for all three of my children sending a child to one school and two to another is not the best choice for our family. We choose to immerse her in the art for the year and celebrate the arts that she loves. I feel like we did the best we could at the time but now we are in 2012, almost two years later. We still have issues to be addressed. I could blog all day but I plan to continue tomorrow.
We choose to send our kids to public school. For a number of reasons. One of them is I don't have the overwhelming desire to homeschool. We don't send them to private school because we have three kids. Tuition for three kids at even a low costing private school can run over $15,000 a year. I also don't think that a private education always gets you the best education. I also feel this way about all forms of education. I don't think there is a perfect learning environment. All learning environments have there pros and cons. I am pretty liberal minded when it comes to how others choose to educate or how they have their children educated. We are free to choose that for our kids. I am not one to point fingers and take a stand on any form of education. What I value is learning.
I learned one of the hardest lessons in life my first year teaching. I taught at what I consider and inner city school. It was a well funded magnet school at the front end of a grant. We had everything at our finger tips. The latest and greatest. I taught upper elementary at the time. I had a student that was a good kid but just not able to do the work. Here is what I was told, "His IQ is allowing to work at his fullest potential and there are no special education services he can receive." Heartbreaking! A harsh reality in my first year of teaching. All kids can't be successful in the public school learning environment. There really was nothing we could do for him but push him down the line? I still struggle with this today. I believe he has a gift and I hope that someone in his life has shown him what that gift is and that he is successful today.
I view all of life as a bell curve. There are people at each end and if you know anything about the bell curve lots of us are in the middle. As a former teacher I see where the public school system is set up to serve the middle of the curve. Even with the special education services. In order to qualify for some special education services you have to have a "average IQ" with a learning deficit to get services. In other words you can learn but for some reason you aren't. Kids that have a low IQ that are performing within their skills are not served. Now that is one end of the bell curve and how many kids that affects I am not sure. Maybe something to research later. We know that at one end or the other of the bell curve there are fewer people.
Which all leads me to write or what I feel is bragging a bit about one of my kids. We have a problem. My first grader is reading with comprehension at a seventh grade level and is working on fourth grade math skills. I think it is safe to say she is at one end of the bell curve. Yet, she sits in first grade. Why? Well, in public education you have laws that you have to work within, or around, or through. One is birthdate. My child was born in early October. I should have planned that better (giggling). Which means she missed going into school by about a month. She was reading at 4, almost 5 but could not start school. Trust me when I say I tried to get her into school. She was ready. I was stoned walled. My only option at the time was send her to private school for two years.
Yes, two years. Let me explain. Kindergarden is optional in my state. Which means that I would have to find a private school to take her early. Not the only hurtle. The next law is that you have to start first grade by Sept 2nd age 6 no older than age 8 that school year. You have two year window to start 1st grade. On Sept 2nd she would only be 5 (almost 6). The old cliche comes into play, "almost doesn't count". The way I understand it is that she doesn't have to start first grade until next school year (2012-2013) so I would have to send her to both private k (a year early), 1st grade (still a year early) and then she would go to public third grade. How is that for confusion?
At some point you give in because although I want what is best for her she is not my only child. I choose not to afford private school for all three of my children sending a child to one school and two to another is not the best choice for our family. We choose to immerse her in the art for the year and celebrate the arts that she loves. I feel like we did the best we could at the time but now we are in 2012, almost two years later. We still have issues to be addressed. I could blog all day but I plan to continue tomorrow.
Comments