I pulled my children out of public school for the following reasons (in order of diminishing importance.)
1. Terribly treatment from professional educators (I am an engineer and professional math/science/computing educator.) My sources are the firsthand reports of other students and character assessments made of those educators by their colleagues.
2. Sex, drugs and violence. I've seen it all firsthand; these hazards are ubiquitous in the United States.
3. Incompetence. On no less than 20 occassions my children returned home with teacher-produced (or worse, district approved) materials that were substantively incorrect. My various research supporting these claims was presented to the teachers and administrators in 4 of these cases. It resulted in no changes. I have definitively established the cause to be broad incompetence. My conclusion is that many teachers have no business in a classroom and know less than my 7th grade daughter about many fundemental subjects.
4. Religious intollerance. This comes on the heals of item 1. My children were singled out by both their teachers for their religious beliefs. They never spoke about them except to identify themselves.
5. Social programming and Propagandizing. I was regularly required to present information with which I disagreed. This ranged from idiotic policies to politicized curriculum to questionable interpersonal (sexual/social) advice.
There are other, lesser reasons, but I think these five will suffice.
I have used the K12 curriculum for the past two years. My children's 2003 Terra Nova test results averaged at the 63rd percentile. In order to baseline their progress against their past (and their age peers') performance, I have arranged for this testing to continue annually. In the spring of their first year they averaged at the 87th percentile! Even more amazing, their last tests averaged at the 93rd percentile (with numerous asterisks indicating that they had achieved the maximum score beside various "99" annotations on their subcategories.
My children also manage our home in every respect. They do volunteer work. Each earns in excess of $200 per month through his or her own industry. They now interact with people of all ages. They also willingly interact with people of the opposite sex (for other than sexual reasons.) I am confident in saying that they have learned more in the last two years than they learned in the prvious 4-7 years at school.
Furthermore, they are better socialized than their traditionally schooled peers. The only exception is this: they do not know as much about deceiving authorities, organizing harrassment or institutionalizing irrationality as their peers at brick-and-mortar schools.
If congress really had some guts, they'd finance everyone to do the same thing. As for teachers unions, they are especially good at that final exceptional skill peculiar to brick-and-mortar schools: institutionalizing irrationality. The sooner we learn to ignore them, the happier and more prosperous our nation will become!
Slashdot Mirror
I pulled my children out of public school for the following reasons (in order of diminishing importance.) 1. Terribly treatment from professional educators (I am an engineer and professional math/science/computing educator.) My sources are the firsthand reports of other students and character assessments made of those educators by their colleagues. 2. Sex, drugs and violence. I've seen it all firsthand; these hazards are ubiquitous in the United States. 3. Incompetence. On no less than 20 occassions my children returned home with teacher-produced (or worse, district approved) materials that were substantively incorrect. My various research supporting these claims was presented to the teachers and administrators in 4 of these cases. It resulted in no changes. I have definitively established the cause to be broad incompetence. My conclusion is that many teachers have no business in a classroom and know less than my 7th grade daughter about many fundemental subjects. 4. Religious intollerance. This comes on the heals of item 1. My children were singled out by both their teachers for their religious beliefs. They never spoke about them except to identify themselves. 5. Social programming and Propagandizing. I was regularly required to present information with which I disagreed. This ranged from idiotic policies to politicized curriculum to questionable interpersonal (sexual/social) advice. There are other, lesser reasons, but I think these five will suffice. I have used the K12 curriculum for the past two years. My children's 2003 Terra Nova test results averaged at the 63rd percentile. In order to baseline their progress against their past (and their age peers') performance, I have arranged for this testing to continue annually. In the spring of their first year they averaged at the 87th percentile! Even more amazing, their last tests averaged at the 93rd percentile (with numerous asterisks indicating that they had achieved the maximum score beside various "99" annotations on their subcategories. My children also manage our home in every respect. They do volunteer work. Each earns in excess of $200 per month through his or her own industry. They now interact with people of all ages. They also willingly interact with people of the opposite sex (for other than sexual reasons.) I am confident in saying that they have learned more in the last two years than they learned in the prvious 4-7 years at school. Furthermore, they are better socialized than their traditionally schooled peers. The only exception is this: they do not know as much about deceiving authorities, organizing harrassment or institutionalizing irrationality as their peers at brick-and-mortar schools. If congress really had some guts, they'd finance everyone to do the same thing. As for teachers unions, they are especially good at that final exceptional skill peculiar to brick-and-mortar schools: institutionalizing irrationality. The sooner we learn to ignore them, the happier and more prosperous our nation will become!