Monday, March 7, 2011

"Why Did You Decide to Homeschool?"

I get asked this a lot.

I have older children, who attended public schools.  When my oldest graduated, I read an article about how little HS graduates know about history.

So I asked her, "When was the Civil War fought?"

She said, "Gee, I don't know.  1812?"*

After I picked myself up off the floor, I decided that I could certainly do better than the public schools.  I'm three years into a computer science degree involving advanced mathematics, I love history, and I have a well-rounded liberal arts education.  Loving to read and write helps.

When my younger kids, Mercedes and Jared, came along, I determined not to make the same mistakes that I had with the first ones.  I'm sure I'm making mistakes, but at least they're brand-shiny-new mistakes and not the same ones I made before.

Choosing to homeschool rather than send the kids to the government school was part of that thought process.

The results, even this early, speak for themselves.  Jared excels in math, Mercedes is already writing a business plan for her party-planning business, and they absolutely love history.

The other part to the equation, besides the academics, is that I lost custody of two of my children after a long, drawn out custody battle with their father.  Heartsick, and out of time, money, energy, and resources, I decided that I would keep my younger children with me as long as I could, rather than entrusting them to the schools.  After all - you never really know how long you will have with your children.

*Oh, and if you went to public school - the Civil War (known in the South as the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression, and there was nothing civil about it!) began January 1861 with South Carolina's opening salvo on Fort Sumter.  The issue was not slavery, but states' rights.  It ended in 1865.

The War of 1812 was against Great Britain.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad there are other people who know that the Civil War was about states' rights. That's not nearly as dramatic a story (nor does anyone come out looking like a hero...) as the more commonly told version of the Civil War.

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  2. Thanks, Norman. The government schools are teaching that it's about slavery. Nope, that was just the excuse.....

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