can't decide public or HS (Full Version)

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laurielev -> can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 9:10:33 AM)

[>:]Hello..new to this! When would any of you actually send a child into a public school? Reason being, I am completely overwhelmed by homeschooling. We have six children from ages 19 down to 9. My oldest, and one of the better "students", graduated last year, and is just working. I really do not think that she is prepared for college. She has applied though this year. I am using her as my point of reference. If she is one of the better students, and I do not think that she is ready, then how are my sons ever going to be able to handle it? They are not dumb, but they are a bit on the lazy side. They are not being challenged at all by myself. I have a dyslexic daughter, and she consumes a lot of my time. I am so stressed out by worry, that I really want to put my son into the local public school. He plays JV and varsity baseball for them and runs track for them, he knows a many of the kids. So far he has picked "good" kids to hang out with. I see my childrens public schooled friends and they do much more school than mine do. Many of them are on the track team with my kids, and many of them are top of their class, so I know that I am comparing my own to the cream of the crop of high school students. However, there is no way that I can offer my kids the variety of opportunity that the public school does. I have one boy who is very smart, ( engineer type smart)...he is always, inventing, is good at math and draws these incredible architectural drawings. I do not have the money or time to encourage his gifts and abilities. I am really torn. The local public school is a "city" school. Really rich kids and really poor kids alike.... four levels of classes per subject to accommodate the kids. If you are in the upper levels you are really challenged. I honestly worry that my 15 year old would not be able to keep up. He is not used to tests, and assignments..has a tutor for math, but he can write and read well. The schools bent is very Liberal ( Hillary Clinton spoke at commencement last year)....but I think that he can overcome that. I know that there are many socially "bad" things that go on in there, the mexican girls apparently wear razor blades in their hair to keep other girls from pulling their hair in a fight. There are fights in the lunch room pretty much daily...the drug use is high etc...not unlike many public high schools. Well any opinions welcome. Has anybody else had the same fears and issues at one time where things actually worked for the good? I have prayed, but have stress with either answer...public or home...and if I could afford it....my choice would be christian. ed ..but I cannot afford it. Thanks so much!



Sunnymom -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 9:30:25 AM)

There are about 237 answers to that question.[8D]

Here's my take- I am not you- I don't have your husbands and kids, your abilities, your finances, location,... I can say that I personally would not send my kids to PS, but that doesn't help you make a decision for your family.

What I can offer is this- the flexibility of home education is one of its greatest strengths. There are many MANY ways of going about doing things to make home education fit your family. So if you need help with how to make home education work for you, this is the place.

But if you really are at the end of your rope, and you and your dh have peace that public school is the answer, then that is what you need to do, and I'll admit it pains me to say that, but it's true. We don't do our kids any favors when we cling to methods that aren't working simply for the sake of ego or peer pressure or whatever.



shadowspring -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 9:48:26 AM)

I agree with Sunnymom that this is a question only you and your can husband can answer, and ultimately anyone else's opinion is moot.

*I* would send my son to public school if I believed the Lord was leading me to do so.

If I sent him to public school, I would redirect all the energy I now put into the three R's every day towards praying for him. I would be his personal intercessor throughout the day. [:)]

I would make sure he had a solid night's sleep, a good breakfast and that he spent his home time wisely. That means homework would be priority number one. I would be in close contact with the school administration, as well as his individual teachers.

We would honor God's Word as a family in the morning, and in the evening. We would pray together in the morning, and in the evening. I would encourage youth group, service-type missions trips, and evangelical outreaches designed for youth facing the pressures of public school, even more so than I would if I were home schooling.

Many, many Christian parents raise committed Christian kids without home schooling them. It is certainly NOT the only way to raise a child for the Lord.

What you (we all) need to discern is what is God calling you (us) to do in relation to our children's education and instruction in righteousness? Obedience is the highest form of worship.

Don't let pride or fear or public opinion dictate to you what you should do in this (or any) situation. Remember, John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and ate what he could find growing wild, and called people to the baptism of repentance. Jesus went from town to town preaching the good news, eating and drinking with the common people. Wisdom is justified of all her children, the Lord said.

In other words, don't compare your life with others. Seek the Lord and obey what He calls your heart to, even if no one else you know is walking that path. God has a purpose and a plan for your life, to bless you and do you good. Once you discern what He's calling you to do, RUN for it!

And don't look back. [:D]



Jenny-Fair -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 11:26:49 AM)

I pretty much would never send my kids to PS, lol, but I can see why others would.

Why don't you take an easy week this week, have the kids do some reading or independant research, and do some thinking, reading and praying of your own. I recommend going to Homeschool Oasis and reading Barb's articles.

In addition, keep a notebook and pen with you throughout the day, and write what you want for yourself and your kids, what you want to change, and WHY (be sure it isn't just societal expectations, for instance). Write down why you aren't getting to things you need to get, etc.

Keep in mind that kids need to begin owning their own education in the teen years. So your daughter seems to be getting there-applying for college. Trust me, I used to tutor college students and MANY are not ready, but they have options and the colleges will help and they can succeed if they want to. If your daughter wants to go to college, then she will learn.

If your sons are not yet owning their education it may be that you still think you are the center of it and so you aren't handing it over. You will have to decide how to move in that direction. Sending them to PS sure isn't going to suddenly give them motivation!



OneOfHisJewels -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 2:10:16 PM)

Are public school and home school your only two options, or is there a christian school you could send him to?

If not, I understand, I just wanted to clarify, and encourage you that if that is an option, not to overlook that option.



HSmom2 -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 5:23:50 PM)

Hello! :)

I used to think I would send my children to a ps under the right circumstances but not if I was concerned for their safety.

Maybe a day away from the kids for you (if that's possible, or at least as few kids as possible) so you can clear your mind and think and pray. You are stressing out because your heart and mind don't agree.

Sometimes its helpful to make a list of the pros and cons of each decision. If it was me, and I was seriously considering sending my child tp ps, then I would try to talk to some of the parents of children attending said school. If your child is playing sports and already has friends there, the safety issue might not be as much as you think.

Hang in there,
hsmom2



PrincessDonna -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 6:48:15 PM)

Seek the Lord.

I personally would not send any of my children to public school willingly at this time. For us, the choice is homeschool or Christian school, unless God tells us otherwise.

This year, we put our 2nd grader into Christian school mid-year. We are a one-income family with soon to be 5 children. With this next baby, the government considers us 100% below the poverty level. We barely make it paycheck to paycheck, and that is because God is our provider. The school offers a 40% reduction right off the top based on income alone and there are other grants available also. We also pay for the entire year with part of our tax return (if you're as "poor" as us, you probably also get a good sized one, with EIC), so there is not a monthly bill, which we absolutely could not afford.

All that to say...don't cross Christian school off the list without truly checking into it. The cost they tell you at first may not be the actual cost for YOU and you won't know without meeting with them, maybe more than once.

I do know good, strong Christians who are raising strong Christian kids and send them to public school. But I know they put an immense amount of time, effort, and prayer into their kids' education. They don't just send them to school and sit back and wait for the outcome. If you do go with public school, I believe that is key...BE INVOLVED in every single way you can.



RJR_fan -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/24/2008 9:48:59 PM)

Google John Taylor Gatto, and read some his online essays.

When you really need to learn something, you normally can, and quickly.

Community college is a good option. Unlike public schools, these are not penal institutions, with wardens and compulsion. People are there because they want to learn, not because the mailed fist of the truant officer is compelling them.



sen10tious -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/25/2008 6:58:03 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: laurielev

When would any of you actually send a child into a public school?

Four Reasons I'd Consider Sending My Child to Public School:
(Some are tongue-in-cheek, some are real; I'll let the reader's discretion decide which is which.)

If I needed him out of the house so that I’d have more time to do more important things.

If I thought he'd benefit from the experience of being a sheep – better shorn than forlorn.

If I were totally overwhelmed to the point of being psychotic.

If I trusted the teachers and guidance counselors to be more in tune with God’s plan for his life than what the Holy Spirit ever showed me.



stellaluna -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/25/2008 9:24:22 AM)

I am the product of homeschooling, private Christian schooling and public schooling. I don't have kids, though, so if you want to skip what I'm about to say, go ahead.

First, the most important thing is to do what God is leading you to do. Some people are led to put their kids in public school, believe it or not.

Now that that is out of the way, in a practical sense, I don't see any reason why you should not put at least a couple of your kids in public school. The fact is, public school "ills" are generally greatly exaggerated. How do you know that drug use is high in this particular school? How do you know there are fights every day? How do you know there are girls with razor blades in their hair? (I'm sincerely asking.) Further, is there only one high school available? We have four and kids are pretty much free to go to whichever one they want. (They all have different programs.)

If all your kids plan to go to college, then yeah, there is some serious work ahead in the next couple of years. If you don't believe you can give them the education they need, the public school needs to be a serious consideration.

Further, if your sons were being schooled elsewhere, it would give you more (guilt-free) time to spend with your daughter. They might all excel.



OneOfHisJewels -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/25/2008 1:31:08 PM)

quote:

I am the product of homeschooling, private Christian schooling and public schooling


Same here![:)] K-2, and 4th grade-1st 1/2 of 10th were all christian school. 3rd and 3rd (yes, I repeated that year), and the second 1/2 of 10th were public, and 11th and 12th I was homeschooled.

The second 1/2 of 10th in public was school WAS bad and scary, but the 2nd year of 3rd grade in public school was really good. That year I had the best teacher I EVER had.



joannepir -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/26/2008 7:43:38 AM)

I agree about the bad public school experiences being greatly exaggerated. We always hear about the bad news. There are really great things they do in public school too. I can say from personal experience because I worked in one last year. I found teachers who genuinely care about their students. They are there to educate the ones who want to learn. Your son might be the kind that will do more for someone other than you. Kids learn to push the parents buttons. They aren't as likely to do that to someone else.



cynthia -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/26/2008 12:40:53 PM)

It is a given that parents are to meet the physical needs of their children, but beyond that, the Bible teaches that it is the parents responsiblity to instruct their children in righteousness and to raise them up to be God honoring people, full of Biblical knowledge, understanding and wisdom. There is no mention, that I'm aware of, that instructs parents to make sure their children receive a proper acedemic education. It is implied that this is included in teaching children God's word and righteous living. If you can make this your priority and focus, as the Bible instructs, and still send them to public school, then perhaps it is a consideration for your family.

If you do put your children into public school, which I generally would advice against, it is imperative that you continue to do daily Bible study, prayer and daily instruction in righteousness. You will also want to counteract the evolutionary and secular humanistic teaching present in many of the subjects. Personally I would not even consider sending my children to school if they did not already have a strong personal faith, a good foundation in history and science from a Christian perspective and the ability to withstand extreme pressure from teachers, students and culture. For me, that is just too much work. It's a lot easier for us to homeschool. The first public school any of my children will attend will be community college, after they have all of the above and do not need me to hold them up, as they will have the strength and maturity to do so themselves. Of course, I will be available to them and will help them in any way that I can, but I wouldn't send them there in the first place unless they were completely ready to face the world, pretty much as adults, at around age sixteen or seventeen.



Ellie-Mae -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/26/2008 7:33:18 PM)

Personally I wouldn't send my kids a PS, especially one like the one that ou describe. Razor blades??

Anyway, I would take a hard look at your curriculum. I use bJU HomeSat and love it. It allows me to teach five children pretty easily. The curriculum is advanced but easy to understand. Best of all, it is very interesting to view and use. You don't have to use it for all the subjects either. You could just use it for those things that are harder for you to teach or keep up with.



coffeeusa -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/29/2008 11:24:02 PM)

I work in an alternative high school and I hope this helps.
In our district we have a computer home school program. There is an alternative home school association that you can get imformation about from the OSPI. I do support this as, it is kinda lengthly in explanation, but there are many different ways of delivery and different attendance requirements with many only being 1 day a week.
Working in a public school for 20 years, at this point, I would not put my child in a public high school. Now I know that is such a burden for you.
You can get support from local churches and I would see if there are any other Christian students who may be able to help you tutor your kids.
I can guarantee that every public high school is liberal.
What really disturbes me the most is the support and influence organizations such as planned parenthood have in our school systems.
I work with mostly male staff therefore the female students migrate towards me. I have seen and guessed at the many abortions that the girls have had. They love to skip school, hop the bus and go into our the local city where a planned parenthood office is. They come back with a bag of goodies that would make you sick (we pay for grant money that planned parenthood receives from the federal government.
I do believe, that in their ignorance, most teachers and high schools really care for kids-it is just the message they think the students need to get.
In addition, go on line and see if your state has any on line schools that are paid with taxpayers monies.
I am terriblly concerned that your children are struggling in academics and I can give some suggestions. The most important thing I think, is to have regular school hours. In our school we have limited attendance but when they are in school they have good and timely attendance and they must work. If not after a certain period of evaltuations they are termed out.
The designers of our Constitution assumed that we would teach Christian values and morals. I have tapes that show the documents.
I do not know exactly what entails most home school curicula yet I do know the most importat things kids need to be succesful after they leave high school.
Many student fight us on history and the social sciences. We rely on many videos. I highly recommend Newt Gringich's DVD, Rediscovering God in America. Very few public school students have an understanding about Civics, o Current World Problems, or US History. We do many projcects that are very creative. The students do power points , posters etc which may seem shallow but they inforce organizating and memorization. It is not that the text books in these subjects are so liberal-it is the insturtors and in our school district the social sciences and history teachers seem to be the most liberal as they do not recognize creationism and what our founding fathers felt about the Word.
I have a secone period math lab-I have seen time and time again, students that do not know the basics. If a student is proficient in the basics do not worry about higher level math if you are not that proficient in math. A tutor is more help than half of all students get in public schools.
In English, journal writing and 5 part essays. If they need more get help from the church.
I have to cut this short as this is just my opinion and I am on a tagent about the way our political system is heading.
I bellieve, that you are feeling inadequate but I feel that you are doing your kids a favor. I want more pastors and youth leaders to recognize that our home school students and parents need more help.
(I have not even addressed drugs and the liberal teen culture)



coffeeusa -> RE: can't decide public or HS (6/30/2008 12:02:58 AM)

I just wanted to say to Laurielev that I have been stuggling, as I am retirement age, whether I can stand to go back to a public school. God will let you know after you pray and ask others their opinion in helping you make this decision.
I am actually involved in a conservative momement because of my testimony of what I see in public schools.
So please remember that I am on a missions and I get tooooooooo zealous and I start ranting and raving-especially when I blog-I go a mile a minute.
Remember that academics go hand in hand with good morals and a good work ethic.
Sorry I get very agitated when I know what our consitituion says and what the intentions of the framers was , and Christians who feel they have no rights in the public school system.
Please remember, at any time if you have a student in a public school system, you have the right to express your views on anything that goes on in a classroom. Outside by their peers, you have very little rights or control on what goes on.
That is what I question-is your child strong enough to counter the culture of drugs, free sex, laziness, anger, witchcraft, ACLU. Planned Parenthood, depression, rebellion, children who do not know God, music, etc? I know it wears me down.

God Bless



laurielev -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/2/2008 8:53:44 AM)

Thank you all for answering! I cannot say as of yet that I have made up my mind, but this week and next will be investigating weeks. I have prayed, but i do not feel led either way, mainly due to fear...in either direction. Thank you though, it really did help reading your posts! I will try to up date what I finally decided. Sincerely, Laurie L



macokjc -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/2/2008 7:13:00 PM)

I'm sorry that you have to make this hard decision. I would suggest if you want more of a balanced opinion; you should post this in the public/private school thread or the parenting thread. I know that there are several people on here who are very happy with their public schools.

I guess the most important thing (beside being best for YOUR family) is that it depends on the school district. We have several very conservative districts around here (because of the strong mennonite community) where the elementary schools have mostly Christian teachers. The prinicpal of our town's high school is a Christian. As far as cost goes - in our district, the only thing the parent pays for are clothes and lunches and a few school supplies. (There is no uniform.) However, there is a lunch program for low-income families. The school pays for supplies, sports (jr.sr. high), even field trips.

Also, the idea of BJU homesat was very practical - however they are discontinuing it after this year. That could alwasy change, but it is slated to be finished in May. They still do have the DVD's - but they do run $1000 a grade. That is cheap compared to a Christian school; but expensive compared to just teaching yourself.



Jacketbacker -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/9/2008 4:47:16 PM)

I absolutely loved my public high school, and still do. UNTIL my grand daughters hit middle and high school levels. I was always volunteering for my kids and grand kids, and will continue to with my third grand daughter's schooling. But there are real problems in middle and high schools these days, that are extremely hard to get around, even for a child who is level headed and very smart, good in school. My girls had home problems, that carried forth to school with them. They found themselves bullied, hit, shoved, talked about - you name it. Finally they started believing all the junk going around was their fault somehow. Their self esteem plummeted to -0-. The straw that broke this camel's back was when my older grand got elbowed and her tooth cracked into. She was introduced to drugs early on in middle school. I fear I cannot save her from the tortured middle school and high school days she has had. She made all As her one year of homeschooling, though. But she is now rebelling against all who love her. I pray daily she will return one day to our love for her and understand we are working on her future with much love. Until she desires my help, though, she is heading in the wrong direction. I have given one year of happiness, though to her younger sister, who made As and Bs her first year homeschooling, even not understanding most of the math! I prefer homeschooling to public schooling 100%. I hope you make the right decision for your family.



PrincessDonna -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/9/2008 4:54:08 PM)

quote:


Also, the idea of BJU homesat was very practical - however they are discontinuing it after this year. That could alwasy change, but it is slated to be finished in May.


Where did you get this info? I did not see anything of the sort on their website.



Ellie-Mae -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/9/2008 5:33:39 PM)

I haven't seen any signs of them closing down the HomeSat program either.



shadowspring -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/9/2008 5:33:57 PM)

BJU Sat

It seems fully functioning as best as I can tell as well....



macokjc -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/11/2008 1:32:53 PM)

Sorry - I've been out of town. This is something that has been in the works for quite awhile. The keep putting off the announcement (I think in the hopes of saving it) but only the administration knows. They were supposed to announce it last week to the staff; but that didn't happen. Knowing their history of wobbling back and forth on major decisions; nothing would surprise me. However, if you do use Home Sat - it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.



PrincessDonna -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/11/2008 1:35:52 PM)

I emailed BJU Press the other day after reading that here. Here was their response...

quote:

Dear Mrs. ******,
Thank you for your interest in BJU Press.
We are unaware of the source of such a rumor, but we can confirm that it is not true. BJ Distance Learning via Satellite is preparing for another school year and will begin airing in August.

Sincerely,
BJU Press
bjupinfo@bjupress.com
www.bjupress.com


Always good to go to the source...



macokjc -> RE: can't decide public or HS (7/11/2008 4:49:34 PM)

All I can say is........ wait and see. I thought I was very careful to say that it was NOT this year, but next year. In my mind, the new school year has already begun, but maybe not to some. If you look carefully, there are already signs - such as discontinuing help at home live, etc.. It doesn't matter to me whether or not you believe me. I only let you know as a courtesy so that those that tape could maybe tape extra classes.



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