If you can deal with the public school students, you can deal with anyone.
Yeah but I'm not sure it's worth sacrificing a child's education. If you have a kid that learns in the traditional way and is above average intelligence public school is a fine choice. Education's not a one size fits all thing, though. By 4th grade they'd run out of spelling words for me and I had to "sit quietly at my desk" while everyone else was practicing their words and taking their tests. For my youngest son, they failed him miserable because he was tracked as having a learning disability. When we started homeschooling he couldn't tell time past the quarter hour. By the time he graduated college he was in Calculus and had (with time and maturity and practice) learned the skills needed to succeed in that kind of atmosphere.
Besides, they may have to live in a world with them but as adults we can choose who we want to be friends with, what we want to achieve, and what we want to learn. My son was one of the "good" kids. And I kid you not, teachers have said this to me, they put the worse little turds next to him constantly hoping "his calming influence would rub off" on the little turd. Considering all the times he came home complaining (which sent me to school on his behalf) it didn't work. He doesn't have to deal with those people in real life (granted most of them are probably in jail, but he doesn't have to make 'prison guard' a career choice.
I know a few hardcore democrats, but they're nothing like the idiots at the dump, I don't need people like that in my life and as an adult I can choose to avoid them except in the most fleeting of ways. In government schools that's not the case. We're put in arbitrary groups based on age and with kids from the neighborhood (so much for diversity). Just as in real life, homeschoolers socialize with people of a variety of ages, younger and older. Most homeschoolers joke that "homeschooling" is a misnomer because they spend most of the time in their car. In our area there was Latin (with ages 9-adult), Destination Imagination, math and investment clubs, science classes, etc. My son, at least once a week while he was consumed with curiosity, talked with NASA scientists and astronauts in the online chats they host. He developed leadership qualities I don't think he would have otherwise.
Some kids thrive in public school and that's fine but it needs to be seriously overhauled and I just didn't think it was worth sacrificing my son to. If he was more successful at that kind of learning, maybe. But until there's a mass exodus or some other extreme measure by families who pay for and are supposed to be served by public school it won't change. There's no incentive and it's just to easy to let the status quo be.
Cindie
