I Can Handle it!

Three things I remember when I took my daughters out of traditional school and decided to homeschool them. One teacher the year before had decided for me that my child's standardized test score was "not bad." Her math score was 59 percentile or something like that. I guess it was not too bad if you had no reference point. However, I did. My daughter had always tested above 90 percentile, so for it to drop so drastically was a huge red flag. The young teacher said to me with an attitude "I don't know what you want us to do for you?" I replied "nothing else, we'll take it from here."

The next year, she did one marking period in an All girls school and when we withdrew her, the honors teacher gave me some paperwork to get into gifted classes when she returned to school. I threw them out because I knew she would not be returning to that school system again. I could handle it, and I resolved to do just that.

The third thing I remember when I took my other baby out of her charter school was one of the teachers telling her how lucky she was to be homeschooled.

When my high schooler returned to school at the beginning of this year, I came to her guidance counselor ready for battle. I wanted to make sure she was on the right track to attend a great university. I actually had no problem at all. Based on the transcript I submitted and her new test scores, she went right into honors classes.

The first marking period she came out of the gate swinging with 5 A's and 2 B's. Every marking period since then has been above a 3.0, but not as great. She falls asleep and wakes up at the end of the marking period to slip in under the wire, so that she can attend the doughnut honor roll party.

Why am I saying all this? Because lately parents have been getting arrested for trying to send their kids to a great school. Arrested! For wanting what's best for their babies. The system is screwed up and it's set up to put certain kids in certain lanes their whole lives. If you know anyone who can homeschool, encourage them to do it. Even if it's just a year or two. The point is to grab the kids back, and to make them aware that whatever a school tries to do to them, they have the power over their education. We can handle it!

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