# UPDATE-- "Well we just don't really have time for Science..."



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Okay, for anyone who didn't catch my first thread on this subject, my son's teacher (2nd/3rd/4th combined, 8 students) told us at P/T conferences that she's not teaching science this year.

I've been in a tailspin ever since. My mind reeling between the frustration of dealing with a mediocre (or lousy!) teacher to weighing my options so far as home schooling goes. 

I decided yesterday to drop in for a classroom visit because maybe I'm reading things wrong and not giving her a fair shake. Though given her lack of interest in teaching science _last_ year, I kind of doubted it...
So i observed her (she deals well with the kids and they like her), her room and looked for signs of science and writing that I hadn't realized previously that I should be looking for. I stayed upbeat and positive. 

When the class headed off to Music, we chatted. I tried really hard not to be on the attack. Discussed some of the ways that my child might be driving her batty, 'yeah, he sure does do _that_...' type of stuff. 
Ya know, rapport building. 

Then i got to the nitty gritty. "And science? We're just not really going to do that this year?" 
"No Erin. It's just not that important."  Direct quote. 
Then she tried to rationalize again with the 'they're low readers' thing. The whole class reads at about a 2nd grade level. (Ignoring the lack of logic in denying reading opportunities to kids that seem to need to read _more_!)
"OK. So why don't we just use the 2nd grade curriculum?"

"well, there's just really not time." 
I was told that was the excuse for not having done any social studies in nearly a month, too!

So to change the subject I asked about writing. I'd been paging through his "Writer's Journal" which had nothing more than spelling words listed in it in cursive. 
"Oh we do writing!" and showed me a little activity with sentence structure. How putting words in different orders changes meaning... 

No, I mean things like stories, reports, etc. 

"Oh. They won't do any reports in this room. The way our curriculum is set up, they won't write reports until about 7th grade." 
Which is complete baloney as I know what is being taught in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rooms in the "big" school in our district! :stars:


:help:
This just gets better and better. Not only are they completely pitching the state requirements for science out the window, they're ignoring the writing standards too!

So, the decision is made. 
We're homeschooling.
What's really ironic though is that in Nebraska, one of the forms that needs to be signed states: the rules and regulations adopted and promulgated by the State Board of Ed. interfere with the decisions in directing my child's education....
I'd be _more_ than happy to let my child be educated via the rules and reg.s of the State Board of Ed! :flame:

However, since that obviously is not going to occur with this teacher, we'll homeschool, at least for the next year and a half. 

Please pray for us! :nerd:


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

It was the best decision we ever made for our kids' education. I pray it works well for you.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Welcome to the Dark Side, Erin 

Honestly, though, you've got the most important thing cracked: the reason you are choosing to home educate is your motivation for a better education for your child than what is currently available through other means. If you keep that as your prime motivation, there will never be any question that your child will end up with a top-notch education. You're going to make a fabulous home educating parent!


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## wyomingrambler (Nov 19, 2008)

It will be fun to see if you go back to public school.

We don't have custody of our oldest son - lost him while homeless in Colo Spgs, CO. Currently we homeschool our youngest son and have taken serious flak for it. But let us compare:

I "graduated" from this school system in 1994. I had thought I had graduated from a HS in Germany at 15 yo, but the government of WY convinced my mom that my German diploma was not valid in the US. The same exact books I had used in 7, 8, 9 in Germany they were using in 10, 11, 12. My dad is a packrat - in many cases I simply dug out the old assignments and turned them in. Occasionally, I might change the wrong answers. Most still had the old grades on them.

My eldest (age 12) is in 4th grade. He still can not read. His math skills are not much better off. AND they have him in a special education PE class! His answer to any problem: get a gun or beat someone up. This kid is sharp - and he uses it against the system that he hates with a passion. :bash: To top things off, the school system told my parents (his guardians) that he could not come back to school this year unless they put him on drugs for ADHD.

My youngest (age 7) is in a 3rd level homeschool curriculum. Since I'm a lousy teacher, I depend on lots of help because I'm not patient enough to figure out how someone could not know something. Even with my bumbling ineptitude the youngest: reads on a 5th grade level and loves it, does math on a 4th grade level and it's not his favorite subject, out swims his mom and can almost out hike his father; writes daily for fun and actually memorized the parts of speech ("him" is a what?), and is digging into Astronomy like the world is ending and he needs to know about it before it is allowed to. I've got all the same problems ADHD wise that his older brother does, and we don't use drugs.

Homeschool works for us. I hope you find the adventure to be as much fun as we have! :walk:


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

It must be a great relief to have the decision made. Cheering you on from here for a great year and a half! 

Good luck,
Cindyc.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I don't know if I feel relief, or not. I'm feeling frazzled, actually. lol
I now have exactly one week to put together my curriculum in order to get paperwork sent in 30 days before we start HSing.


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## Madame (Jan 1, 2003)

If I worked in a school system that pulled that, I'd quit!


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I alreay _did_ that part, Madame. 
There's a reason I haven't bothered to try to discuss this with the principal.  

My mother (also a teacher) said one time that small towns tend to get the schools they want. WHere they're small enough that the board is completely accessible, they might grumble and complain from time to time, but ultimately they get the school they want. And this is the one my district seems to want...


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Wow, Erin, your situation completely boggles my mind. Good for you for choosing to give you kid a solid education!

Since you say that you'd be happy to have your child educated to the local standards (if anyone at the school actually followed them), are there perhaps any virtual schools in your area?

My son is attending a Virtual School here in Alberta - they teach the standard curriculum, although we have more choices than we'd have in a public school setting - and it is working well for us, particularly since there's nobody to sit and TEACH him at home (my DH works at home, but is working at his own job, so he's there to help but not full time teach).

Just something you may want to consider, I don't know if any such thing is available. I do know that some of the kids at my son's school are from far away (one is in Qatar with her family, another boy lives on a tropical island somewhere ... the discussions on saving energy were really interesting when some kids are focused on air conditioning and others on heat sources!).

If you want to look at the school we are using, for ideas or whatever, it is here:

http://www.adlc.ca/content/view/115/150/


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

Welcome to the wonderful world of homeschool!

Yours isn't the only school with no time for teaching a certain subject. One of our local teachers said they did NO social studies AT ALL because they didn't have time for it last year. I guess they are really pressuring the teachers to focus on Math skills and writing portfolios so they can improve their school's test scores in those areas. (Maybe it's part of the "No child left behind" policy or something?) Anyway, it just blows my mind! I can school both of my kids and be done within 3 hours a day, yet those poor public school kids didn't have time for social studies and they are at school from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sad.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

ErinP said:


> I don't know if I feel relief, or not. I'm feeling frazzled, actually. lol
> I now have exactly one week to put together my curriculum in order to get paperwork sent in 30 days before we start HSing.


Wow the laws there are pretty tought for pulling a kid out of school. That would be stressful!

How's it going? I guess the good news is that you have a lot of experience pulling together a curriculum. That will make it easier.

Cindyc.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

What do you want to bet they have plenty of time for sex education and condoms?? Alternative lifestyles anyone??


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

YuccaFlatsRanch said:


> What do you want to bet they have plenty of time for sex education and condoms?? Alternative lifestyles anyone??


You've obviously never lived in rural Nebraska. 
They barely touch that stuff in the high school, much less third grade. 



cindy-e said:


> Wow the laws there are pretty tought for pulling a kid out of school. That would be stressful!
> 
> How's it going? I guess the good news is that you have a lot of experience pulling together a curriculum. That will make it easier.


I don't know if they're tough so much as annoying. I have this idea I should be able to do whatever I wish with my kids, but we run into truancy laws, hence the 30 day thing. But yeah, we're about ready to go.
I need to have a notary witness our signatures, and my dad happens to be one so he'll witness our paperwork when they're out for Thanksgiving. After that, I drop it in the mail and we'll be ready to go by January. 

Now, if I can just figure out how to break it to the teacher. 
She seems to genuinely believe she's doing the best job possible. (Despite the fact that she knows _I_ managed to teach all the subjects in that very room, only two years ago!)

I don't want to be hurtful, but at the same time I'm remaining firm that this is simply sub-standard (literally) and that's just not good _enough_...


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

ErinP said:


> You've obviously never lived in rural Nebraska.
> They barely touch that stuff in the high school, much less third grade.
> 
> 
> ...


You are not obligated to explain anything if you don't want to. But if you do, you just may save her career. It might be hard for her to hear your reasons, but if she is not meeting the state standards, she could get fired! 

I can understand your not looking forward to that, though. Good luck!

Cindyc.


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## Narshalla (Sep 11, 2008)

ErinP said:


> You've obviously never lived in rural Nebraska.
> They barely touch that stuff in the high school, much less third grade.
> 
> I don't know if they're tough so much as annoying. I have this idea I should be able to do whatever I wish with my kids, but we run into truancy laws, hence the 30 day thing. But yeah, we're about ready to go.
> ...


Has anyone mentioned Home School Legal Defense Association to you? You can find it here, and the Nebraska state laws are here.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Yep.
I know exactly what the applicable statutes are. As mentioned, I'm finished with my paperwork, it just needs a notary's stamp. 



> It might be hard for her to hear your reasons, but if she is not meeting the state standards, she could get fired


She's well aware she's not meeting state standards. The _principal_ is well aware she's not meeting state standards. (The two of them have agreed that dropping science and social studies, to a lesser extent, is a perfectly logical classroom management strategy as well as method to deal with low readers.)
She won't be fired over my complaint, I can assure you...


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

ErinP said:


> Yep.
> I know exactly what the applicable statutes are. As mentioned, I'm finished with my paperwork, it just needs a notary's stamp.
> 
> 
> ...


That's a bummer. But good for you for taking care of your kid's educational needs anyway, and not just accepting it. Taking this on isn't easy, but you're doing it. You should feel proud of yourself.

Cindyc.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

cindy-e said:


> It must be a great relief to have the decision made. Cheering you on from here for a great year and a half!
> 
> Good luck,
> Cindyc.


Today.
Today, cindy, I feel relief. 

I've picked out my curriculum, have found used texts for everything I want and am ready to go. 
We need to list scope/sequence of course for the state, or our curriculum texts. I decided to choose the latter though I'll probably wander far and wide just like I did when teaching other people's kids. lol But it's _much_ easier to fit text book titles on those little lines on the form than it is to try to list units, lessons, and which standards will be applicable. 

He's already requested units on quilts (I happen to have), water (another I happen to have) and trains (have to do a little hunting). 
And since we need to name our school, he's asked for "Mission to Mars School."


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

ErinP said:


> Today.
> Today, cindy, I feel relief.
> 
> I've picked out my curriculum, have found used texts for everything I want and am ready to go.
> ...


 Mission to Mars. I love that! Hey, since you are not letting the schools not teach him science, maybe he'll do that one day. You just never know! 

I'm glad the stress part is over, and you can just enjoy it. Just in time for the holidays too.
Good for you! 
Cindyc.


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## mosepijo (Oct 21, 2008)

Wow.. that almost sounds like a repeat of what my kid's teachers told me. She told me at the first 9-week conference that she did not have time to teach social studies or science because she was too busy being the president of the teachers union. Huh? that was her job, to TEACH. Over another matter a few years earlier there were 11 letters from totally different parents about this PE teacher and how he handles the kids. (A lot of name calling on his part to some of the students) Anyway, when we went to the PTA meeting, they packed the room with teachers from everywhere to say what a wonderful teacher he was and wouldn't hear our side.

I started home schooling three kids and did so for 8 years and never looked back. I choose a video program and loved it.

Good luck. Yours kids will turn out much smarter and won't have that School "attitude" that they get after a few weeks in school.


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