I haven't written for so long. I'm going to try it again...
So much has happened in the past year. My oldest son is getting married in less than a month, my middle son has moved out and I have gone through a lot of changes, as far as homeschooling/unschooling my youngest son who is now 11.
Since school is starting up soon (and has started for many kids already), I'm reminded of how peaceful and happy I feel that my child doesn't have to go to school. I'm reading a book called The Death and Life of the Great American School System and it has been very eye-opening. I had no idea how much corporations had their "hands" into the system. The SCHOOL system. So many people are making decisions about our education laws who have no business doing so. They are not educators or scholars of any kind. They are politicians and CEO's. On top of that, "The most toxic flaw in NCLB was its legislative command that all students in every school must be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. By that magical date, every single student must achieve proficiency, including students with special needs, students whose native language is not English, students who are homeless and lacking in any societal advantage, and students who have every societal advantage but are not interested in their schoolwork." A pair of researchers who conducted studies on NCLB said, "no educator believes this goal is attainable. Only politicians promise such things." SCARY. I knew our school system was not only falling apart but failing; I had no clue it was this corrupt.
Anyway- getting back to my point about feeling peaceful, it's due to the fact that every day, practically, I am hearing more and more negatives about " public school" and I don't have to be immersed in that type of life anymore. When your kids go to public school (this is also true for private school, co-ops, any type of "going to school in a building" setting), you are tied to a schedule that affects every other aspect of your life. I'm very glad, and proud of myself frankly, that I have stopped to consider something that was so ingrained in me- so much a part of who I was- or who I thought I was. I'm now looking at it all from a completely different perspective and it's something I can never un-see. And that's ok. :-)
