Waiting for Superman

I LOVED this post by Danielle Bean about schooling, all types, and homeschooling. (Click to read)

In my need to tell others why my family felt called to homeschooling I hope I never made people think I did not love our local school, or support teachers and education. In fact, we helped fight to keep it open this past Spring, even though we knew we wanted to home school. Sure, there were things like art, recess, and class size I worried about and l Iove our new home school schedule, but I worry I didn't seem respectful or as clear in my defense of our choice. In my personal life I did, and still do, have to defend it. I'm still a former teacher myself who taught in public and Catholic high schools and LOVED doing so.

But, Danielle wrote it all perfectly, and I wanted to share it as wording how I feel. Thank you so much Danielle.

When I did post about my desire to try homeschooling, a teacher friend (and I should says MASTER teacher...incredible educator and one who is making positive changes) commented that she supported me, but felt defeated that parents are too quick to not fight to change the system if they find it broken. This has always stayed with me (Hi Tess!). I thought about it during our spring fight to keep our school open. I thought about it again watching Oprah yesterday. She profiled the upcoming docu-movie "Waiting for Superman".  I thought of her when watching Oprah about this movie. The filmmaker and Bill Gates were challenging all adults on her show, no matter what school we pay for our kids to attend, or how we educate them, to come together to change the model on which we teach our kids ("a 1954 model in 2010"). I can tell much blame is put on an old system, and teachers who don't care (they make strong effort to say this is not about ALL teachers....but the ones who either don't care, or don't get the help to become great and WANT to be great - one quote from the movie was said "seeing a great teacher in action is like seeing a great piece of art!" or "like seeing a sports star" or other person we look up to).

So yes, while this film has its own bias I'm sure, its own sensationalism, I'm sure it can possibly miss the mark at times, but I think it has a message we all need to ponder. I want to see this movie. Click on any of the above links to see the trailer, or click here to read about the show yesterday.  It is true food for thought. It doesn't answer the problems, nor is it the cure - but it can start the discussion among more and more of us.

I also home school  to include family values and faith, as well as supporting our family unit, but I also home school because of what I desire education to be and many times I find that only in a private school, charter school, method school, or Catholic school. But, not everyone can pay the tuition. Not everyone is chosen in the lottery. I school as Danielle schools - but I too think of the challenge my friend gave me, and the issues raised yesterday, and every day - what can I do to make things better for other children, not just my own. As an educator - I feel so strongly about this. It takes a village!

** Oh - this link shows a story (you can look at all the kids) of one girl whose story hit close to home. It's about a smart girl in a GREAT district with a GREAT high school, but she wants to attend a charter school because she doesn't test well, so her test scores don't reflect her strengths.

** This story shows how education is still not equal. Tax dollars at work also can mean some areas get better funds than others. It isn't equal to me. This little boy and family again depend on a lottery to change the outcome. I just wish we could all work together to make things more equal.