Posted by Annette on March 27 2008 at 08:59:55:
(Yes I realize this is not homeschooling, but because of some similarities, I wanted to ask some questions here.)
Here is my situation: my two daughters (ages 14 and 9) have always been homeschooled. My son (age 16) was homeschooled until grade 4, at which time we put him in Philadelphia public school due to ADHD (which was making it hard to teach him and our daughters at home due to his behavior, short attention span and impulsivity.)
Anyway, he did fine (Aīs and Bīs, and a couple of Cīs) after some initial adjustment, and then we moved to NJ where we spent 4 years. He did grades 6, 7 and 8 in NJ, and did well (Aīs, Bīs and a couple of Cīs.)
In 2006 we had to move back to PA due to various financial and family situations, and our son began high school in Philadelphia.
He went from Aīs, Bīs and a couple of Cīs to failing one subject (9th grade). This year (10th grade), he is failing EVERY subject. he says its because the thug kids disrupt the classes and the teachers wonīt do anything about it because they are afraid of the thug kids.
He has told me of cases where some of the thug kids bring hot food into the class to eat, and scream at the teacher and other kids to "shut up" if they are on their cell phones.
Iīve decided to cyber-school him. The reason why I donīt want to homeschool him again are several-fold: One, I donīt want to take a child broken by the PUBLIC school system and try to īfixī him using homeschool, and then if it doesnīt work, the few months of homeschooling will be blamed rather than the YEARS of PUBLIC school that did the actual damage (you all know what Iīm talking about: think Dillon Cossey among others).
I also donīt think I can handle the massive amts of paperwork that would be required in PA to add one more child, esp. since heīs in high school (extra work.)
I think cyberschool will be perfect for him, and for me: he loves being on the computer, and with his ADHD he can focus far better on the computer than elsewhere; he wonīt have the distractions of thug students; he will have basically the same curriculum (changing curriculums can create new problems, albeit temporary ones); and someone else will maintain the paperwork.
I donīt like the secular/evolutionary nature of public school curriculum, but since he has been used to it since 5th grade, I figure he might as well conitnue in it.
What does everyone think? Is this a good idea? I really donīt have any other alternatives for him at this point. He will probably have to repeat 10th grade, but he wants to do that since he feels he missed out on so much.
I learned one thing about my son that made me proud: the school principal had told him that she would pass him on all his failing subjects if he just went for two days of after school tutoring, and he would not even have to take any tests (!)
He refused, and I thought it was because he was lazy. He told me he refused because he did not want to be GIVEN a passing grade, he wanted to EARN it. :)