Educating Children

The proper education of children is undeniably the hot button topic among modern parents, principally with respect to the area of the country I call home. While this is not exclusive to my locale, my particular city has a drowning school system that is not only failing to find a successful way to reach the children it serves but also to simply remain in existence. So, as the system bobs a few more times before finally going under like the lead character in the climactic scene of Titanic, parents like myself scurry for our own life lines.

There has been debate for years regarding the consolidation of the city and county school systems which would undoubtedly lead to an even more unstable arrangement. Private Schools spring up daily itching to respond to the outcry of distressed parents – for a price. This band-aid approach only means however that the parents pay a higher price for slightly better teacher/student ratios and for some the option to be away from “those kids”. The comment “those kids” is a highly variable label pointing to whatever group the parent blames for the troubles that the entire community faces. All of this feeds into the debate over the religious, socio-economic, and racial divide amongst the differing types of educational facilities throughout the region. I haven’t even begun to rail against one of the nastiest issues, the near Sisyphean task of addressing underpaid and undervalued teachers, overcrowding, apathetic parents, lack of funding…….AHHH…!!!

I just want to bring my daughters up in the best learning environment I am able to provide. So what is the answer? This school year a unique opportunity was made available to me in conjunction with my daughter’s gymnastics organization. Some of the parents’ of the “team kids” have been home-schooling their girls together in a classroom setting. This cooperative effort is of course accomplished under the umbrella of one of the area churches. I had previously toiled over the idea of home school but hesitated because of lingering concerns to include socialization, loneliness, and effectiveness.

So we took the plunge and allied with this group in our valiant fight and all seems to be going well. My daughter’s class consists of eight girls of similar ages and aptitudes but yet diverse backgrounds. The class size is clearly superior to the alternative of twenty to thirty children jammed into a single classroom like cattle in a pen. Children are not cattle they are individuals. No teacher, no matter how practiced at his or her profession, can provide the type of individualized instruction that the child yearns for and rightly deserves while they are forced to fight against such insurmountable odds. This class is instructed by us from a pre-approved approved curriculum tailored to the children so they can learn without being spoon-fed. The time the teacher has available to provide individualized instruction for one student is not impacted by the unruliness of another. The optimization of instruction creates the opportunity for enrichment activities such as learning Spanish and Sign Language that would otherwise never exist. I want my child to have the platform to truly learn for their own growth not to be taught to simply perform well on a particular test.

While this prospect is not right for and does not exist for everyone, I plan to use it to my advantage and I will report how it progresses.