Emptying My Head

So, I have been working on this post in my head for a while now. I just need to get it out of there so I can think about other things. I think we all know how I feel about the public school system in South Carolina. I guess that same feeling goes for the private schools too - since now Zach has been enrolled in both and except for the fact that one didn’t cost me extra money I don’t think the education in stellar in either location.

We gave up homeschooling this year because I was having trouble finding the common ground between Mom and Teacher. We were schedule-less, fly by the seat of our pants, always trying to catch up homeschoolers. It really wasn’t working emotionally, although educationally it was apparently working extremely well.

I attended a parent/teacher conference last Friday. My extremely bright boy managed to plummet from a ‘B’ to an ‘F’ in Language Arts in the space of about three weeks. Questions rolled around in my head every minute. “How did that happen?” “Why did I not know until Progress Reports?” and most important “Why is he failing all of a sudden?”. Let me be clear - Zach brings home NO work that’s been completed in school in LA - not one shred - so it’s not like I was just ignoring what was happening. I honestly had no clue how badly it was going until I saw the report.

I also know that he is bored in school. Every day the question has become “Did you learn anything new today?” instead of “What did you learn today?”. I’m STILL waiting for him to say ‘Yes’.

During my parent/teacher conference I learned one thing that has really been bothering me - the State of South Carolina has determined that spelling isn’t important. As long as the teacher can understand what the child is trying to write, and the word is used correctly, spelling doesn’t matter. Seriously? No, I mean seriously? WTF is up with that? And sadly, I heard that straight from his LA teachers mouth.

So, now I stand again at a crossroads. I’ve finally started to set my plan in motion to go back to school, but now what? Continue to let Zach receive the most sub-standard education I can imagine or yank him and start homeschooling him again?

For all I thought I was doing wrong, I was obviously doing something right since all his teachers are impressed with how much he knows and how “well” I did homeschooling. I wonder how that education would hold up somewhere else in the country? I have a feeling I know how his state education would hold up.