Each New Day

Having homeschooled my children for ten years, I have a lot of preconceived ideas and prejudice against the public school system and its teachers. Because my son is now in public school, I have to be careful, but he knows well of my prejudice. Yesterday, however, I had a prejudice proved wrong (and I am glad for it!)

My son had an incident occur for which we were going to take disciplinary action. One of these was to have him miss his basketball game. His coach felt that this was an over-reaction to the situation that had taken place. He provided an alternative but said that no matter what we decided as parents he would support and go along with! That was a much appreciated attitude and in fact one that I did not expect. Thanks, Coach!

My daughter has had lots of volleyball going this week. I think we are trying to make up for lost games over the time the hurricane hit. Today we played at a charter school. My son had played basketball against this school two years ago. At the time I had thought it was an alternative school, a place for kids whoare “troubled”, need special help or maybe even residential rehab. But a charter school is a part of the public school system. Each one has its own “charter” and can help cater to students in a specialized way. These are not necessarily “troubled” kids, just kids who need a different approach to learning. These charter schools are not private schools, so they are still free to those who attend.

I went to visit a local charter school this morning. I really learned some good things there. This school is still part of the public school system, but with a twist. They must still follow state mandates and they stick very close to the school calendar, but they have the choice on how to meet these mandates. This particular school is a project based school. Each class brainstorms and votes on a project they will spend the next several weeks working on. They will work individually and cooperatively to learn all they can about the subject they choose. Games, hands on projects, guest speakers, writing projects, reading, cooperative projects and field trips will all center on the subject chosen.

The school also has a small student body and is housed in a small campus. They focus on each child and his/her individual needs. Because they are small they can help each child develop at his/her rate. They have a reading specialist who specializes in dyslexia and a speech pathologist on site. All teachers help to provide discipline, using creative methods when needed.

It looks like a positive place for kids. It seems to be the kind of place a young kid can learn and have fun learning, and feel comfortable moving at his/her own pace.

I was reminded again today of just how much we have to jump through hoops to participate in public school and their sponsored activities. We had a family issue that could have been avoided had we foreseen the situation and the possibility that could have arisen-and with forethought signed the appropriate paperwork! UGH! So suffice it to say, we learned a lesson that we hope to avoid in the future. I just hate being made to jump through hoops like that!