Well,she's back in public school

My daughter wanted to go back to school after 2 years homeschooling. SO we spent the money we wouldv'e used for homeschool stuff on new clothes,school supplies,a P.E. uniform,a back pack,etc etc and she goes one day and comes home and says "I HATE middle school I'm NEVER going back!" lol. We made her commit to giving it at least 2 weeks and hopefully she'll make friends,fit in,etc. This morning she was crying as she went out the door. It's so hard. I know I have to help her give it time.

 

I'd say let her go for a couple of weeks, but then if she doesn't like it, welcome her back to homeschooling. As a teenager, I know that is a choice I'd like to be given.

 

So far she comes home happy and excited and now only doesn't want to go in the mornings,which means it's working out for her. Nobody in this family wants to do anything in the mornings

 

i wish my mother would have been so happy to let me choose what i wanted to do...kudos to u for that

 

Good job Terrapin, whatever doesn't kill her will make her stronger.
H

 

or just hurt alot^

 

part of teaching kids is teaching them that when they make decisions there are consequences and that we have to live with our choices and their effects on us. Sounds like you have been engaged in teaching one of the penultimate lessons in life!

 

Nice to know that it worked out for her. Evreything in life is about time. Nothing is easy at the beginning specially at that age. The good thing is that she was strong enough to continue in going and didn't give up.

 

i wish my mom would have been more open minded about me wanting to go back to public school....every time i even mentioned it i got grounded for months to the extent of not even being allowed to go outside.

 

My sons had a voice in their education and each eventually expressed a desire to attend public (government) school. My oldest ended up graduating from public high school, my youngest returned to homeschooling his senior year.



Both boys are now in college, doing great - one is majoring in architecture and the other in engineering.

NOTE: If there would have been a non-religious private school in our area, I would have preferred that as an option for them over public(government) school. Neither son was particularly "a good fit" for the restrictions placed on them in public school - altho, they both did very well grade wise, they were a bit too independent for the average teacher/administrator. ;-)

 

ha, yes. that happened to me last year

 

Unfortunately the way schools are restricting language, thought and discussion these days, its not too hard to fit into the "too independent" category, is it?

I remember my oldest son telling me one of his teachers went around the room asking what Political Party each student belonged to (which considering it wasn't a history or civics class, I found rather odd and invasive. As I recall, it was an election year, which may have been her motivation.) Anyway, when she came to my son he answered "Libertarian".

You'd think a (good) teacher would use this as an opportunity to educate the class about third party politics, voting options, etc ... and ask my son to explain what Libertarians stood for, how they differed from the other 2 major parties, etc... but NO. Instead her reply to my son was "You would be".

Talk about condescending and judgemental! ... as well as another opportunity to REALLY teach her class was lost.

Any interesting stories you can add here from your own experience?

 

Two of my teachers were really cool.... they were extremely intelligent, and I got along with them famously, which makes me wonder if I too am extremely intelligent..... nah, it cant be

but i just couldn't work in groups as middle school and high school seem to instill slacker work ethics into the students... i never really had any homework, aside from ap english and all my history and international relations classes (which just so happened to be taught by those aforementioned two greatest teachers ever), because i finished everything in my half-hour study hall period. its not that the other teachers didnt assign anything, but after teaching myself how to work fast, the shit was just easy (ap english and mr rykken's classes required an intense amount of work if you wanted to succeed in them). i really couldnt see how anybody could just not do their homework in that school, except for maybe the oodles of books we had to read in ap english (which i eventually stopped reading about 3 quarters through the last semester after i found cliffnotes, haha....), and the massive amounts of homework mr. rykken (the politics/history/international relations teacher) assigned.

but then the normal students just think you're weird and don't talk to you when you find it a breeze to but don't really that you're maintaining a 4.0 gpa (though i slipped in the last quarter, senioritis, you know). when you finish the week's calculus and chemistry homework in a half-hour period and sit through all of scalia's supreme court hearings while meticulously taking notes on the hearings, people think you're insane. fun times, fun times.



well there's my personal experience. :tongue: while being homeschooled for a relatively short amount of time probably put a huge block on my real-life socialisation habits, i wouldn't have wanted it any other way, as i'm a harder worker now in everything i do, even if i don't want to do whatever it is i do. homeschooling teaches the student to rely on themselves (it did in my case anyways, and a few others i know about) when parents do not. public schools don't teach that... i think its the most important thing that a young person could learn.

 

Im glad your daughter is have a good time at public school. My experience was allot like yours, and I finally dropped out, and am now looking for alternative routs to get my diploma.

My sister on the other hand is now in 9th grade, and she has had a wonderful experience in school. Shes bisexual and has had to deal with allot of crap because of that, but otherwise, she has allot of fun. I believe I am allot like our daughter. I am very sensitive and I cry easily and its hard to deal with school when your like that, Im glad shes getting along though.