Thursday, April 26, 2007

Home school. What will it take?

I've been beyond dissatisfied with the children's school this year. On one hand, I am thankful that my autistic son's are allowed to attend a Catholic school(my 2 cents - special needs kids should be accepted at Catholic schools if they are truly pro life. I'm sick to death of the "pro life only if they are normal" bunk) On the other hand, I despise things like my kindergartner being put through "Just Say No" to drug week. She had no clue what they were talking about and came out thinking "drugs are something you hide in your room". Nice. Then we had the forced(this was actually diocesan-wide) Virtus training for ALL parents. I won't go into what I thought of that but I have missed out on school parties, field trips and much more over that. The huge classroom sizes have been bad in the upper grades and the casualty of that was the kids with learning disabilities. My oldest son has fallen from honor roll to barely passing. They went from 16 kids per teacher to 31. Wow. Enough said. Now we pay the same price as the parents whose kids have 13-16 kids per teacher mind you. Then we have the indoctrination of global warming on my oldest. I had to "re-teach" weekly. Last week he got in the car and told me "That's because we descended from the apes." I almost had to pull the car over I was so hot. Re-teaching the days lies has become the norm.

So here I am at the end of the year faced with a hard decision I am sure many go through. I have to work because our medical bills for having special needs kids is so high. I work more than full time and the thought of home-schooling makes my head spin. The alternative is public school. This is gut-wrenching and so hard for me as I never imagined I would have a special needs child(who does), let alone two much less be forced to work to support the family. So this will take many prayers and and hoping God leads us where we need to be. It's very scary. Unless you have been where I am, know that I have thought through all the options and exhausted every one. My children's faith, safety and academic foundation is at stake and I just don't have the answer. I hope and pray that God does.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

seems to me the answer is pretty clear. if your children are not having their needs met, then you need to withdraw them and go elsewhere. its probably a tough decision, but i would do it were i in the same boat. the good lord will provide all that is needed.

just one thought though, you might want to let them know earlier rather than later at the school. its getting close to the end.

ill pray for you either way.

a thorn in the pew said...

I have put a call in to the homeschool program we have been looking into. They have other autistic children using the program and they will give us a fair assesment of how it will work for us if this is still an option.

Michelle Therese said...

Sometimes running away isn't an option. I hope you can find a solution that works for you and your children! I graduated high school, diploma in hand, only to find out when I got into college that I had a 4th grade level understanding in math. Twelve YEARS of schooling and that's all I got out of it math-wise? (And worse, they LET me graduate??)

I knew more about how to use condoms and how to aquire secret abortions then how to add fractions...

I get so sick and tired of the man-made global warming myth. Have you read the book, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Environmentalism and Global Warming"? It's great! It's not exhaustive - but it sure gets a lot of counter-information out there. Like...did you know that the "Hockey Stick" graph that "proves" global warming is man-made is a FRAUD?? That alone nearly killed me.

All bow to the latest religion: Man Made Global Warming! (And our global warming Pope: Al Gore!)

Anonymous said...

just wondering...have you spoken to the teachers or principal at the school about your concerns? just wondering if you had what the response was.

a thorn in the pew said...

I did before last year had begun and the answer on the class size was "no money". So I know that is not going to be something that will change. As far as the other issues of non-Catholic doctorine being taught, no. I was alarmed by a book my son bought home that was a Reader's Digest book on the human body that went into graphic content on STD's, abortion, contraception, pornography and other fun things. The response I got was "I will look into it" and I never heard another word. I assume it is still on the shelf or they couldn't find it. I may give one last effort to see where the school will be heading and let them know I am upset over evolution and global warming being taught.