Why I’m Homeschooling My Kid in Science Next Year
It’s no surprise to me that Colorado’s public school system is not good. I mean, I’m a product of the Boulder Valley School District and I can tell you first hand that it’s not great at preparing one for college, or anything for that matter.
So, it shouldn’t come as a big shock to me that I need to pick up the slack for what my sons are NOT learning about science in school.
My first experience with just how bad things were occurred back in the early 1990’s. I was giving a presentation to some 5th graders when I asked the question: “When did the United States first land a man on the moon?”
No one raised their hand. In fact, most didn’t know we had ever been to the moon, and of those that did know, a substantial fraction doubted that we were there at all (parents were probably moon-landing-hoaxers).
And I have a TON of stories like that.
Fast forward to this last school year. My 7th grade son is a very good student, gets A’s in just about everything. He LOVES science, especially astronomy (imagine that) and he and I have great conversations about what the universe is like and what it’s like to be a scientist. He eats that stuff up so I know he does his best in his science class.
Yet, throughout all of last year, his grade in science was C-. In every report card.
Photo Credit: Lost In Scotland
Technorati Tags: astronomy education, becoming an astronomer, csap, homeschooling, no child left behind
He was devastated because he knew how important science is to me and he always thought he knew science better than all of his classmates (and I agree with him, I’ve met some of those kids. Let’s just say critical thinking doesn’t come naturally to them).
Getting that C- consistently really took a toll on him, he couldn’t understand what was going on. He really knows his stuff and always scored well on tests.
Naturally, I talked to the teacher to investigate.
It turns out my son IS a good student, DID understand the material and WAS way ahead of the other students in his comprehension of the material.
BUT, he couldn’t organize his science notebook.
“I’m sorry, he can’t organize what?”, I asked.
“His science notebook. He failed the notebook checks. They were worth 100 points each, almost 80 percent of his grade.”, the science teacher calmly explained with a huge smirk on her face.
“What does that have to do with science?”, I asked, but by then I knew what was going on and that I wasn’t about to get anywhere. I left the teacher conference furious.
I’m all too familiar with this kind of teacher. She was a stickler for organization. All materials had to be inserted in the notebooks EXACTLY and each item had to have the name in a certain place, with the information outlined EXACTLY as specified.
Now, I understand the need to teach kids organizational skills, I really do. But to make it 80% of a grade?
What this teacher really wanted was the students to do all of her work for her. She didn’t want to have to search through reams of paper to try and figure out what the student knew. She just wanted to open the notebook and start checking off the existence of items, each containing the proper words so she could get through the grading as fast as possible.
She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in whether or not the kids learned anything, only that the notebooks were in proper order.
This isn’t all though folks, not by a long shot. I mean, I could let that go if that were the only issue because he would get a different, and hopefully more competent teacher next year.
But in Colorado, all students are required to take the Colorado Student Aptitude Test (CSAP), as part of the Leave Every Child Behind Act. This means that all school year until March, but especially from January to March, my kids are getting immersed in that test. The teachers do NOTHING ELSE but teach that test.
Then, after March, when the pressure is off, the teachers pretty much coast through April, May and the first part of June. This is the only time when my kids have a real chance at getting a useful education, and it’s wasted because “Whew, we’re done with that test.”
The CSAP is the only thing that is actually measured, so everything else, like the actual education itself, is ignored.
I simply cannot allow my kids to come out of the education system in Colorado without learning basic science and developing their critical thinking skills. As a parent, I take full responsibility for my kids education, so I’ll do it myself.
So, every Tuesday and Thursday of the next school year, I’ll be pulling my then 8th grade son out of class for his last period (along with his friend and three other homeschooled students) and teaching them science.
How can I do this? Why would the school let me take the boys out like that every week? Because so long as the boys are in class for a certain percentage of the school day, the school gets the credit for them and they get paid. The principal told me that’s all they care about: getting paid. I could do whatever I wanted with them in science as long as they met certain minimum knowledge standards.
Standards they do NOT hold themselves to, by the way.
No problem though, I can meet those just by spending one hour in front a telescope with them.
The two days I’ll have them at home will be spent teaching, discussing and working on science topics with assignments to do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I picked those two days to meet because of the seemingly infinite number of three day weekends the kids get in school for ‘planning days’ and other holidays. This would minimize any missed days due to that bullsh*t.
So now, I get to spend the rest of my summer planning a science curriculum for my son and his friends. You can bet it’ll be heavy on astronomy, but I can guarantee you that, based on what I’ve seen so far, they’ll be WAY ahead of their classmates by the time I’m done with them.
And I couldn’t care less about the state of their goddam notebooks.
As a senior in high school, I very much agree. There are so many teachers who think that keeping a notebook for a ridiculous portion of your grade is “an easy way to earn points.” It really isn’t. Though it sounds dumb, I concentrate much much more on learning than I do on my grade. And I have failed classes before because ignorant teachers decide that notebooks are the perfect solution to everything. I’ve always liked math and basically any science, but the problem is I have yet to have a math teacher that understands me as a person. I’m not organized, I never will be, but I can learn so much more by sitting and listening. All children are so different that there should NEVER be one set standard in a classroom. You’d be amazed at how much one person can struggle just because they focus on knowledge rather than grades.
I’m a senior in high school now, in Northern Virginia, but I did go second through fifth grade in Colorado Springs, and I was in for a bit of a shock when I moved to Florida, where they took science a bit more seriously. I also agree about the CSAP. That was ALL the teachers EVER talked about.
I agree with your article. I mean the teachers today are still growing lima beans to teach kids about plants. I did a little research and found kids to be much more excited about growing a TickleMe Plant and watching the leaves fold and branches more when Tickled! I know my kids will appreciate nature more by my own home schooling and creative lesson plans.
I found the TickleMe Plant Greenhouse at
Http://www.ticklemeplant.com
As a full fledged scientist with a masters degree in science (microbiology,) I went back to school to get a teaching certificate to teach secondary school science. I lasted three years when I was told I was too intelligent to “teach these kids.” The kids didn’t think so. They learned and got very excited about science. The teach to the test nonsense will never produce a scientist. It is the individual thinking, critical thinking, that does it. It is also not necessary to entertain the students. Learning and exploration is entertainment enough. The self-saisfaction a child gets from figuring it out themselves and getting it right. It isn’t the teachers. It is the grossly overpaid, too numerous administrators.
Best of luck to all of you who are taking this into your own hands. It is simply too important to neglect.
This scenerio sounds familiar. Not necessarily in science though. We took our kids out of the public schools after they completed the third grade for incidents at school that I found disturbing in a classroom. The teacher had no control and the kids were dancing on top of desks screaming at the top of their lungs. I only had to stand out in the hallway to hear all the commotion going. The principal was no help and half the time was away from the school in district meetings. It seemed more favorable to be a friend to the students than a authoritary figure.
I homeschooled for 3 1/2 years and when I started there was need for remedial work before I could take them into the next grade. They had problems in spelling, math (didn’t know their time-tables), and their reading level was below the third grade. It was shameful what I saw that the teachers failed to do in that school. They didn’t know how to write in cursive, let alone even know what that was. I found out from another parent that it wasn’t taught because they didn’t feel it was a necessary area to teach. As long as they could print legibly, they considered that enough. Frankly, a lot couldn’t print legibly either.
What I witnessed in that school, was more disciplining than teaching and even that was ineffective because it was a continuous daily battle between teacher and students. What was worse, because teachers were fearful of lawsuits, the students were winning. There were even parents that threaten teachers about discipling their kids and then would threaten them with a lawsuit. And these were usuallly the kids who were the bullies in the class. Look where they learned to be like that from. It was a no-win situation all around.
The kids knew exactly how to manipulate situations, like if the teacher touched a kid on the shoulder to get him to turn around, it turned into a type of child abuse scenario. Teachers ended up fearful of even laying a hand on a student for fear of being brought up on charges.
School playgrounds are war zones with possies of kids running who were to play where and with whom. If the rules weren’t followed as ordained by these kids, the victims ended up with heads smashed against brick walls and stepped on or kicked against the asphalt play surface. I heard about kids pushed off of jungle gyms because a group of kids claimed it and wouldn’t allow anyone else on it. And it seemed that victums of the incidents received the worse end of the deal when it brought up for disciplinary actions. The kid who started it up was alway good in coming up with a good story to get him out of the worst end of the deal. So where were the teachers? They never seemed to be around when these incidents occurred or claimed they didn’t see it even though they were on the playground.
The public schools have lots of problems that are in desperate need of attention. They are failing our children.
The claim that homeschool children are socially inept is so completely misunderstood. They are engaged with not only homeschoolers but with kids of the public schools as well. Outside activities for homeschooler is not only limited to kids who are homeschooled but activities such as boyscouts, little league, parks and reservation organizations activities from children in the community. Plus, they get out and about with other kids in their neighborhood who many attend public schools. Just because they are homeschooled does not mean that we shelter them away in our homes. Homeschooling is not a prison but a type of education where there is freedom to learn what you want and more. Some of that takes place outside of the home. Those are perhaps the best classrooms.
Hey. Ease up on public school teachers… we do have standards. It’s the freaking tests that rope us in. BTW my name for it is “No Child Can get Ahead”. We generally hate the tests as much as parents do, but no one will listen, not to mention that when we DO say that we hate them, the ignorant administration just assumes that we don’t want to TEACH. PARENTS have to step up, like you are and say it. Parents have to tell school board and especially lawmakers that this is rediculous. TEACHERS don’t make the standards!!! TEACHERS don’t make these tests!!! You had a bad applelk for a science teacher…. I DO care that my students’ notebooks are organized in so far as that THEY can find the information…. I DO give them a “one size fits all” standard format, but that is because very few of my student’ or their parents woudl organize their notebook properly where THEY could find the info if I didn’t. Sorry for the tirade, but I feel liek many parents are quick to blame ALL teachers, when the lawmakers are at fault.