To Homeschool Or Not To Homeschool

Today's guest post is from Whit Honea, at The Honea Express. Whit is a work-at-home father of two who writes for a great many blogs and websites, including FameCrawler, Styledash, and DadCentric, just to name a few. He's the busiest blogger I know, but he always makes time for his kids. His oldest just started kindergarten, and that is the subject of his guest post...


The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Schoolyard
by Whit Honea, at The Honea Express

I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of home schooling. It's actually something that my wife and I have considered for some time. We never reached a decision, hence our oldest boy stepping foot into his first day of kindergarten. Public school is the default setting.

He's been attending classes for two full days now. He seems to be enjoying it. He's an incredibly bright boy, and his time home with me (I'm a Work-At-Home-Dad) was pushing his boredom and lack of constant stimulation into realms of mischief and cartoon sponges. Something had to be done before it was too late.

Perhaps our biggest concern for him, and the main reason for enrolling him into the local school, is his lack of friends. It's baffling really. He's a very sweet kid, considerate to a fault and plays well with others- he just doesn't want to.

He has one good friend that also started kindergarten and we were unable to get them in the same class. They do see each other at recess, but he says that she wants to play with the other girls now. Fair enough. He, however, does not care to play with the other boys. He swears that they aren't mean to him, although when pressed he admits that he never gets a turn, but that's probably due more to his lack of assertiveness than any playground plot.

He would rather be by himself. He's big on imagination and I can't help but think that he'd rather create friends than deal with the consequences of reality. That's not a bad thing.

It just makes him something of a contradiction. He's not a loner. He's quite social and talkative. I don't know what to make of it, other than to not make an issue out of it after only two days, especially if he doesn't seem concerned. Maybe he just likes the quiet time away from his little brother. I wouldn't blame him.

The reason we've been thinking about home schooling is more reactionary than nurturing. I'm not happy with his school thus far.

Yes, I'm more than aware that only two days have passed and that I need to give it more time. I plan to, but if I can't voice my concern on Phil's blog then where can I?

The school has a "closed campus" which from a safety standpoint sounds great. The thing is, it doesn't give a sense of safety, not even a false one. It gives a sense of shady.

Which is ironic because there isn't any shade. We live in the desert outside of Los Angeles. It's the middle of August and the temperature still hits close to 100 degrees daily. There is no shade on the playground other than a little grove of trees in a far corner.

At the end of the day the children are marched out onto the uncovered concrete and forced to stand in shadeless lines until a school employee verifies that the child sees their parent and they are then released to the gate, which is something of a makeshift Checkpoint Charlie. This takes about 15 minutes. In the sun. In 100 degree weather.

They say that it won't be so bad as the school year progresses. I can't help but think any relief will be a result of fall temperatures, not the smoothing of the process.

But I digress, the feeling of shadiness, which is perhaps too strong a word (but hey, look at the great tangent it gave us), comes from the fact that a "closed campus" is apparently code for "no contact with your child's teacher."

I worked in public schools for 7 years. I ran a youth program at the YMCA on elementary campuses for 8 years. I'm not naive or ignorant about the running of a school, if anything I'm sympathetic to it.

It's just that I've never seen a situation where parents were treated like the enemy - even when they were. We have been given stacks of forms and rules which contain paragraph after paragraph of patronizing instructions and thinly-veiled threats. For example, should your child miss 3 days (not consecutive- total) without a doctors note you (the parent) will be turned into the county truancy department. That's 3 days all school year! A note from a parent is considered unexcused.

It's the second day of school, teachers are busy. That doesn't excuse the fact that we're parents of kindergarten kids. We've just handed our babies over to complete strangers and it breaks our heart. Would it be so difficult to at least meet the teacher and have a minute or two of dialogue with the person we're trusting to the care and molding of our children? As it is the only opportunity to do so will be the parent-teacher conferences held in October. The end of October.

I left my job at the YMCA due to a move and my coming to terms with the harsh reality of the pay scale that tends to accompany such important positions.

I left my job with the school district because of politics and now I'm afraid that I've put my kid in the care of a communist regime. I hope he makes friends soon so we can check that off the list and go back home.

In the meantime I'll TiVo SpongeBob.


Be sure to visit The Honea Express for more of Whit's parenting insight.