Monday 7 October 2013

Why I Don't Want To Talk About School On The Internet, Ever

There's stuff I keep wanting to write, but most of it would involve my thoughts about school, and, well, I keep thinking about how I fear this:





Anybody want to guess where we're sending our kids?



(By the way, I showed this to Jay, and he pointed to our row and said 'but I don't think any of those things!' and then he pointed to all the other rows and said 'I'm pretty sure they are true, though.' And I said 'Yes, that's the point, Jay. The diagram is about fear of judgement rather than actual judgement, okay?' He still wasn't sure and thought I should make that clear, which is why I'm including this little note at the bottom in case anybody is actually offended). 

23 comments:

  1. I want to talk about school so badly but I'm just tired.

    You're going to homeschool. Am I right?

    Here, it is VERY weird to homeschool (worse than in the US :)) although more and more people are going over to the "weird side" - teehee! Technically, if I had the personality for it, I'd homeschool. Control freak HEAVEN!

    I have school posts to write... I'm unhappy with a few things at their preschool which made me think, "God, maybe it's not them, maybe it's ME???" But seriously I can't see a way out - best I start praying because I disagree with something everywhere!

    XXX

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  2. PS Sweet Cheeks, are you on Pinterest? I know you make fun but surely??? :)

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  3. So I both send my kids to a private parochial school and I'm doing homeschool via Montessori method for the little. Where's my diagram?
    Oh, but I send him to an in-home loosey goosey preschool two days a week so i can drink a coffee without someone throwing a Thomas train at me.
    So what's that?

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  4. I know this is totally besides the point, but as I was looking through your diagrams I couldn't help but wonder what parents think of teachers who teach at public schools and at private schools.... I also wonder what those parents think of the children who attend those schools.

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  5. I know this is still besides the point, but I wonder what teachers think of other teachers who send their children to schools that are different from the ones they work at.

    Sometimes I wish I had gone to school to become a baker... the only complaints would be about how dry my vegan cookies were or how I had forgotten to drain the tofu prior to making the vegan pumpkin pie (by the way, I'm totally aware of how much I oversimplified the complaints a baker may or may not receive... my apologies to any professional bakers who might be reading this comment).

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    1. I know a few teachers who are wildly offended by home schoolers, and I know some teachers who work in public school who send their kids to private or home school. It's crazy. My sis in law is a teacher who has requested I "do not speak about school in front of her because I am offensive." I am a home schooler 2 days a week, unschooler 2 days a week, and life skills/emotional coach/chauffuer 2 days a week. Sundays, I go to church and wish I were sleeping at home instead. I don't have a chart...

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    2. Oh, and C-diddy, I am pretty sure due to work schedule alone you are not home schooling. Of the other three, I am torn!

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  6. This is so funny. By the last diagram I was laughing out loud. You're right of course about all the judgements, I guess I just never thought all that much about it because I write about school all the time. Silly me.

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  7. I'm sorry, WTH is "unschooling?" Throw 'em in a room with a pile of books & crayons & hope for the best?

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    1. It's letting kids decide what they want to learn about. In our house, that would be 24/7 Doc McStuffins. (I think that unschooling WELL is tremendously difficult - I couldn't do it).

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  8. Is homeschooling different in the UK? In the US, a large number of homeschoolers do so for religious reasons, so the homeschoolers wouldn't look to the Christian schoolers are crazies, but as compatriots.

    Having been homeschooled myself (in the US, for 12 years, but for reasons of quality of education, not reasons of religion), I always find different cultural views of homeschooling interesting. People I met in the Netherlands when I lived there, and now in Germany, are always fascinated to find out I was homeschooled, because in both countries homeschooling is illegal unless you jump through some serious hoops (e.g., because your kid is so immuno-compromised that sending him to school could be fatal).

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  9. Hahah, briliant.
    I won´t have that problem. We don´t have private schools or christian schools, just public schools. And no homeschooling, our public school required.

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  10. I'm guessing public school, but I have no idea how schooling is really on your side of the pond :)

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  11. As a homeschool mom who never EVER thought she’d homeschool her kids, I love this. Are you…sending your children to public school? If so, I will feel jealous. Can you make a separate category for reluctant homeschoolers that denotes jealousy for all other versions of schooling (aside from unschooling, of course)?

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  12. What if you went to a Christian, private school? Then what? lol

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  13. What the H*LL is unschool? Cause, I'm all about that if it involves letting my child be a child, avoid standardised tests, learn through cross-discipline integration and the omnipresence of the arts....

    Oh, and just for the record...I'm a private school teacher. Oh, the irony.

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  14. I can't BELIEVE that you would choose that method!?! ;) Loved your diagrams.

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  15. Lol! I LOVE this. And I personally love the idea of homeschooling, of having the ultimate control over your child's education, but my child complies and listens to others far more than he listens to me (sad, but true). It would end up being a battle of wills. For the sake of our relationship, he must be schooled out of the home! And my husband and I maneuvered ourselves very deliberately (pre-kids) into a community with incredible schools (making the need for private school unnecessary, in my opinion) and I work for the school district. My husband attended a very expensive parochial school and I attended a very good public school and feel I got the better deal, but there are communities where this is not the case. Sooo, it is such a case-by-case personal decision and very much depends on what you have available and what works for your family.

    Right now I do a bit of both =preschool and homeschooling, and suspect I will do the same when he heads off to public school (or until he refuses to listen altogether-ha!).

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  16. My great parenting philosophy: Do what works while it works and if it stops working, change it. Also applies to schooling. We homeschool, much to the horror of my mother-in-law who is convinced our children have no friends and we only do it because I'm too lazy to pack lunches.

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  17. Brilliant! School is very much on my mind a lot these days. Just signed my 4 yr old up for the first of many tests that will be deciding his whole life or something apparently. People here also pay big money for tutoring 'bootcamps' to prep their kids for the tests -- we are opting not to. Because what if we did that and it turns out that, on testing day, my kid just hates the color of the curtains at the testing place (or is fresh off a post Doc Mc Stuffins withdrawal tantrum?). Yeah. It is stressful. But I think we gotta get this kid pooping in a potty before puberty first...

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Over to you!