[quote=5yes]The teachers that work in this valley love their students and try to teach them to be independent thinkers. We delight in our student’s wisdom and new ideas. We celebrate their successes and listen when they have problems. We run into our students at the grocery store, at the mall, at the dentist and we try to live our lives to be good role models. I am proud to live and teach in Temecula, and I am excited for the excellent education my kids are receiving.[/quote]
Glad to see a *real* public school teacher posting here, 5yes.
A lot of homeschooling parents are completely unaware of all the stuff a person majoring in education has to go thru to be certified, how difficult (and political) it is to achieve “tenure” (even this is no guarantee of longetivity in this economy), and how much dedication it takes, year in, year out, when many of your student’s parents do not or cannot provide the minimum requirements for their children to succeed in school (i.e., decent bed to sleep in, breakfast, insisting on homework completion, having behavioral stds, etc). A couple of homeschool parents I know did *try* public school but felt their *special* kids didn’t get enough attention (w/one teacher and one aide per 20 students – lol) or that the teacher didn’t *like* their child (when you bring your kid up with antisocial traits, it fosters these feelings of isolation, IMO).
I have many relatives who have retired from public school teaching. All taught more than 30 years. I just have the utmost respect for that profession . . . it’s not for everybody. It takes a certain kind, with stamina, a backbone and a real love of teaching and kids.
The level of education of the homeschool parents I am familiar with is a HS diploma and one has a GED. I think they are doing their children a great disservice. The oldest parent graduated from HS about 25 years ago. During the middle of the “school day,” I see these kids outside playing all the time.
I have two years college and a graduate (500 level) certificate in business litigation and a few business licenses and I AM UNQUALIFIED to teach basic academic subjects. Because I KNOW WHAT IT TAKES and I KNOW WHAT I AM (good at a LOT of stuff but teaching school is not one of them – lol), I do not attempt to do something for which there are persons HIGHLY TRAINED AND QUALIFIED TO DO, for whom my (our) taxes already pay their salaries. If I can realize this, then a parent with a(n) *old* GED or HS diploma (and no further education) should be able to know their limitations and send their kids to school instead of using them as a crutch for their *own* personal baggage.
[end of rant and hijack]
