Everyone can remember two or three teachers they loved - teachers who excelled and expected their students to excel. Imagine an education system in which every graduating senior had 40 outstanding teachers whom they loved instead of just two or three. That would truly be a world-class education. But this will not happen until the teaching profession and salaries are raised to a level that will attract and retain high-caliber teachers.

((This article is written out of the states, but could easily be applied to us here in the Great White North.  Click on the quote to read it in its entirety))

 

It really is a sad state of affairs that the public school system is in.  I certainly don't blame teachers for wanting more money.  They in fact NEED more money.

When I went to college, I took the Developmental Services Worker Diploma with the goal of working with special needs kids in the school system.  A truly wonderful placement teacher that I had told me I had no business not running my own classroom.  He encouraged me to go to university and to eventually teach.

I did go to university, and I now have a very expensive piece of paper that I can do nothing with unless I go back to school for another year.  I need to get my teaching degree in order to make that worthwhile.

That is not something I am willing to do.

Why?

Teachers work too hard.

They put in 8 hours a day, but their day really doesn't end there.  The teachers I know take home their marking, their prep work.  They have their husbands help them cut out crafts for the next day.  For what?  For parents who are unappreciative, and for minimum pay.

It seems to me that the people who are in charge of, in essence, raising our children for the majority of a day should be making a decent wage.  A wage that they can at least live off of.

Teachers in our public schools are tired.  They're overworked and they have too many kids in their classrooms.  It is not their fault that the education received in a public school has become inferior.

And that is why we are going to homeschool.

Edited to add:

Hmm.  I don't think I was too clear when I was writing this article, as was kindly pointed out to me with a reference from another blog.

If teachers were paid more would we definitely send our kids happily off to public school?

I can't answer that.

Is the only reason that Public Schools are in the state they're in right now because of the pay difficulties?

I think that that is a big part of it.  Along with poor funding per student, too high student to teacher ratio, and too little parent involvement.

All I know is that God has led us to homeschool for now.  In the future?  Who knows. 

Do I look down on people who chose not to homeschool?  I certainly hope not.  I believe that we all choose to do the best that we can for our own families in the situations that we are placed into.

We do what we think is God's will for our lives, and I would hope that anyone else would do the same in theirs.

Do you know what I love about homeschooling?  I love that I don't miss it.  I don't miss the moment.  The big moment when the lightbulb goes on, and when the kidlets "get" it.

Keyzia is just breaths away from reading.  Today she wrote

miss
ing
bus
money

on a piece of paper.  Ja sounded it out for her, and she wrote it down.

The day that she understood that letters had sounds was a huge moment for her.  Now she asks all the time how to spell things.

"Momma, how do you spell 'love'?"

"Momma, can you write 'Happy Birthday' for me?"

"A says a, A says a, every letter makes a sound!"

It's kind of funny how as an adult we take these little things for granted.  I can read, I can type, I can even write my own name if I so choose.  It's effortless.  The words come easily.  I rarely have to sound anything out anymore, although I will admit, I do keep the dictionary at the ready!

I think that is why God gave us these little beings.  These little mini-mes.  They help us to look back, to remember our joy at learning new things, to show us something we may have missed the first time around.  I'm teaching my daughter to read, but she is teaching me the joy in learning something new.  I'm teaching her that words have meaning, and she is teaching me the joy in the words.

And that is why we decided to homeschool.