But, I'm not talking about yours or mine, I'm talking about *theirs*.
“you don't have a choice in where your child attends, who your child must associate with, who teaches your child and what your child is taught.”
You live in the wrong state. IMO, we do have choices here in Texas and we'll stick a boot in someone’s rear to get them to listen..
Look, I understand all your concerns and the reasons for you taking your children out of public school. I'm just saying,, “Don't give up on the others and let peole like Obama take their futures.” (point of the thread, I believe)
BTW: your daughter was right about conserving water. (we were in a horrible 2 year drought just last summer)
LOL - you did not see the nasty diaper I was in the middle of! My daughter walked up and turned the water off and there I was with my dirty hands and my son's bottom only halfway clean. I am so thankful we live in a country where we can make those judgments for ourselves.
Count your blessings that you live in Texas. They have some of the most homeschool friendly laws in the country, which says to me that they trust parents to know what is best for their children. I would expect that would lead to the government schools being more responsive to parents as well.
When we wanted to make sure our son did not have the same bad first grade teacher that his sister had, the school explained their process for sorting kids into classes and told me that if, after that process, he ended up in her class anyway, we could appeal the decision. Since the teacher in question and the principal were both minorities, I could not see that situation ending well...we would just have been racists, you know. (Despite the fact that the wonderful kindergarten teacher we loved was of the same minority.) The kids had been begging to try homeschooling, so we made the leap. Both have graduated college (summa cum laude) and are very community minded, productive people. The son I mentioned above is in grad school at Stanford, of all places. Not my first choice, but a prestigious school.
Homeschooling does not mean someone has given up on the others. In my case, I am on the local Republican Executive Committee, I campaign for candidates that stand for freedom and choice in education and my husband and I have given thousands of hours over the last eighteen years to assist others who take the plunge to educate their own kids.
You've been around long enough to know that peer influence, particularly in large group settings, usually only runs one way. As my daughter said, the good kids in her class just kept their heads down and tried to learn in the chaos created by all the kids who did not care to take advantage of the opportunity they had. I will not feel guilty for giving my kids time to mature before I expected them to be change agents out in the world.