At 9 years old, L.J. started missing school. His parents said they would homeschool him. It took two years — during which he was beaten and denied food — for anyone to notice he wasn’t learning.
Thank you, I agree, and there are middle options. My daughter is going to an online middle school called Connections Academy. Unfortunately, it is run by Pierson, which is evil, but it is an online public school (at least here in Indiana) which accredited teachers who are well-paid, so they actually give a shit about their students and there is no tuition.
She was severely bullied in her former public in-person middle school for being different from other kids. She likes wearing things like spiked collars, so they bullied relentlessly for being a furry. She decided to go as an anime catgirl for Halloween (my wife made an amazing costume) and she was bullied by the entire school that day. It was the last day she went to public school. She was already starting to think of self-harm and she couldn’t face another day.
On top of everything else, she’s queer, but she hasn’t talked to kids at school about it, so that would have made things ten times worse.
So we have that option for her now. Not only is her self-esteem so much higher, I’m able, as her “learning coach,” to cater her lessons to her style of learning and she’s gotten the best grades of her life by any stretch because of it. She even goes to a social group with other homeschoolers/online schoolers at the library every week and has made more friends than she’s ever made before. We’ve had to go down to one income, but it’s been worth it for her.
Kids don’t have to turn their camera on at her school or really get to know each other, so I don’t know all of their situations, but I know from other parents in a discussion group that many of them have socialization issues and at least one kid in one of her classes, from the sound of her voice, is a prodigy who can’t be older than eight years old. Imagine being as smart as a teenager when you’re eight. What are the schooling options there?
Alternative methods are important, but there are often alternatives that aren’t private schools or bullshit religious homeschooling, so they have to adopt to state standards. I wish Pierson wasn’t involved, but it’s not like they aren’t providing ever public school kid with instruction as it is. At least I get to tell her what is bullshit in her social studies and health classes this way.
Thank you, I agree, and there are middle options. My daughter is going to an online middle school called Connections Academy. Unfortunately, it is run by Pierson, which is evil, but it is an online public school (at least here in Indiana) which accredited teachers who are well-paid, so they actually give a shit about their students and there is no tuition.
She was severely bullied in her former public in-person middle school for being different from other kids. She likes wearing things like spiked collars, so they bullied relentlessly for being a furry. She decided to go as an anime catgirl for Halloween (my wife made an amazing costume) and she was bullied by the entire school that day. It was the last day she went to public school. She was already starting to think of self-harm and she couldn’t face another day.
On top of everything else, she’s queer, but she hasn’t talked to kids at school about it, so that would have made things ten times worse.
So we have that option for her now. Not only is her self-esteem so much higher, I’m able, as her “learning coach,” to cater her lessons to her style of learning and she’s gotten the best grades of her life by any stretch because of it. She even goes to a social group with other homeschoolers/online schoolers at the library every week and has made more friends than she’s ever made before. We’ve had to go down to one income, but it’s been worth it for her.
Kids don’t have to turn their camera on at her school or really get to know each other, so I don’t know all of their situations, but I know from other parents in a discussion group that many of them have socialization issues and at least one kid in one of her classes, from the sound of her voice, is a prodigy who can’t be older than eight years old. Imagine being as smart as a teenager when you’re eight. What are the schooling options there?
Alternative methods are important, but there are often alternatives that aren’t private schools or bullshit religious homeschooling, so they have to adopt to state standards. I wish Pierson wasn’t involved, but it’s not like they aren’t providing ever public school kid with instruction as it is. At least I get to tell her what is bullshit in her social studies and health classes this way.