My conflict with my daughters 3rd grade teacher

People that want to make excuses in favor of ‘public’ school teachers are desirous of promoting the state monopoly of indoctrination. Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Dept. of Ed because it is the garden of Marxism. It is the parent’s responsibility to educate their children, not the state or their neighbors. The statistics and research are in on homebased education, www.NHERI.org. You folks that hand your children over to the state to be “educated” should not be surprised when they return home Romans. Teachers are not the problem, the state system is the problem and people that support the state monopoly promote the problem.

ESPECIALLY in educators! I feel for Lori, she is trying to do what what she earnestly believes to be true: protect little children from their "whacko" parents. I assure you, visions of FLDS are dancing through her head.
Can you pull in the dogs a bit, and "be Ron Paul?" Quietly, calmly and oh, so rationally, show her the statistics?
Me? Heck no, I start crying evey time I try to talk, but it looks good in print, doesn't it? lol!

While I understand your concerns, I believe your are in the wrong here. First off, it is clear to everyone on this forum that the government infused public school system is greatly flawed. However your taking your anger out in an extremely rude and accusatory way on the wrong person. Most teachers become teachers simply because they want to teach. Because they want to help children. It is not until they are in the system that they find out all the stipulations and regulations forced upon their teaching that is out of their control. It is doing you, your child and her teacher no good to be alienating and accusing her in this manner when I would assume she's trying her best and a bad situation.

Further more, while public school may be flawed it is not the evil demon you make it out to be. It teaches you social interaction, and allows you to make friends that you will have for a lifetime. It introduces you to all different types of people (including bullies) and allows you to learn from them and understand what the real world is actually like. It teaches you to adhere to schedules like you will need after school and while we all hate homework as children, it is not a bad thing as it teaches us the valuable lesson that in life and our jobs there are hard deadlines for things (paying bills, finishing work) that will have hard consequences if not adhered to. Finally and simply, it does actually teach you. The learnings may not be what you preach but there is a lot to learn from a public education and just because you don't agree with it doesn't make it wrong.

To allow your child to grow, the best thing to do (only in my opinion) would be to keep them in public school and then when they come home spend an hour a day or a few hours a week teaching them what you'd like them to know (telling them this is another side to it, not the right side or wrong). Then they can compare and decide for themselves what they believe.

Bravo for taking a stand against the public school system. I am homeschooling my 17 yo son and have done so since he was in the 1st grade. He experienced public preschool where the teacher punished him for not drawing a smiley face the way she thought it should be done...he dare not use any creativity! Kindergarten was even worse...the teacher actually scolded a little girl in my son's class who was smiling and laughing by telling her "we don't laugh in this classroom!" and finally half way through 1st grade I'd had enough of what they consider education. We've happily home-schooled ever since and I highly recommend it!

im so impressed, i went thru this a few month s ago,,,except the punishment that time was that she didnt let my son attend lunch with the rest of the class, he had to stay in classroom with his teacher while she ate her lunch in front of him till it was done, then get lunch tray and bring it back and eat it,,,all within 30 minutes........im italian, meals to my family are practiacally holy and i dont think meals should be hurried and stressful especially for a young boy.anyhow i met with principal who unbelievably told me that was their policy and their "weapon".....im seriously thinking about homeschooling, but you know the control grid is doing its best to criminalize homeschooling in the near future....it reminds me of nazi germany.......

Kudos Greg!!!
what I don't get is everyone taking up for these teachers....a teacher is someone who teaches a child to think for themselves. I hear nobody has seen or heard of that since the 60's, Since today it is merely teaching memorization of their facts and where do those come from? Teachers may have a hard time with some "active" children....so they either force medication on them...
The state started the problem by saying if you discipline your own child we will take them away...
These are nothing but indoctrination centers and the teachers know it...

you couldnt have been a little kinder.
She's just doing her job.
Maybe the whole class did something together, like in
the movie A Christmas Story, she said you misunderstood.

I feel sorry for public school teachers, they get a lot of crap
and they're trying their best in a messed up
system equally the fault of the govt and the lazy parents.

is trying to get you to loose your temper, so she can say, see he is a crazy person - and take focus away from the incident. you may be better off going to the principal rather than email sniping back and forth.

...to get government out of the business of education.

My son is in a private school - 1st Grade. It's significantly better than public school, but is not perfect.

One thing I tell all my mom friends, no matter where our children are schooled, is that it is up to us to educate our children. It is US they listen to. It is their home life that will influence and shape their future. "Schools" are just supplemental information providers that can be filtered out, and our kids do know that.

The same holds true for the poorest in our society, but with the opposite results.
Here's something to ponder over: Let's take the poor kids - white or black. We hear the statistics of how much T.V. the average American kid watches, right? Most shows use proper English on them, right? And these same kids go to schools where the teachers, at least, speak proper English, right? Then why do these children from lower socio-economic status butcher the English language with double negatives, etc.? This also shows how the home influence prevails - generation after generation. Which is better?

The bar is not high enough for us to go to public school. At least in private school they need your tuition and will listen to your concerns. We wish we could home school full time - both of us work - but we are always teaching, especially OUR values.

Good Luck to you and your daughters!

I congratulate you on taking your children out of public school and homeschooling them. I was homeschooled all 12 years and actually feel sorry for those that didn't get the opportunity to be homeschooled. John Dewey and other progressive educator's goal was to give children a collectivist mindset. They discovered that this was best accomplished by not teaching children to read. As you mentioned, they replaced the traditional phonics method with the whole-word method. The horrible illiteracy rates caused Rudolf Flesch to write "Why Johnny Can't Read."

I would suggest that maybe in future e-mails shorten them and make cut out some of the rambling. I'm sure your concerns are legitimate, but there's no need for it that much description. I'd also leave out the attacks/accusations of tyranny. Don't scare the poor woman. It's not like she's in on it, plotting to dumb down your kids or anything. In reality, she as the teacher has very little control.

I went to public schools (just graduated from high school last year). They worked out great for me... I think they're ok, but if you have concerns, you don't necessarily need to home school your kids, just reaffirm what you want them to know. So, if they don't teach enough about the Constitution, current events, or history, that's your obligation.

If you have a concern about recess, then just ask her about that... don't come off calling her a liar either.... Just ask if she's been giving recess. If she was then you can ask why. If you disagree then say so. Then try and compromise so you can make sure your child gets what's important to you in her education.

your first email was rambling. while you make some good points, I don't think you're going to get anywhere preaching at her (not to mention disrespecting her time by writing such a long email).

I would suggest if you want to resolve some of these conflicts, stick to the issue at hand: don't let it get personal by bringing in your bitterness toward the school system.

Wow! A lot of good responses. Thanks for the advice, links and info. I added a lot of links into my homeschooling bookmarks. This is just one of many issues I have had with my kids teachers this year. All my kids are in the advanced/gifted programs at their schools which are kind of a joke. The reading ability of other kids in these programs is not very good. I taught my kids to read using this book; "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." Worked very well. My son who is in 1st grade finished the book just before he turned 5 and at that point was reading at the second grade level. He now reads at grade 4+. I was able to get him out of kindergarten and into first grade even though he wasn't old enough according to "policy." During that process I was told by the principle of his school to "leave the teaching to the professionals." That ticked me off but since she was working with me to let him move up to first grade I let it slide. He is the best reader in that class.
Teaching my children to read successfully has given me the confidence to start homeschooling and also to fight back against the system this whole school year. It is frustrating but I have got some concessions from them. I have had enough though and this will be it for them. The control they exert over children is wrong and I won't let my kids be subject to it anymore.

You wrote: "Every day she begs me to pull her out of school. She can't wait to be free of useless, counter productive mind-numbing busy work called homework. I have told her repeatedly I don't care if she does it or not and in fact I suggest to her not to. But I guess she has been institutionalized already as she wants to do it because she is afraid she will get "marked down" for not.."

Your household conversations sound like mine. My daughter will be HS'd after this year is out. You might find this resourceful, I did: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/40730

I'd point out the credentials and the public records law thing are just a signature tag. Just because she's educated doesn't mean she's smart.

However, at this point you take it to the next level. But before you do that, double check the FL laws on the homeschooling and your educational rights in regards to your daughter. You don't want to get into the mess that happened out here in CA.

I'd also recommend a healthy beware of the CPS (or whatever name Social Services uses in FL) as the screwl district might get those kidnappers involved.

Also, check out the Separation of School and State Alliance for some resources, and Google Suzanne Shell as well.

Great post

i agree with you 100%. i have no kids nor do i want any, but if i did they wouldn't be allowed to go near a public school for "educational" purposes. of course i'd let them go cheer on the team so they could be around other kids.

you won't get any argument out of me when you take kids out of a system that lets 20% of the people graduate even though they can't find their home state on a map.