Cuts. I'm glad it worked out for you. I'm curious about 2 things. First - what did you find appalling ? Second - how did you teach the higher level courses in math and science such as geometry, calculus, trigonometry, chemistry, physics and biology?
Wow! I missed the follow-up completely....Sorry!
What was appalling was the lack of knowledge on the part of the teachers, the total lack of class room control, and the absolute insistence on forcing the student to accept the liberal ideals/mind control on the part of the the entire system. Much of the students time was wasted in the constant shifting from one classroom to another, the hallway chaos comes to the classroom, the first ten minutes of class is spent getting materials rounded up, settling down from the hallway stuff, then another ten minutes wasted at the end of class preparing to move to another room, hallway chaos again.....endless cycle of wasted time.
Insofar as teaching higher level subjects....two things, I HAVE THE TEACHERS MANUAL!!!!!!!!! It is amazing what you can teach when you have access to those! And my wife is a mathamatical wizard in her own right fully capable of teaching trig, geometry, and calculus.
Other aspects: I can honestly say that I learned more in the process of home educating than I did in college! I cannot stress enough how important that part was, because being only "one day ahead" a lot of the time meant that I had to work at it. And it made it easier for me understand what it would take to get the information across to my sons!
Financial: The cost saved in health care alone paid for the computers we bought for the boys to use. (every year right after Christmas break they would go back to school and bring home every illness known to man and it seemed to continue right through spring break!!!!! That stopped when we started home schooling) And the actual cost of HS materials is not as high as what the public school systems seem to pay for it. You can find it online and HSers often resell materials after children have moved on to the next grade.....a big saving for us! We didn't have the added expense of "new school clothing" every year either.
Other stuff: PE class could be a day working in the yard, shoveling snow (and playing in it), going hunting/fishing, hiking, bicycle riding, weeding the garden, painting the house....endless possibilities there! I never did think it made much sense to have them playing football/baseball/wrestling, because how many people go on to do that sort of thing all through their adult lives? I figured giving them things to do for PE that they can do for the rest of their lives made more sense! And we had fun TOGETHER!
Socialization! Man! I've heard that argument about a million times! "How can you children be properly socialized if they don't mix with their peers on a daily basis?" That one turned out to be one of the biggest piles of BS ever! My sons did not spend eight hours a day in class rooms surrounded by their "peers" and being directed in activities by one much older person....where you gonna use that "skill set" as an adult? Instead they interacted with people of all age groups on a regular basis, more like what "reality" is like! Plus our yard was where the neighborhood kids gathered after school anyway....because their parents weren't home from work yet!
Now, understand that I've oversimplified a lot here, a lot of it was hard work and took a lot of time, but it was worth it. And also understand that we knew that we weren't trained educators and that we would make mistakes. So we paid teachers, that are friends of ours, to review our childrens progress twice a year, and even though it was not required we had them take tests every year administered by the local school system. The end result has been worth it! I am proud of my sons and their accomplishments in their continuing education and in their lives. They turned out to be good people........perhaps in spite of my efforts!
