 Many times, instead of rewarding the kids who perform well, they
reward everybody because they don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.
My kids do well in school because I told them early on that they
have to be a garbage man if they don't do well. It's called
motivation.Although home schooling is an option I might choose
one day, I've found that the public school system can provide
certain benefits that home schooling could not. These are not
necessarily academic benefits, but they are things that all children
should know.
For example, my seventh-grader dissected a frog in school
recently. This is something that I couldn't do at home. Maybe some
parents could, but my stomach is not equipped for gore. My son,
however, had no problem describing it in detail at the dinner table.
He even told me that one child was sent to the principal's office
because he was playing with his frog and making it dance. A
disemboweled dancing frog was apparently too much for the teacher.
To cut short my son's gruesome narrative and because eating my
dinner was now out of the question, I asked him what he learned by
dissecting frogs.
He stated proudly, "Never make a dead frog dance!"
You see? That's something he would never have learned by being
home-schooled.
My daughter was grossed out because frog guts reminded her of the
spaghetti that was served in the cafeteria for lunch that day.
Also, she said, the roll was hard, the lettuce was limp, the
tomato was rotten, the chocolate milk was warm, and her straw had a
hole in it, which is why she had a chocolate stain on her new shirt.
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Not eating her lunch was probably the reason she ate all of her
dinner before my son got to his frog story. Another benefit to
public school: Nothing builds character like cafeteria food. I
asked my youngest child, who is in second grade, what he did in
school today. He was apparently distracted by my daughter's straw
incident. He thought it was hilarious. After he stopped giggling, he
told us that he and his friends had discovered the joys of sucking
jello through a straw. When I asked him what he learned, he said,
"Sucking jello through a straw is OK, but your teacher gets mad if
you blow it out!"
Well, that is something I never knew. He certainly wouldn't have
learned that while home-schooling, that's for sure.
I have learned that reading, writing and arithmetic are
apparently not the highlights of my children's days. Go figure.
Even the science experiment that made it to the forefront of my
son's mind was remembered only because one student had the audacity
to make his mutilated frog do the Macarena.
Given that these experiences are not likely to be learned at a
home school, perhaps there is a subculture of education at public
schools that makes it worth sending your children there.
Plus, there is that one benefit that trumps all others: Seven
hours of blissful, uninterrupted solitude, five days a week ... for
me.
[By LAURA SNYDER]
Laura Snyder is a nationally syndicated columnist,
author and speaker. You can reach her at
lsnyder@lauraonlife.com
or visit www.lauraonlife.com
for more info. |
