John from Riverside Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 opinions rather then public school or home school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 opinions rather then public school or home school? just pass on the school thing altogether reading and writing is way overrated anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dean Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 just pass on the school thing altogether Worked for you, right. Here's something you might be able to use: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBlood Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Since the other posts were not helpful I will offer some advice. I am a high school history teacher in a public charter school in Atlanta Georgia ( www.techhighschool.org) and used to work for a normal public school in Baltimore Maryland. I went to Kenmore East High School which is a traditionally normal high school. The charter school I work for is great. The school is given greater latitude in terms of its cirriculum and that often leads to better results because most of the state cirriculums are terrible. I have about 8-10 students who came to Tech High after being home schooled for the first portion of their lives and they have been great students but there are some obvious problems in terms of there social interaction. They also tend to have a difficult time working in small groups or on projects where they do not get to take the lead. If your charter school has the following things I would reccommed it over home schooling..... 1. Small class sizes (less than 15 per class) This is critical. 2. A highly educated staff. Look at the education level of the teachers and make sure that each and every teacher in that school is certified. 3. How long has this school been established. If its a very new (meaning has not graduated a class yet) then it still may have a provisional charter which means they have not been insured a long term future. The alst thing you want is for your kid to be in a school and the school shuts down. The downside to charter schools are that they usually cannot offer the same types of after school programs like sports that public schools can becuase they do not ahve enough student. Hope this helpped and please excuse all the typos, Im writing this fast cause I wanna get to bed. Let me know how it turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 Since the other posts were not helpful I will offer some advice. I am a high school history teacher in a public charter school in Atlanta Georgia ( www.techhighschool.org) and used to work for a normal public school in Baltimore Maryland. I went to Kenmore East High School which is a traditionally normal high school. The charter school I work for is great. The school is given greater latitude in terms of its cirriculum and that often leads to better results because most of the state cirriculums are terrible. I have about 8-10 students who came to Tech High after being home schooled for the first portion of their lives and they have been great students but there are some obvious problems in terms of there social interaction. They also tend to have a difficult time working in small groups or on projects where they do not get to take the lead. If your charter school has the following things I would reccommed it over home schooling.....1. Small class sizes (less than 15 per class) This is critical. 2. A highly educated staff. Look at the education level of the teachers and make sure that each and every teacher in that school is certified. 3. How long has this school been established. If its a very new (meaning has not graduated a class yet) then it still may have a provisional charter which means they have not been insured a long term future. The alst thing you want is for your kid to be in a school and the school shuts down. The downside to charter schools are that they usually cannot offer the same types of after school programs like sports that public schools can becuase they do not ahve enough student. Hope this helpped and please excuse all the typos, Im writing this fast cause I wanna get to bed. Let me know how it turns out. This was very helpful thank you for posting that. A little background here.......my daughter has actually been in public school up to the end of last year where she basically home schooled the last few months and but passed the classes and "graduated" from middle school. My daughter is a aspiring young singer who is starting to become accomplished. She also was having problems in public school at the end (I wont go into all of it but basically we just could not resolve them with the public school admin no matter how hard we tried......we were actually referred by her middle school councilor that private school or home study would be more suited for her) So anyway we set out at the end of last year at the mind set that we were going to home school her to all her to also have time for all of her other projects she is workign on. But a couple of weeks ago my daughter came to me and begged me not to do this as she didn't want to not have access to her freinds and basically.....life I love my daughter very much....if she told me she just wanted to go back to public school and put her projects on hold I would have respected that....but that is not what she was asking for either....she basically wanted to do both (she is on two projects at the moment....a 3 song promotional cd for sony records and a sound track that is being put together of different types of musicians (christian rap, christian rock, etc where she sings background for two artests, has two solos of her own, and will be on the front cover of the cd.....it is a great opportunity) This is when we started getting suggests for charter school......smaller classes.....more personalized help from the teachers.....and more flexibility in class schedule. The charter school we are looking at meets 3 days a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 This was very helpful thank you for posting that. A little background here.......my daughter has actually been in public school up to the end of last year where she basically home schooled the last few months and but passed the classes and "graduated" from middle school. My daughter is a aspiring young singer who is starting to become accomplished. She also was having problems in public school at the end (I wont go into all of it but basically we just could not resolve them with the public school admin no matter how hard we tried......we were actually referred by her middle school councilor that private school or home study would be more suited for her) So anyway we set out at the end of last year at the mind set that we were going to home school her to all her to also have time for all of her other projects she is workign on. But a couple of weeks ago my daughter came to me and begged me not to do this as she didn't want to not have access to her freinds and basically.....life I love my daughter very much....if she told me she just wanted to go back to public school and put her projects on hold I would have respected that....but that is not what she was asking for either....she basically wanted to do both (she is on two projects at the moment....a 3 song promotional cd for sony records and a sound track that is being put together of different types of musicians (christian rap, christian rock, etc where she sings background for two artests, has two solos of her own, and will be on the front cover of the cd.....it is a great opportunity) This is when we started getting suggests for charter school......smaller classes.....more personalized help from the teachers.....and more flexibility in class schedule. The charter school we are looking at meets 3 days a week. the football career (son) and singing career (daughter) are the prime drivers in your life all this education talk is just a charade. get your priorities straightened out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler#81 Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 My take. I hadn't even heard of 'charter schools' before moving to Florida. Then I quickly became acquainted with them as many new friends encouraged them over the public school system -which in Florida and for most of the south- isn't on the same planet as NY school systems. It was first explained to me that they're designed for kids with special talents -arts, science, math etc. We (the Mrs. & I) didn't think it was necessary but were very naive to the terrible Florida public school system. Our son was a senior and he quickly opted -without informing his parents- to take the G.E.D. offered at JSU, passed, and quit 'school' as a graduate. We wised up quick and got our daughter out of the penitentiary-style state school system the next year and into a charter through to her graduation. In short, in the south anyway, charter is a significant upgrade to what passes as U.S. Public school system, though not any better than a school system in the better states (NY). JMO. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 opinions rather then public school or home school? In Ohio, there is funding for something like 14,000 students, but only about 9,000 are used. They are despised by the school systems and the teacher's unions - because it takes money out of their pockets. The Democrats, including our current Governor, are always trying to eliminate them - a payoff for political contributions. The welfare of a student is not part of their equation. So they put in significant restrictions - they are only allowed in school districts that are dubbed "in academic trouble", or some such. One of the attacks is that they perform no better. Well, they take kids that have problems already. My impression is that (responsible) parents seek them to get their kid out of the violence that occurs in schools. And it's most always the upbringing of the kid that determines things...not the money spent, not the condition of buildings, not the teachers. Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) built a spiffy new school year before last. The same student body moved back in, and tore it apart and continued in their violent ways...beatings, assaults upon teachers, extortion of other students etc. The CPS used to report the actual number of students that did not graduate. Something like 35 - 40%. They wised up a few years ago, and got in line: now they report only the percentage of students that entered their senior class, not the ones that quit in their junior or sophomore years - so the numbers look much better, and they tell us how proud they are of themselves. Pilfering of students for money is popular here. There is a spreading thing called "open enrollment". The town of Lockland here publically accused the town of Reading of sending out mailings to induce students to go to their school system. And it worked. Both admit it's all about grabbing more federal/state/taxpayer cash. As to class size. Things have changed - time was that the personal attention of a teacher was the last thing a kid wanted to have happen. IIRC, my classes in grade and high school numbered about 40. But this is the age of self-esteem, it's all about me, I am special etc. Teacher unions are much in favor of small class sizes, since that increases their ranks. My school district has yet another property tax increase vote this Aug. 4th. This follows a measure defeated in May this year, and November last year. They are paying over 100K for this election - but this time, they haven't exploited children to go and hector the populace. They are being quiet, hoping to slip the property tax increase by. I'm certain that they would love for a violent thunderstorm to occur - to cut down the voter turnout. The school district I live in is a comfortable area, but far from posh. Yet we pay the 2nd highest school tax rate in the county. They did sacrifice, though..they got rid (well, bought out) their $75K per year "Director of Quality Assurance" - a position with a staff of...zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Man, it's all so complicated and discouraging. I don't have kids, but if I ever do, I'm definitely selling them into sex slavery. At least that way I can be sure they are learning a trade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 In Ohio, there is funding for something like 14,000 students, but only about 9,000 are used. They are despised by the school systems and the teacher's unions - because it takes money out of their pockets. The Democrats, including our current Governor, are always trying to eliminate them - a payoff for political contributions. The welfare of a student is not part of their equation. So they put in significant restrictions - they are only allowed in school districts that are dubbed "in academic trouble", or some such. The teacher's unions really control the effectiveness of charter schools. In some states, like Arizona, the charter schools operate pretty much regulation free, and thus have had the most success. In other states, probably like Ohio, they are saddled with so many restrictions due to teacher union pressure that it defeats the purpose. In theory, charter schools are great-- federal and state $, the ability to hire and fire teachers at will, the ability to get creative with curriculum and other things--i.e., the type of flexibility that can really lead to a a great school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 the football career (son) and singing career (daughter) are the prime drivers in your life all this education talk is just a charade. get your priorities straightened out Ever wonder why I dont respond much to you? Because you really have nothing to offer...simple as that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 Getting back on point....thank you to all that are responding to what I am actually asking for.....opinions on charter school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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