Why I'm 20th-Century Dumb

So bear with me here, cause I've been going through my yearly life crisis. This is the time when we enter the last quarter of the "school year," and I have to re-evaluate what we're doing and if we're still gonna be doing it next year. This year has been worse than ever, honestly.... mainly because I thought I could make my own curriculum, from the internet, for absolutely free.

And, well... I did.

And it sucked.

So, this year's schooling has had some good times, but mainly it had a lot of bad times. Mainly, I've just been feeling like a failure as an educator, as a parent, as a competent person, really.

But I'm about 90% sure right now that we're sticking with it next year.

I got here for a few different reasons:

Because I'm 20th-Century dumb and so are today's students

As I started preparing for our 4-week unit on the roaring 20's and the Great Depression, I found nothing in my normal online resources. One of the staples that I've used has been some free online chapter summaries from some 5 - 6 grade public schooltextbooks. They are reading comprehension worksheets and vocabulary reinforcements that just go over the basics of the chapter, which have been great for my 2nd grader. The bad thing is that the public schools don't really teach much after the Civil War. So, if finally hit me why I know a TON about the founding of our country, and nothing really about the 1900's. This is how it was when I was in school, and this is how it still is.

5th graders learn about the Indians, the Revolution, Expansion, and the Civil War. It takes all year. 6th graders seem to learn all of our history, but they start back at the Indians again, so for the 1st semester, they're reviewing. Second semester, they get to cram in everything that's happened from Reconstruction on.

Because I never got that I was supposed to actually get science

I was trying to figure out where to go for science. I'm tired of the same old, same old. I've gotten a little bored of animals and plants, and I wanted something a little bit.... well, cooler. Again, curricula online failed me. What is this! It's like everyone thinks that kids only have the capacity to learn about cute, furry things and seedlings. I was think something a little more in depth like... you know... chemistry or something. Cause when I got into chemistry, I didn't get it. I mean, I got the grade. I did fine on my report card and all. I could do the problems; I could pass the test. But I didn't get it, you know. I always felt like if I had understood what I was really supposed to be learning, instead of just memorizing which formula to use, I would have really liked chemistry. I want Eve to have that chance.

Because there's more than one opinion and we ought to hear about them, even if we don't agree

Also along the lines of science is a documentary that Billy and I watched last week from Nova. It was about Intelligent Design being thrown out of public education as a theory to be mentioned as something a student could investigate on his own. Seriously. These schools in Pennsylvania had some copies of an Intelligent Design text book donated. The school board voted that science teachers should read a 1-minute statement that reveals that evolution is an un-proven theory with gaps in it, and that there are scientists who research other theories, such as intelligent design. The books were to be available at school libraries for students to look at independently if they were interested. ID was not to be taught in the class.

In typical America fashion, some parents sued. And the judge declared this statement to be unconstitutional as establishing a religion. WHAT?!!?!?!

I don't believe in macro-evoluion, but my daughter knows about it. I don't believe in Buddhism, Islam, or Greek gods either, but my daughter knows about them. I don't believe in big government, but she hears about that, too. I teach her. I let her watch debates so she can hear things from the people who believe it. (Not saying she gets it all yet at her age, but I expose her to it.)

Because believing something without investigating other options and opinions is mindless, and I'm not interested in mindless education.


So, I remember now that part of the reason I home educate is that I just don't think public schools teach kids what they ought to know.