From House Wife To Film Maker

So I got an email from Zac’s teacher.  Here’s chunks of it: “I am emailing out of concern for Zach.  How is he?   I haven’t heard an update from his latest visit to the doctor.  If he is concerned about his health I am certain he is not worried about school.   Since we have started the modified schedule we have gotten less work out of Zach… Can you please give me an insight as to what is going on?   I don’t want to push him too much if he has other things going on in his life… Let me know what I can do on my end to support Zach.”

Now how do I respond to this???
Here’s the thing.  I haven’t.
I keep thinking about my reply.  There’s two things going on here.  One and it’s the biggest of the the two is, that I’m puzzled at the questions regarding her confusion about “what’s going on” and “is there other things going on his life”.  Wow.  Thinking…  Thinking…  Hummm…  Let’s see.  Could it possibly be his health?  His life is hanging in a balance???? Somehow I think, possibly, that that could be what’s going on.  Maybe.

Second thing I want to state is, on top of point one there exists this…This son of mine simply doesn’t care much about school.  He really can’t stand it.  Now this was his feeling before finding out about his health so I’m thinkin it’s an easy thing to reason that he has gotten at least a little bit worse about it now then he did before.  Before he found it to be a waste of time.  His opinion?  What are they teaching him that will be worth his time to learn?  What will he use in his life as an adult?

He didn’t respond to elementary this way.  That he liked going to.  Couldn’t wait to get there.  But I can only assume the “like” came from the fact that in his opinion what he was learning was necessary.  Reading, writing, math…  Now he’s got that down, the important stuff to living life as an adult, so where’s the beef in the eduction he’s getting now to prepare him for life?  He keeps coming up blank.  You know one thing he really wanted to take was Home Living.  He was looking forward to that with great expectancy earlier in the year.  He saw how it was going to help him in life.  But that was taken away because he was failing to keep up and they wanted him in a support class.  Might I say this didn’t help his attitude…

Now he doesn’t necessarily mind going to school.  He sees his friends.  He does find things that can, at times, be taught that are interesting.  But homework and tests…well what’s that about?  Takes time, effort and energy that he has no interest in using.

Now, if you read any of my info. under my pages found in the side bar or my description at the top, you’ve read that I home schooled for 16 years.  So, you won’t be surprised to hear that many times a year he asks me to home school him.  Which I tell him, “No way buddy.  I won’t get you to do a thing and I would be legally responsible to get you to actually do something that resembles school.”

Here’s another thing.  I agree with Zac.  It was one of the reasons I home schooled.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I taught my kids.  I taught them a ton of things.  I followed the required curriculum the state insisted they learn, however I did tweek it out.  For history they read real books.  They did projects around periods of history woven together with the real books. And well, I didn’t test them except on spelling.  For the most part I talked with them about what they were learning.  We discussed the topics.  If they could fully explain what they were learning.  Guess what?  They knew the information. A test wasn’t needed.

When my oldest daughter went to school she passed two of the high school graduation exams right off the bat.  Before a single day in a class at school.  I remember that one of those tests was in history.  They were surprised.  They told us that most kids don’t pass that test the first time.  So, I guess what I did worked…without tests.  I made history come alive for my kids and they learned it.

Now I’m not here to beat up the education system.  Certainly my children are in school.  I support schools and what they do.  However, honestly a lot just makes no sense.  And for several of my kids it really doesn’t fit with them at all.  But them’s the breaks.  And that’s what they have to endure till they’re out.  But how much better if what was taught was more useful for the kids when they entered the real world?  And maybe, just maybe Zac wouldn’t resist so much.  And they would find that without tests and homework he’s highly intelligent and knows his stuff.

So how can this teacher help Zac?  I’m blank… Maybe I’ll send her this video:

Night, love ya,
Theresa Jane
-grateful for the beautiful day, the taxes went out in the mail, on time without the need for an extension, the new set of twins I care for now, that I watched for the first time today, were terrific, I had safety on the roads, the meeting this morning went very well

Tags: entrepreneurs, homeschool, school

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