I confess that I was nervous. It was important for me that my children would be able to get into any college in the country. I was particularly concerned about advanced math. I really wanted them to have a firm foundation in math, literature, and Science. (Go Teaching Textbooks!)

The spark that started the flame was their teacher was having difficulties with some disruptive students and would close her book and tell them to "figure it out on their own". Furthermore, when a student approached her for help, she said told him to go sit down, and next time these three students acted up, do not laugh and encourage them.

Now I've raised my children to be honest. In fact, the worst thing that they could do is lie. But people can exaggerate, I've been guilty of that myself so I discreetly called parents of his classmates and had them ask their children if this in fact was taking place. As it turns out, it was.

So I called the school and raised the roof. The principal had the teacher call me directly. She did not feel there was anything wrong with encouraging peer pressure. I told her SHE was there to 1) teach the children 2) enforce the behavior not the students. And by sending that other student away, she sent a message that she is not available to for help! My son certainly wouldn't approach her for help, so he is lagging behind. She was surprised, my son does not have a problem with math, well there was an issue in October but that straightened itself out. Not have a problem? I sat with him for 3 hours after school going over his math homework every night so that he would understand it! THAT ISSUE IN OCTOBER WAS ME LEAVING THE HOME TO CARE FOR MY DYING GRANDMOTHER! I told her that this was MATH!!! Not basket weaving! You cannot get anywhere in life without a firm foundation in math! The only reason that I had not home schooled them was that I was afraid that I was not competent to teach them math. But thank you for letting me know that I had been the one teaching them from the beginning. They will not be attending school next year. I'd teach them myself!

That was the child that decided to return to a traditional school in HS. His senior year in Literature the school hired a new teacher. While she was going through her syllabus my son gave her a fright. He'd already read all of the books on the list. She asked him if everyone had. He said, no I was homeschooled. At the end of the year she sent me a nice letter stating that I had done a wonderful job. He was informed and contributed greatly to the discussions.