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I think that the topic of quality education varies greatly from school district to school district. When we made the decision to move here, our choice of school rested entirely on the LD program. Our eldest suffered greatly from hubby being in the service and moving from place to place. As we educated ourselves, we would contact the next school that he would be attending so we didn’t hear “oh, that program is filled, if we knew he was coming…”
This school district is number 3 in the area, but their LD program was #1. As it turns out, my other children did not suffer a bit, smaller class sizes than #1, and more one on one interaction with the teacher.
The LD program did not teach for the test, as my son’s goals were very personalized and realistic.
However, because of changes in the laws due to the “no child left behind”, my twins had a HORRIBLE year their third grade year! Because of the testing of that aged child, they literally did homework until 10pm at night and still not competing all of the work required of them.
They had more homework than their high school aged siblings! I would read their history to them as they ate so when they finished they could answer the questions. As they were bathing I read the articles in Reading Ranger to them so they could answer those questions. My daughter would do the stupid crossword and word find puzzles. I would look up the definitions to their vocabulary words and put it on the computer screen for them to copy down. For 2 months from the minute they got home from school until the minute they went to bed, they were doing homework. I’d send a note on the uncompleted worksheets saying “10pm, no time to finish.” I let them have Saturday off, but on Sunday, they had to start a new book, because these third graders had to do a book report a week. Why you ask? Because they wanted them to have a well rounded knowledge base so they could test well.
I finally attended a meeting about these stupid tests and stated that my sons would no longer be required to do more than 3 hours of homework a night. Furthermore, I was denying them permission to administer the test to my sons. Which started a frenzy of “we can do that?” The district president was not pleased, but I was going to be damned if my 8 year old kids were spending 8 hours in school and spending another 6 on homework. They went from loving school to hating it so much they were physically ill in the morning when I got them up for school.
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I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
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