In reading this thread, I am even more resolved in my decision to homeschool my girls. Our public school system is in need of some serious overhauling.

Cramming 35+ students in one room, with one teacher, a period is about 40 minutes, then some teaching time, that leaves less than a minute per student for one on one time.

In Ontario it is said that about 70% of our students are struggling, 30% failing, yet, they do not get the help they need as the schools have no resources, teachers have no time, and they put these kids in the next grade to struggle even more. Then they wonder why the "behaviour issues" happen...

I shake my head over these issues. My daughter last year had at one point 38 children in her class with one teacher. She was not doing well in spelling as far as I was concerned, so I approached her teacher to discuss it. I was told that they no longer have actual spelling classes, that it is something they just learn as they go along. I was mortified. However, he said that he would provide her a speller to work on at home and would test her once a week. Well that lasted 2 weeks. He just didn't have the time. So we worked on it at home on top of all the other homework.

And homework is another issue. There was a study done not long ago showing the effectiveness of homework. Well, that rattled a few chains around here. However, I was finding that most of the work coming home was not even covered yet in class. This is an ongoing problem now, teachers have a set amount of time to "teach" a subject, then test the kids and move to the next topic. Kids are expected to memorize and regurgitate the unit, and most forget what it was by the time they are half way through the next unit.

Anyway... I could banter and rant about this whole thing for hours and hours... but I won't...

I am just glad I made the decision to homeschool, and I am also glad to see the responses from you all about this issue around education, and how involved we all are, regardless of what grade, IQ, LD (learning difference), etc we are experiencing, and choice of educational options used. Kudos to all of us!

Blessings
Mischka