I wonder...

[KorahRose]

How many of you homeschool or are homeschooled? :confused:

[cubanito]

That is a funny question...

I was homsechooled and went to public school concurrently until the mid fouth grade.

Until 8yo I lived in Castro's "paradise for the proletariat." My father, an early pro-Castro and an agnostic was, like most Cubans, most pleased at the revolution that ousted the Italian Mafia, the United Fruit Co. and their puppet Batista. Most pleased, that is, until in his new duties my father began to be told to do highly unethical things, such as let someone die on the operating table, or promote a complete ignoramus who'd never been to med school to physician because he was "in" w the party.

My parents were further dismayed when one of my older cousins was forcibly removed to a state boarding school because he was unusually intelligent. Since I was a freak of nature, possesed of an idetic memory and reading before the age of 3, they knew what "special training" was in store for me.

So they taught me to cheat in school. How to pretend not to know the answer if called upon unless it was a very obvious question. How to occasionally make "errors" when called to do a math problem at the blackboard, and how to make sure every fifth or sixth answer on a test was wrong, but without any discernible pattern.

Of course, they did not have the authority to keep me from school. And they risked their lives in teaching me to lie, pretend to be normal, and live in a constant state of paranoia. Oh yeah, gradeschool was fun for me, afraid the next answer might reveal just a bit too much vocabulary, the next report some obscure fact not "normal" to my age.

But what to do with "the freak of nature?" Since I was an only child, and my father a physician, it was a pleasure for him to homeschool me. It was feeding hairballs to a vacuum cleaner. It was all I wanted to do, well that and mess around with my rooster and bean garden. Beans and roosters are sort of genetic traits down Cuban way...

But my mother was not pleased. She wanted me to be more "social," get out and have some of what she considered "fun." So she would actually pay kids in the neighborhood to slap my face so I'd at LEAST put the book down and get into an honest fight. God bless mom. She did me as much good as my dad. Her "homeschooling" methods of setting even boys twice my age to fight with me were every bit as useful.

For you see, after a brief stint in Spain, when they wanted to take me out of 4th grade and put me in high school (and I mean European High School with their standards), we got to "The Promised Land": New York!

Now, New York City USA in 1966 was not "the safest city in the country." No siree, not especially when our first 6 months we lived as homeless in the "boiler room" of the building my uncle was superintendent. This was before "the Great Society" got moving, when an immigrant rightfully ate what he could steal (oh thank be to the Peanut Butter and Crackers in those many bomb nuclear bomb shelters!) No siree, NYC was not exactly a crime free zone.

So when the local "anglo" teenaged gangleader decided to make me the example to all the other "spics" whose turf some block was, he was unawares of my mom's "homeschooling." Nor the boots I had picked up from a trshcan. He awoke in the critical care with half his busted liver being removed. No one seemed to bother me again, and since I had learned English from the TV in 5 months, I got kicked out of public school. Not for the busted liver (why, that was considered a public service, back when people still had common sense). No, I got kicked out to a private school on full scholarship. That school kicked me out the next year, to some other place called "Monsignor Kelly" set up to handle freaks like me....but that's antoher story.


So I am very happy to have been homeschooled: 1-my mind by my physician dad, 2-my body by my "nurturing" momy (oh she loves me, really she does, she just has a funny way of showing it, like the time she went at me w her high heel because after 2 solid weeks of not leaving my room reading except to use the bathroom, she "lost" it and started scraming "get out there and play!"

and of course 3-the Holy Spirit, God, who is makes His homeschool classroom in us and teaches us with "groanings too deep for words."

JR (can u blame me for being just a little odd after reading that?)

[KorahRose]

hmmm...interesting. Thanks for sharing. Not quite the response I expected, I must admit. :)

[No Swansong]

Wow JR what a story.

My children are/were home schooled.

[generalbreadbasket]

I was for six months in Year 7, and a variety of schools for the rest. :)

[KitsapGirl]

I'm a mom of two. Sometimes I wish I could homeschool my children, but i know I mad the right decision for them by sending them into the "Lions Den" of public school. My son & I are TOO ALIKE. We butt heads alot. My daughter is a free spirit. Knowing myself, I'm certain it would not have been a good thing to homeschool them.

Instead, my husband & I have equipped them to live in that world but not be part of it. This created its own problems, but they have been able to overcome them. They do stand out in the crowd though. My son used to get bullied for being honest. My daughter comes home distraught because someone got picked on. Both situations were good moments for teaching them God's ways.

[No Swansong]

I'm a mom of two. Sometimes I wish I could homeschool my children, but i know I mad the right decision for them by sending them into the "Lions Den" of public school. My son & I are TOO ALIKE. We butt heads alot. My daughter is a free spirit. Knowing myself, I'm certain it would not have been a good thing to homeschool them.

Instead, my husband & I have equipped them to live in that world but not be part of it. This created its own problems, but they have been able to overcome them. They do stand out in the crowd though. My son used to get bullied for being honest. My daughter comes home distraught because someone got picked on. Both situations were good moments for teaching them God's ways.
Homeschooling is definitely not for everyone I admit that.

[cubanito]

For those tha homeschool, bless you for your tremendous efforts.

For those that do not, don't even think of feeling guilty. This is definitely a "calling" as jtdad says.

JR