An Open Letter To My Detractors

An Open Letter To My Detractors

by Reverend Kala G Brouse

You know, I have gotten a lot of negative input about my decision to homeschool my children. I've heard about how I am too "out of touch" and not competent enough to teach them anything worth learning, especially my high school age son.

I've been criticized and told I'm being selfish and my children wouldn't be "socialized" and how much of an injustice I'm doing them. To hear these people talk, I'm the worst mother on the face of the Earth.

Just like the old saying goes, "When enough people call you a duck, its time to check your butt for tail feathers." I started feeling like a total failure. As much as I didn't want to admit it, these people were getting to me. After bending the ear (repeatedly) of a couple wonderful friends and clergy members, I began to regain some confidence and started the long path of molding my place in the "great scheme of things" that was my place in the lives of my family.

I began a lot of this by looking at what my children were learning in public school.

I took my daughter out of public school in the second grade. She didn't know the alphabet. She didn't know any basic math formulas. She couldn't write her name. (The teachers felt her name was too long, so they taught her to write "Beth" instead of "Elizabeth". And her nickname is not "Beth".)

She couldn't read, and to get her to do her homework was like trying to pull the teeth out of the mouth of a raging bull.

With all the kids, I dreaded the terrible "Parent/Teacher Conference week" with a passion. Inevitably, I was going to hear about how they aren't reading well enough, or getting their homework in on time, or a range of other complaints about my children.

Many teachers tried to blame my children's inability to learn a skill on me. This just doesn't sit too well with me. Who will be a better teacher? Hmm.. Lets see.

The TEACHER who has my children's undivided attention for 6 hours a day?

Or me, who gets them after school, when they are tired and cranky (from not only school, but the hour and a half bus ride) and still have to do chores, do homework, take baths and be to bed by 9pm?

There's a few other reasons why I pulled my children out of public school:

None of them were "at expected level" in reading or mathematics, but they learned 43 different ways to say marijuana, an average of 3 new gang signs every week, what color represented what gang, my oldest son became fluent

in Ebonics, they learned what it means "to score weed", how much a joint sells for, how many cuts a pound of dope can be made into, how to disassemble and reassemble a revolver in shop class, how to make a letter bomb, a "street-wise" view on sex, different fighting techniques, and some nasty revenge tactics. This is just the tip of the iceberg. (And we keep our children in public school to become socialized!!)

Now that my children stay at home, we have a lot more fun together. We are all learning new things, and they don't have the stress of "who's going to try to beat me up today" or "what do I wear so I won't be called a scrub" or any of the other bull that goes along with public school.

We can learn about constellations in our pajamas, or weed the garden and call it a class in agriculture. They are all active in 4-H livestock and environmental stewardship programs, as well as volunteering in our community. There are no limits to what they can learn, mostly because there is no set pattern in which they are expected to learn it.

I watched a show on Nickelodeon last night about safety in schools. They were showing a school in Miami that had each student wearing a necklace that had a student identification badge on it. According to the kids and the security guards posted all over the hallways, "This is to make sure

everyone is where they belong."

This school also has chain fencing that comes down when school is over, and it doesn't go back up until the bell rings the next morning.

The lockers have motion sensors on them, so if they are opened at any time not allowed, an alarm will sound.

Students must wear uniforms and are not allowed to carry opaque back packs. All security guards were outfitted with metal detectors and walkie-talkies, and there were two gun-toting police officers on duty at all times. And let us not forget the video surveillance cameras at every possible corner, inside and outside the buildings.

They kept saying over and over how school is the safest place for kids today.

How come I have such a tough time believing them?