How a great teacher can touch one life

I’ve just finished reading a fellow blog by another mother where she discusses an absolutely amazing thing her sons’ teacher is doing in her classroom. Here is the link: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/

And here is where I find myself thinking that I wished, so very much, for my own daughters’ teachers to have done the same in their classrooms, even just for one teacher to have done something similar. I’d like to think that if it had been done that I would not be homeschooling my youngest daughter.

First, it isn’t a shame to homeschool your child and that is not what I am saying in the least! I can now definitively say that I know what my child is doing in her classes, what her grades are, what she needs to do to improve and I have daily communication from her online teachers. The greatest thing is that if there is something troubling that is submitted for an assignment they do not hesitate to give me a call and we talk about what is going on. They are involved so much more in her education than any of her teachers in the public school ever were.

You see, we wound up in a homeschool program because of bullying primarily. There were some health issues at the time as well, but it boiled down to the safety of my child. I did not trust that she would come home from school unharmed. Why? Because, more often than not, when I picked her up from school there were fresh bruises that she had gotten during the school day. Every day. We live less than a mile away from the school she went to, an easy walk to and from, and I picked her up because once she was off school grounds her life was in even more danger because her attackers would follow her. She was a dancer, so she could outrun them, which was a good thing but she should never have had to be in such great shape just to outrun someone trying to hurt her…every day. I withdrew her from the school three days before the end of the year and because I did so, she was not allowed to continue to the next grade. I did not care. I’d rather her repeat a grade that she didn’t do so well academically in because of the level of fear than to have her be in a high school setting and be clueless as to how to do any of the work.

I have a point. I promise I will get to it.

I watched the system fail so many children and then I began to watch it fail my own. No matter what my husband and I did to try to remedy the situation, ultimately, it always was made worse. We’ve yet to experience a teacher who actually cares about their students and not just about the grades they need to receive on the standardized testing. Actually, no…that isn’t true. Only when we chose to do a homeschool program did we find teachers who care. Accredited teachers who each have either an MA Ed. or a Ph.D Ed. as their highest, and not a single teacher has anything less than a Master’s degree. Teachers who left the traditional school district for many reasons, but the one common theme was the disgust regarding how the districts were effectively tying their hands on educating the students. This homeschool program alone makes me dread when we move to D.C. Because I’m afraid that my child will be failed by the public school system unless we put her into a private school and then I don’t know where that money will come from.

What the teacher in the article is doing is beyond amazing. I can truly find no words to describe how I feel this woman should be recognized. She is helping in ways that these kids won’t really understand, but they’ll learn a lesson that won’t be “formally” taught. This teacher is speaking in a way that parents understand and will appreciate and love this woman for. And I think it’s appropriate that we recognize that and try to share this message with the teachers in our children’s lives.

Maybe most won’t read it or if they do they won’t apply it. But then maybe some will and there will be some improvement for some children and their parents will start to notice. Maybe we need to start being proactive in our children’s education again and stepping in and talking to the teachers without there being an “issue” to talk about. I know it won’t help in all cases, but if we can help stop the violence in our schools, our teachers can actually get back to teaching instead of being a referee.

Just my thoughts.