Home-school athletics

There are other reasons to homeschool your children than those of the anti-homeschool ilk might think about. I am certainly not pompous enough to believe I am qualified to give my daughter an education, but we are doing it out of what we believe is necessity.

When we moved to this podunk community four years ago, a place where almost no one comes and goes, my daughter was the only new kid in her grade and instantly type-casted as a freak because she's an artsy type who loves to write, read and sing no matter where she is. She'll read a book while walking down the hallway. I love that she's like that, but in fifth grade, it's not cool, I guess.

Her not being able to break in was tough to deal with for her, but that wasn't the reason we decided to pull her out. From fifth through seventh grade, she would be taunted on a daily basis. "pussycat! Bitch! Whore!" From multiple kids. She said she couldn't walk across the room at study hall or at lunch because she was afraid that any movement would draw taunting. When the teacher would leave the room for a second, whoever was sitting behind her would lean forward and say things like, "Hey, I know you want to suck my balls." She went to her guidance counselor and nothing happened. We went to administration. We were told there was nothing that could be done. So we tried to toughen her skin at home, telling her that in 20 years, she'll have made something of herself, giving something back to the world while those losers, administration included, will be draining from it.

But the last straw was when she was attacked from behind by two of those classmates while walking home from school one day last spring. She couldn't identify them because by the time she was able to look up, all she could see was their backs while they were running away. If they wanted to do more than just rough her up and knock her down, they probably could have. My daughter is not that big. I was covering state track a couple hours away when I got a call on my cell phone with a quivering voice on the other end telling me about it. Imagine how helpless and angry that would make you feel.

It was only when we told the school that we were pulling our daughter out, because we didn't believe it was a safe, learning environment any longer, that the administration started to act. But it wasn't much. The school board didn't care much either.

We didn't want to do it. She craves social interaction and homeschooling takes a lot of time for us as parents. But she isn't just my "precious flower," she is the legacy of my wife and I. For the record, though - and I hope Moddy's wife would find this a little easier to deal with - we are in a program where we get DVDs from an academy in Florida and my daughter watches their classroom sessions. If she doesn't get something, she just watches it again. If she's really stuck and we can't help her, there's an e-mail address and a phone number. We administer all the tests, then send everything back to the academy for grading.

But to get back on topic, I don't cover any homeschool teams. There are homeschool social groups, but I've never heard of any teams in this state.

 

One more thing - we are finally leaving this BFE town in the fall. My daughter is looking forward to it. She wants to get back in a school and we plan to let her. She's looking forward to that, too.

 

About an hour away from me, there's an outfit that gives all the home-schoolers in their county the chance to be on the same team. Members of the state high school association, playing in Class 1A (but no football). No idea if they're any good.

 

NX, you are totally being let down by your school district. I would be livid if what you are describing was happening in my school district.

In this day and age, for a school district to ignore a bullying problem is incomprehensible. I am glad you are moving out of there. If this school district is in Pennsylvania or Virginia, I would be very interested to find out where it is... especially Virginia. PM it to me if you would like.

Take this advice if for some reason you are still in the same location after the fall.
Keep going up the ladder of administration. Start paper documentation of the problems your daughter had with other students. This can be as simple as written notes on a tablet paper. Ask to see her student folder, and any notes inside of it that addresses her problems with other students, try to photocopy this for your own records. No one should ever delete an email, and hopefully you still have a record of correspondence with the schools. Paper and documentation is everything in schools.

Take this correspondence to your state's department of education. Trust me, blowing off bullying is not accepted in today's schools.

Tell your daughter to stick it out, and I'm sure half of those idiots will be working for her someday (if she wants them to).

 

We did a story on a home-schooled kid who wanted to play football at his town's high school but whose parents didn't feel he should attend classes at the school. This, to the mom, was religious discrimination.

On the other hand, our girls golfer of the year, who did attend the minimum amount of regular school and was homeschooled the rest of the time, didn't mind this onerous burden.

 

If a kid is homeschooled he or she should not be allowed to compete for a high school. As the principal said, if you want to play for the school you need to attend the school.

 

My wife and I home-school our brood. We have no expectations that they should play high school sports (either for a public or private school), much less that the newspaper should cover it.

There's no harm in briefing the fact that the team won a state title. Treat it like you might treat youth swimming or little league baseball if one of the local teams won something of note.

Our Sports staff gets calls from a home-school basketball team here in Greensboro. We run their agate, mostly because most of the teams they play are small private schools that otherwise wouldn't get any ink.

P.S. Don't confuse home schoolers and vouchers. They're two completely different issues.

 

And don't confuse homeschoolers with vouchers with special needs. You're confusing the issue further.

May I add, homeschooling allows parents to avoid vaccinating their children (in protest or by error). By doing that, you put your children, my children and the public at risk. Get children protected against the many infectious diseases. Be responsible.

 

Sometimes, the school system just blows chunks. You shouldn't have to subject your kid to a substandard education just so little Johnny or Susie can get written up in a preps gamer.

 

Why do you home-school your kids? NX sure as hell had a good reason. I considered it for a time when we had some issues, but just wasn't confident that we would do better.

 

I've got two cousins who were pulled out of school very early. My aunt and uncle did it, from what my grandma tells me, because of a few petty disagreements with the school board. And the kids definitely paid for the choice.

They are the least social of all the 10 grandchildren; when they visit, they hide in the basement while everyone else congregates in the kitchen. The only social interaction they've had with children their ages were in their church. They are closed off from just about everyone, and they really had no shot at being "normal" kids.

Every Christmas for about seven years, they'd give my grandma a bible, so she "wouldn't go to Hell." All they know is what their parents -- a whacked out, impulse-driven, Pat Buchanan-endorsing dad and a mother who quit college with a month left in her senior year -- church and television tells them. It's really quite sad.