| It's 5:30 a.m. on a summer day. I should be | | | | think it was because he used the wrong color |
| sleeping like the rest of the world, | | | | crayon or something. Suddenly, our then |
| ensconced in a woolly blanket of certitude | | | | first-grader is supposedly likely to kill |
| that there is no work today, only vacation. | | | | himself, he could be a danger to others, yada |
| But I can't really sleep. It's the first day | | | | yada. So we take him to his first shrink, who |
| of school, you see.There is an old theory of | | | | pronounces him normal but unusually |
| learning that says education isn't about | | | | imaginative and, surprise, verbally gifted, |
| teaching students new things but only about | | | | and says that the boy was just acting out |
| reminding them what they already inherently | | | | something he heard. We were not really |
| know.It's a high-minded theory that assumes | | | | surprised, but we were still relieved that |
| everyone is what my old college president | | | | everything was normal.Let me tell you, |
| would have termed "educable," that knowledge, | | | | though, after something like that gets |
| like truth, is not relative, but exists on | | | | around, nothing's normal ever again. |
| its own plane running parallel to ours and | | | | Suddenly, we were the pariahs who were |
| may be accessed by revelation.One need only | | | | raising the next Columbine kid. We couldn't |
| be shown the hidden path to the oracle's | | | | buy a play date at that point. And our son |
| chamber, so to speak, and all will be | | | | was aware of it. He started hanging his head |
| unveiled.Sometimes, though, it's not the | | | | when he walked, playing by himself at recess, |
| student but the teacher that needs to be | | | | and we'd catch him calling himself "stupid" |
| shown the way.Perhaps we are so inured to | | | | when things went awry. At that point, we had |
| others' needs, so accustomed to our own | | | | an opportunity to apply to another school. We |
| convenience, that we modern folk oftentimes | | | | went through all the hoops and got positive |
| don't pay heed to the tragedies occurring | | | | feedback from the interviewing teachers and |
| before our very eyes. Particularly for | | | | so forth, but one of the deciding factors |
| parents trying to educate our children, there | | | | turned out to be a letter written to the new |
| seems to be a wall in front of our eyes that | | | | school by our son's kindergarten teacher. We |
| shields us so often from the truth.We place | | | | weren't allowed to see the letter, but the |
| our children in schools in the hopes that | | | | tone of the interviewers changed drastically |
| they will learn what is needed for them to | | | | after they read it.Fortunately, we had |
| survive in this world: facts, figures, social | | | | another opportunity to get into a different |
| aptitude, an inquiring mind, an | | | | school, this one Catholic, which is our |
| entrepreneurial spirit.And we will show up | | | | denomination. Once again, we had high hopes |
| and be supportive at school assemblies, | | | | for better results. Once again, those hopes |
| classroom field trips, endless fund-raisers, | | | | were dashed. Our son wound up in a classroom |
| sporting events, etc., ad nauseum.We provide | | | | with a first-year teacher who right off the |
| classroom supplies, chaperoning, | | | | bat pegged him as a troublemaker for whatever |
| transportation, library staffing, even office | | | | reason. This teacher, we later learned, had a |
| support, all in hopes that we are furthering | | | | habit of yelling at the kids, and she took |
| our children's education by setting a good | | | | out much of her aggression on our son. He |
| example and freeing up the teachers to do | | | | began hating school and not wanting to do the |
| "what they do best."Too often, though, what | | | | incredible amount of homework they piled on |
| parents get out of this bargain isn't what | | | | every night. The next teacher was much nicer, |
| was promised. Instead of bright, energetic, | | | | but by then the damage was done. Even though |
| go-getter scholars, what we are handed back | | | | our boy was capable of doing his homework |
| is children who are lethargic, beaten down | | | | perfectly (when he wanted to), he regularly |
| and drained of any creativity they once had. | | | | flunked tests because they were time-limited |
| We get kids who are indoctrinated into | | | | and he would panic because he could hear his |
| political correctness -- which is to say the | | | | past teacher screaming at the kids next |
| art of arrogant whininess -- but who can | | | | door.Just to add insult to injury, we finally |
| barely multiply. We get kids who have been | | | | realized that the curriculum at the school |
| taught in "science" class to recycle to | | | | was the same state-created curriculum at |
| "save" the planet, but who can't explain to | | | | public schools. They used the same texts and |
| you how an airplane stays in the air or how | | | | applied the same ridiculous schedule of 8 to |
| an internal combustion engine works. We get | | | | 10 subjects per day, which hardly allows any |
| kids who have been forced to memorize Dr. | | | | time to absorb the information, much less |
| Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech | | | | understand it. The parents whose kids were |
| and participate annually in Cinco de Mayo but | | | | doing well in class, we later learned, were |
| who can't explain one contribution of white | | | | going to Kumon classes after school. When our |
| people to the world other than bringing | | | | son needed extra help with multiplication, we |
| disease to North America.In some schools, | | | | were told he must be tutored. Well, the |
| it's not unusual for as many as half the | | | | tutors at the school didn't have time for us. |
| students to drop out before their senior high | | | | We approached the youth director because her |
| school year. Of those who hang in there, many | | | | teens need service credits to graduate high |
| seniors can't even pass an eighth-grade-level | | | | school. No one volunteered to tutor our son. |
| exit exam to get their diplomas.And just to | | | | We were finally told he MUST have a |
| add to parental enjoyment, along the way, the | | | | professional tutor. We were given a name, |
| children have almost certainly been exposed | | | | supposedly of a parishioner, but no contact |
| to gay sex, oral sex, premarital sex, | | | | information. This person was not on record |
| contraception, abortion, illegal drug use, | | | | with the parish or the school office. The |
| alcohol abuse, nihilism and atheism. All | | | | principal, who had recommended him, never |
| under the auspices of the school, and all | | | | came forth with a number. We contacted the |
| before sixth grade -- kindergarten, if some | | | | church's nuns. This particular order is |
| legislators get their way. Recess and that | | | | charged with teaching children. That's their |
| after-school time before parents come home | | | | gig. Within five minutes, the got back to us |
| provide ample opportunity for kids to put | | | | and said one of the sisters would tutor our |
| into practice what they've learned in | | | | son, but they wanted to talk to his teacher |
| "skool."Parents may seek relief in private | | | | before setting up a schedule. They talked to |
| schools, but often what they encounter is no | | | | his teacher apparently, then suddenly they |
| better, just more expensive. If you are rich | | | | weren't available to help out.So in the final |
| enough, it is still possible to buy your | | | | analysis, our own church school, using lay |
| children a real education. If you're merely | | | | teachers to teach state curriculum out of |
| well-off, more likely what will happen is you | | | | state textbooks, happily accepts thousands of |
| will pay through the nose, and your children | | | | dollars in tuition but is unable to properly |
| will receive an education that is relatively | | | | teach the children math, forcing parents to |
| free from the sex- and drug-teaching | | | | supplement with either a program like Kumon |
| curricula of the public schools, as well as | | | | or, in our case, nonexistent tutors.We spent |
| the more violent forms of playground | | | | somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 on |
| bullying. But for the most part, the rest of | | | | tuition, uniforms and other expenses in the |
| the teaching agenda is the same, particularly | | | | vain hope of giving our child a decent |
| if you live in a state like California, where | | | | education. All that happened was a gaggle of |
| private schools are so regulated that they | | | | overpaid strangers slowly strangled his |
| often just give up and use the same books, | | | | curiosity and crushed his desire to learn, |
| the same curricula, same time tables and same | | | | leaving him a bundle of nerves at the age of |
| test "preparation" procedures as the public | | | | 8.Sometimes it's the educator who needs to be |
| schools. If you're lucky, there might be some | | | | reminded of what he already knows. My child |
| time to squeeze in a little religious | | | | is too important to me, and I think someday |
| education.That was our experience. Not being | | | | to the world, to leave in the hands of a |
| much of a corporate yes man myself, we've | | | | capricious public or private education system |
| often been on the lower rungs of the economic | | | | that, ultimately, is designed to produce |
| ladder. Still, we managed to put our son into | | | | conforming drones, not thinkers. We, as his |
| private schools despite the cost. Sending him | | | | parents, cannot simply stand by and watch the |
| to our local public elementary school was out | | | | life being squeezed out of him like the juice |
| of the question. The first time we went to | | | | from a lemon.The reality is that we, like |
| that school's office, there were three | | | | most parents, have allowed this to happen for |
| children being treated by the school nurse | | | | far too long because it was convenient to let |
| after getting beaten up in the halls. The | | | | our son be raised by strangers.No more.We had |
| second time we went to that office, the | | | | started supplementing his education with |
| police were there having a "chat" with a boy | | | | materials from a local home schooling program |
| who looked like he was in about fourth | | | | when he began having grade trouble and as a |
| grade.So we got our son into a local private | | | | "backup" because of the monkey business |
| school, with high hopes of better things. | | | | school administrators liked to be up to, such |
| Now, when he started kindergarten, he was | | | | as putting new students on "probation" for no |
| almost a whole year younger than the rest of | | | | reason.We've decided to take the plunge and |
| his classmates because of the oddity of | | | | just home school. It will be a change, for |
| birthday cutoffs, but he still tested above | | | | sure, and a lot of responsibility, but the |
| many of them. That glowing moment didn't last | | | | incredible improvement we've already seen in |
| long, however. Soon, we were told that our | | | | our boy's attitude and aptitude is making it |
| boy needed a speech therapist because he had | | | | worthwhile.I've encountered many parents with |
| trouble pronouncing certain syllables. We | | | | stories similar to ours. We apparently are |
| took him back to our local public school, | | | | part of a growing movement to take back |
| which actually had a real speech therapist on | | | | education from the millers who are running |
| staff, and after five minutes she pronounced | | | | the system.Having been through the system |
| not only was he normal for his age, but he | | | | myself, and having seen what it nearly did to |
| was exceptionally bright and seemed like he | | | | my child, I no longer believe in "reforming" |
| was a few years ahead in his vocabulary, even | | | | the education system, reducing class sizes or |
| if he couldn't quite pronounce his "th" | | | | raising teachers' salaries. If the government |
| sounds yet.After we got over that hurdle, we | | | | insists on dabbling in education, then what |
| learned that he was being picked on at | | | | is needed is a wholesale elimination of what |
| school. Despite the school's supposedly | | | | we have now. A replacement system would start |
| strict "no bullies" policy, our son, who was | | | | with teachers who are trained in a subject |
| a year younger than most of his classmates | | | | other than "education," have an |
| but also taller than almost all of them, was | | | | administrator-to-teacher ratio on the order |
| in the same classroom with a boy who was | | | | of 1-to-20, eliminate the nonsensical scale |
| almost two years older than most of the | | | | of grade levels and let students achieve at |
| kindergartners. So now I found myself having | | | | their own speed in the needed skills.How do I |
| to explain to my gentle 5-year-old how to | | | | know that would work? Because that's |
| handle an 8-year-old developmentally | | | | essentially what we've created with our own |
| challenged gorilla who liked to express | | | | home schooling group, and it is working |
| himself with his fists. We finally got the | | | | spectacularly well. There are kids who have |
| principal to take action after the teacher | | | | gone through the same program and entered |
| did nothing, but at the expense of his | | | | college by age 15. Many of the teens in the |
| teacher now viewing us and our son as "the | | | | program or formerly in the program have |
| enemy" for getting her in trouble.And that | | | | successful businesses. My son's only 8, so |
| was just the beginning of our experiences | | | | we've got lots of working and growing ahead |
| with private schools. At one point, our boy | | | | to do, but for the first time in a long time, |
| must have seen something on TV at the same | | | | both he and his parents are looking forward |
| time the class was studying Christ's Passion | | | | to it.Tad Cronn is an author and editor in |
| in school, and he made a comment to somebody, | | | | West Hills, CA. |
| somehow, somewhere, "Oh, just kill me." I | | | | |