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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Schools
  • Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:19:55 -0800

Gloria, can you please explain to me why you are so positive that you wouldn't have been exposed to or have been involved in music or basketball if you hadn't gone to public school?

How is that if you hadn't been bullied you wouldn't have learned to deal with things that happened to you later in life? You mean to tell me that you think you had to be emotionally abused early in life inorder to survive adversity later in life?

And let me clear something up that p.s'ers seem to want to believe is the gospel and that if they keep repeating it often enough it will make it the truth, "I'm sure there are exaples of home schooled kids who get to do things like that and more."

No, Gloria, there are "examples" of homeschooled kids that get to do those things, it is a reality of everyday life in the day to day life of the vast majority of homeschooled kids.

Of course, *all* homeschooled kids don't get to do that but then *all* public schooled kids don't get to do the things you mentioned.

My mother and father were BOTH very involved in the p.s. I went to, but that didn't make them a better experience. One of the more traumatic experiences was the first day of school and there was nothing involved parents could have done to make it any better! I had a nanny from Georgia and as a consequence I had a southern accent. A THICK southern accent!

Teacher: Lynda, can you stand up and tell everyone your name and where you are from (we lived in the projects and there were folks working in the shipyards from all over the country, hence the question).
Lynda: Ma name is Lean Da and ahmmm from hee are.
Teacher: No, dear, I mean where did you move here from.
Lynda: Yaa ree ka
Teacher: (Getting a little impatient) No, I mean where are you originally from (giving me the 'is this child stupid or what' look)
Me, now totally confused: Pointed out the window and said "San Francisco."
Teacher: Never mind! Sit down.

At the end of the day I got one of those enfamous notes pinned on my blouse. The note really ticked my mother off (I later found out that the teacher said my mother should work at teaching me the difference between the truth and a lie) and she stomped off to school with me the next morning, not that it did any good. A month later I end up going home with another note pinned on my blouse. This time my Dad took off work to talk to the teacher. Seems I wasn't supposed to be reading books or writing in cursive and that I was to quit immediately because I might "harm" the other children by being ahead of them!

Hells bells, even those ghetto schools were probably better than 99.9% of the public schools are now. We had field trips at least once a month (the Planetarium, the Aquarium, the Natural History Museum, Golden Gate Park, the Oakland and SF Zoos, the Golden Hind, just to name a few), we did cooking for each country we studied, we had ballroom and square dancing lessons (ballroom dancing graduation was at the Hyatt Regency, another field trip), orchestra, choir, drama, art, creative writing, swimming lessons and that was all in grammar school!

I was in the orchestra. I aced all the math classes. I loved history. Won the prize in ballroom dancing. However, that doesn't stop me from finding that public schools suck.

I guess the brainwashing didn't take with me <g> I don't find a need to justify all the bad stuff and there was plenty of that!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>


Some of my happiest memories from my years growing up are my
experiences in the grade school and high school orchestras. I played
violin and LOVED it. The year our high school string quartet went to
state was such an amazing experience for me. Now, folks thought I was
a little strange as a kid, walking around humming the second violin
part to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (we also played in a symphony with
the band kids), but, in addition to horses, music was a great passion
(it still is), and the public school system allowed me to pursue it to
my heart's content. I also played piano, and I would play for the
chorus in grade school, for plays, and I played for our graduation. I
know for sure that if I had been home schooled, I'd never have gotten
the chances to do what I did, musically. I know that I'd not have had
as many opportunities to overcome my native shyness and stage fright,
and I'd probably not have been able as easily, later in life, to give
talks in front of a thousand people, had I not had those sorts of
performance opportunities at a young age. I'm sure there are examples
of home schooled kids who get to do things like that and more, but I
know I'd not have been one of them.





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