FRANKLY, I'M TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT IT!

Tired of hearing about what? Parent's fears about the socialization of children who attend homeschool. I have been doing this for 35 years and I haven't seen a socially slow kid yet! I have seen kids that didn't get to play high school sports, but they come back years later and say they are glad and how much they appreciate their home school education and how much better prepared for college they were than their peers. Face it parents, I know it's free, but high school is not like it was even 20 years ago! I try very hard to stay abreast of what is happening in education and to keep my parents informed. Many parents see no need to be alarmed at the federal fight for the minds of our children, not because parents don’t care about their children, but mostly because of a lack of time and being exposed to constant propaganda via the media about how wonderful and socially necessary standard school really is. Never mind that “standard” school entails mostly social and sports activities and quite inadequate academic activities. Many students that I have taught over the years are here BECAUSE of the inadequacy of the public/Catholic schools systems. I do not say this as criticism of parents, but many are concerned as much with the social development of their children as the academic development of their children. If I had to pick one phrase that I have heard a million times is, “Well we are worried about his/her social development, having more friends and missing out on fun high school events, like Prom and Homecoming.” This is the American thought pattern as it is propagated by the liberal media and pop psychology. This type of thinking is what has led to America going from the best education system in the world to third-world status. In this on-going public dialogue of social vs academic there is one big question that has been left out. How concerned are we with our children’s spiritual development and what are we doing about it. Public school has just about removed all traces of spiritual, Christian influence; Catholic education has reduced it down to about 2 to 5%. Most of the students sleep, play on their phone or write notes in religion class. In both public and Catholic schools, teachers have their own religious philosophy, or lack thereof, and don’t mind sharing it with anyone who will listen. At a local high school one teacher poked pins in a voodoo doll when students were misbehaving and had no problem sharing her atheistic belief system. (Yes, right here in our small town). Here, I won’t even touch on the number of different philosophies that are brought to school from home by the students themselves – some not so pretty. So it is always a good idea to consider just who it is that you trust to socialize your children. To answer these and other home schooling questions I write this and have included many articles on our website (Lakewoodlearn.com), listing,from reputable sources, the detriment to a child’s academic and social health that standard/parochial education entails. Now, new since 2010, but kept on the QT until this year, we have Federal Common Core, an insidious political agenda, that has nothing to do with the academic betterment of our young, once innocent, children. This is in both the public and Catholic schools all across the country, and yes, even in our small town. Being knowledgeable about Home School will help you know how to vote in future elections. So here are your choices. 1st and foremost, I strongly encourage each parent to do their own homework about the advantages of home schooling over government schooling. Because if you don’t believe in homeschooling and you don’t see the positive things it does for your children then you will easily be swayed by media propaganda, friend’s or co-workers comments, worries of improper socialization, and the necessity of fighting for the right to choose your children’s path of proper education. I can’t stress strongly enough the need for you to be informed about the ravages of social development and exposure to all kinds of diversity, relativism, commercialism, hedonism, social Marxism, and improper college preparation that children in Common Core education face on a daily basis. Spiritual insight as to how to handle these situations will become crucial to our students in the future in this morally decaying country we are living in today. So , again, please read the blogs and articles on the website and search the internet for a greater understanding of just what home schooling is really about and remember, Christian spiritual development is built in to Seton home school curriculum. 2nd. Your children will get a diploma and a transcript upon graduation, so they can go to college without you doing anything different than you are doing right now. They can attend college with the help of grants, scholarships,(provided they work hard and have a good GPA and an excellent score on the ACT), financial aid, or personal financing. If, however, you want your child to be eligible for the state financial assistance (TOPS) program (this is another new rule) you will have to send your own personal letter of registration as a home school to the Dept. of Education each year. You can use our curriculum and send your children here, but you still have to send a letter at the beginning of each school year to register as a home school. This must be done for at least two years before graduation. 3rd . Here is the basic difference in Home School and Public/Catholic School: Home School is primarily 2 to 3 years academically advanced over Public/Catholic School. Home School Curriculum places Spiritual development first alongside Academic development, then aspects of Social development are included in the curriculum as well as interaction with other students. (Note: All of my children and some of my grandchildren have been homeschooled. All are successful in business and all of them were invited, during their high school years, to local public/Catholic high school proms, home-coming dances and sports events. My oldest granddaughter just graduated from college and is enrolled in the graduate program. Our latest Lakewood graduate graduated at 16 and is carrying a 4.0 grade point average her first semester in the very rigorous Nursing Program at a state university. Public/Catholic school places Sports development first, Social development second, and second-class academic development last (which includes hours of nightly homework) so that many have to have tutors during high school and their first year of college. College professors have spoken directly to us saying that P/C high school no longer prepares students for higher education. With the addition of Common Core, school progress and performance will be stifled and students will continue to decline in academics.