Catch 22

So, I've been talking to my brother about the Catch 22 with my homeschooling goals with Cory. First and foremost, a HUGE disclaimer here. I will not even try to line out exactly what I hope to achieve and why for you to all pick apart here. I am sharing but with the disclaimer that it isn't the entire story because that's a LOT to put in a blog.

To oversimplify, I have two main goals with Cory in this first six month period and that will affect what happens next.

Goal the First: He was getting overwhelmed by pre-algebra. He wasn't getting the help and support he needed. I wasn't getting any cooperation from the school. I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't get any further behind on a subject he'd always been good at before this year.

Goal the Second: He'd never been challenged by a project or done anything that couldn't easily be completed within a class period. He'd never written a report or research paper. I felt those are skills that he will need in life, and certainly in high school. I wanted to teach him the skills to do a more complicated project and write a decent report/research paper.

I don't want him to fall behind but honestly, in Texas, the only thing that seems to matter in public school is that he pass his TAKS tests and that simply doesn't constitute an education. At least not in my opinion. And if he could pass TAKS tests, then he won't fall behind. And if that's all they prep you to do... what kind of future is that?

Which leads to the next strange question... which is harder to answer... if he was getting such a rotten education, why am I so determined to make sure he goes back for more of the same in high school?

Well... that's a bigger answer and although I'll answer it, please read the above disclaimer about not fitting my entire philosophy into the format of a blog post.

1. I am not determined about anything at the moment.
2. I think that what you learn in high school is mostly experiential and not the memorizing of data. If you could just memorize data and be successful, I could easily have him do that here or at home and it wouldn't matter in the slightest except whatever I would prefer. No, I think that the experiences you have in high school are extremely important - and at the moment, I think that would be best served in a larger format than my house... but...
3. Re-read # 1.

-Headmistress DE