Guest Article by Sarah Gentili

Charter Schools : Time To Take Charge Of Education

In the middle of the academic school year my husband and I adopted three wonderful school age children. The transition has been a smooth one and we have rapidly fallen into normal family patterns. However, the one thing that has proven to be a true frustration from day one is the public school my kids attend.

In the beginning, I was hopeful about the school. It received very high ratings by the state and participates in several state funding programs to test the latest teaching techniques. The school also receives extra funding for each special trial program it’s involved in. I naively believed that this would be a great place for all my kids.

For my eleven year old daughter, it has been an idle environment and while I question some of the content in the curriculum, I know she’s excelling academically and socially. My two boys, ages eight and nine, are in the second grade. I quickly realized that they would need some extra help to catch up with their peers. This had more to do with them changing schools so often, before coming to stay with us, than anything else.

Like any other concerned parent, I quickly scheduled meetings with teachers and principals to see if I could arrange extra help for my sons. After a mountain of paper work, testing and numerous meetings, I was presented with a harsh reality. Help was available to children who fell into two basic categories : special needs or learning disabilities, and ethnic diversity. My sons’ special needs were not severe enough, and since they are white, forget ethnic diversity.

I was appalled. My children’s school was unable to help my children because of politically correct nonsense and red tape.

Unwilling to except this, my husband and I started looking at alternatives to our sons’ education. Charter schools and home schooling are both high on the list of options. Both give us the freedom to take charge of our children’s education.

While there are many advantages to public schools, one glaring flaw is the inability to be flexible. Teachers are being told not only what to teach, but how to teach by the state, so the state can reach educational benchmarks. This is fine if your child falls into place with his peers or can be classified by some kind of special need or be part of an ethnic minority. If your child doesn’t fit into these two groups, he will be forced to endure a frustrating school experience and not be given the chance to reach his full potential.

As long as public schools limit what they can offer their students, more and more parents are going to turn to educational alternatives like home school and charter schools. It’s a parents job to prepare there children for the future and without a proper education they have none. If a parent has to think outside the box and do some creative thinking to get the job done because the system doesn’t work, then that is their right and responsibility.

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Copyright  2008     Leland Pulley