I was reading Mrs. du Toit’s post on why she took her kids out of public school and what the problems are. I posted a comment, but here is a recap.

Lot’s of good stuff. I totally agree. We never put our kids in the public school system and only put the eldest in a private school for the first grade. After our first parent teach conference where the teacher said we were the problem, that was it. I could tell stories, but I’ll not right now.

Couple of comments:

This is the difference between normal and average. People expect children to act a certain way because all children do. But that doesn’t mean it is the normal behavior. Since most kids are in public schools, they think their behavior is normal because it is the same as all the other kids. I once heard it explained that it is normal for a human to be able to run a mile with only some heavy breathing, but it is average to be out of breath at the top of a single flight of stairs.

As an aside I had a friend go visit his first grader for lunch one day. He said they had to sit at the table with out saying anything and when they were done eating, they had to lay their heads down until it was time to go outside. Crazy.

You know Ritalin is a stimulant to adults. If teachers can’t keep up with the kids, giving it to them might give them an edge.

And you aren’t a wack job. The Mrs and I were just discussing the other day how the state of Texas doesn’t even know we have children, and that’s a good thing. They’ve never been under the watchful eye of the department of education.