Any parent can screw up homeschooling.

ALL public schooling screws kids up.

Look, PS are aimed at the lowest common denominator and that idiot Bush's NCLB Act has only worsened it. Now, if your kid has any smarts at all, he or she had better not be hoping to do anything bur drill in middle and high school on their way to college.

At that age, in a PS, the kid has to be prepared to engage in self-directed studies, 100%. The only thing the school provides is materials and facilities and equipment, because typically, the "teacher" knows less about the subject than a reasonbably bright kid coming out of a private or home/online school situation.

One of my daughters' friends from their old private who made Cs and Ds there, is pleased as punch at her new public school.

Guess what? She is lettering academically there!

Please don't believe all the tripe the PS system tries to sell you about "socialization." School, as my daughters both tell their mother and me, is for education, not dating and socializing. The schools have become especially good at terrorizing parents into believing their kid will be "the nerdy kid nobody liked when YOU were in school," and that's maginifed a thousandfold if that kid was...you! And they play on this, knowing how many parents are terrified that their kids won't be the belle of the ball or the quarterback.

For your kid's sake, it's time to grow up, dear. Happy Days never existed and nobody on the first day of your child's first day at a "real" job will care whether they had cool hair or shoes or whatever and whether they hung with the "cool" kids or nobody in 10th grade.

My kids are thrilled to be, starting this semester, doing online schooling which allows them to rocket through the material rather than sitting, staring and drooling into their laps in a PS classroom while their minds rot.

Best,
Tokie