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Reading the news I’m often stunned by developments in our public school.  The news often gives us a great many reasons to homeschool!

 Of course there are many GREAT teachers and some wonderful schools.  Read about this Teacher of the Year, for example: Navarre’s Danielle Clark SRC Teacher of the Year. And this example from a mom loves the teachers as school, but wrote this hilarious essay about the effect of the 7 hour school day.  She doesn't feel she can teach her children about "life" in the short time remaining each evening after school and homework.  She writes, “I really like my kids teachers and I really appreciate all the work they do during the day, but" she would like to give back the joys of homework.

Thirty Minutes Tops

There are good people in all walks of life! But just because you read about one good teacher or school, don’t feel inadequate. There are at least an equal number of hair-raising, blood-curdling news stories that provide enough encouragement for us to continue to homeschool for another year.

Here some more great reasons to homeschool, taken from recent news events!

You can Assign Appropriate Assignments

You can eliminate poor reading choices. The poor father in this article complained about inappropriate Rated-R content in a book and said, “If I stood outside the school and started handing out copies of page 313 of that book, I am confident I could be arrested." I will not be adding Jodi Picoult's book "Nineteen Minutes" to my reading list any time soon.
Dad Arrested After Protesting Book Being Read At Daughter's High School

On the other end of the spectrum, A Florida school teacher humiliated a student when she caught him reading the Bible during free reading time. She said, “He’s not permitted to read those {religious} books in my classroom.”
Teacher tells student he can't read the Bible in classroom

You can assign history in a way that makes sense, too. A class of 8th graders was supposed to write an essay explaining whether the Holocaust was a real historical event or a political scheme.
Rialto Unified School District's Assignment Questioning Holocaust Revised After Backlash

A teacher in South Florida assigned profane Lil Wayne lyrics for homework. What could possibly go wrong with that, right?
Florida Teacher Suspended After Giving Lil Wayne Lyrics As Homework

You Can Regulate the Amount of Testing 

As one long-time teacher explains, she is weary of the test-prep abuse inflicted on both students and teachers.
Why school isn’t for children anymore — teacher

Even kindergarten children are being tested, and their test scores examined. Headlines warn about the state of education even when reviewing test scores on the very young.
A very scary headline about kindergartners: Kindergarten test results a ‘sobering snapshot’ 

In standardized testing, there is large disparities among races and economic classes for public school children. You can see the results of testing in this article showing scores for White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and low income students.
Unequal Progress on Standardized Tests

Meanwhile, homeschoolers out-perform public school students, regardless of race, income, or academic level of their parents, as you can learn in this free class.
Discovering How and Why it Works, with Dr. Jay Wile

A school board member in Florida has quit after complaining of constant tests. He took a test with questions used on standardized tests given to students and flunked.
'The drive to test, test, and re-test’ leads famous school board member to quit

You can Determine the Work Load

A researcher found that students who spend too much time on homework have more stress, and says more than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive.
Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

Of course, each child learns at their own pace, but if you are doing school all day and all evening, you can leave out even more important lessons. A teacher from Arizona explains why he doesn't require homework anymore.
Teacher Urges Replacing Homework With Home Learning

You can even decide how to teach each subject. I thought this was so cute, because I know my children remember watching Wishbone when they were younger.
15 Classic Tales Wishbone Taught Better Than Your English Teacher

 You Can Insist on Safe Driving

We may get frustrated while driving our children around, but at least they aren't endangered by school bus drivers like these.
A Texas school bus driver allegedly became upset with the children on board, pulled over, threw the keys to a student and left.

One school bus driver said she crashed because there was a bee in the bus, but investigators think she was texting while driving.
Driver in Orting school bus crash could face charges

You Can Avoid Bullying by Teachers and Students

A school teacher lost her temper and assaulted a five-year-old boy.
Primary teacher Claire Jarrett accused of bullying campaign

Seattle's most prestigious private school was sued over bullying involving racial and homophobic slurs.
Family sues over alleged University Prep bullying

You Can Avoid Sexual Assault by Teachers

Unfortunately, pedophiles seek out interactions with children, and hope to find vulnerable students when they work in schools.  Can you imagine being the parent of one of these children?
Teacher charged with improper relationship with a student after she performed a lap dance in front of the class with a 15 year old boy

A male Colorado Springs teacher has been arrested, accused of assaulting a student.
High school teacher accused of sexual assault

A female Washington State high school math teacher faces rape charges after allegedly engaging in sexual acts in her classroom and sending explicit text messages to students.
Tacoma high-school teacher charged with child rape
Caesar Rodney Middle School Teacher Arrested for Having Sex With Student
Ex-teacher gets 40 years for molesting boy

You Can Consider Health and Safety 

A disabled student who drowned in the swimming pool at Lake Stevens High School. He couldn't swim and couldn't speak English well.
Lake Stevens district settles claim over drowning

You can consider safety when your child is trouble, and also if your child might be around another troubled child. A 16-year-old displaying signs of active psychosis is accused of stabbing Maren Sanchez to death in the halls of their high school because she wouldn’t attend prom with him.
Connecticut teen who allegedly killed classmate over prom is on suicide watch

I wouldn't want my children needlessly exposed to Lice in a classroom. And when you homeschool, you can educate even when faced with an inconvenient health issue like lice.
Children with head lice allowed in classrooms

You Can Allocated School Finances Appropriately

It's shocking to see what the government will spend money on, in the name of education. One school superintendent has a yearly compensation package of $663,000. That's not even close to my homeschool budget for my two children.
Enraged Taxpayer Throws Money at CA Superintendent Making $663K

Now go out there and seize the day, homeschoolers! Sure, homeschooling is hard, and homeschooling high school can be scary to think about, but we've got this! You can do it!
Taming Middle School Anxiety
Homeschooling High School for Freaked Out Parents