Yes, that is ridiculous. And I am a teacher type (well, child of
teachers-turned-administrators, very pro-public education, all my mom's
siblings are teachers, my brother's a teacher, etc, etc).

Relatives of mine pulled their son out of grade 2 three weeks before
x-mas, because they felt the school system had failed him/them.
Apparently, his kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2 teachers, and
principal, all had insurmountable shortcomings (no two the same,
though) - IIRC, the grade 1 teacher "did not command his respect."
Clearly it was the school's fault that he was frequently in trouble and
getting unsatisfactory reports. So now they're homeschooling. Scarily,
this kid was socially a nightmare before starting public school, and
just at the end of grade 1 and beginning of grade 2, I had started
thinking, "wow, the boy's really made progress. He's actually pretty
functional these days."

I'm not against homeschooling, at all, just against this couple in
particular doing it. Especially since the only normalizing social arena
he's encountered appears to be public school. I shudder to think what's
going to happen to him over the next few years, if they keep him at
home. OTOH, I bet there are a bunch of teachers and a principal who are
only too happy to see his parents' out the door. . .

Melania
Mom to Joffre (Jan 11, 2003)
and #2 (edd May 21, 2005)

That I think is all too true. I'm fed up with my dd's school. I do like
the principal and the teachers she has had so far are good people. I just
really have an issue with the lameness of their attitudes towards parents.
And over all these folks lack insight big time. I don't want to be too
critical because I am not a teacher nor a principal type and wouldn't want
their job persay along with all the antics they have to put up with. My BIL
is a school principal and he is an excellent teacher and principal but he is
really struggling with alot of the parental issues that have come up. I
don't know the answers. (Interesting that my BIL's wife homeschools their
kids??!!!!!)

We don't have a large posse of homeschooling parents here but we do have
some and we do have parents who have taken their kids out of the school here
and placed them farther away in a school that is actually worse because of
issues with teachers and the poor handling of students with disabilities.
So they are opting for an inferior (I'm not talking about the homeschoolers
btw) education just to have them in a school that will give them more
attention and better visibility as a student with special needs. The school
I'm talking about has lost funding and is at risk of being shut down yearly
for problems therein. We live rural and I know we will not be here in 5
years and mostly because of the issues with these schools. We have only
three schools within 2 hours of us and the best one is the one my dd is in.

Anni