General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Start schooling later than age five, say experts [View all]SheilaT
(23,156 posts)One enormous problem with conventional schools, be they public, parochial, or private, is that kids are expected to progress in lockstep.
In first grade, when my older son was just not getting the reading, he was ready to move much farther ahead in math. I was frustrated and angry that the kids who were catching on to the reading could move on, and son was stuck with the others in math.
In the long run he did just fine. He learned to read. Today he is working on his physics degree and I think that twenty years from now if I were to mention his name and you knew much about physics you'd be saying, "Wow, that's your son?!!"
It's the inability of schools to properly handle individual differences that's the problem. I've never taught school, so I hesitate to say I know what the solution is. One is smaller classrooms.
I do have two friends who decided to homeschool for a period of time because of such problems. One did it for one year, her son's 7th grade year, the other for about five years, starting at 3rd or 4th grade, and transitioning back into public school around 9th grade. Both kids turned out just fine also.