First Book: My Introduction

My first book for the Reading Log Blog is:

Government Schools Are Bad for Your Kids: What You Should Know, by James Ostrowski

This book was published and released in November, 2009.  It is nothing, if not timely. 

I am actually not a product of the public school system.  I attended a public elementary school until the fourth grade.  It was during that year things started to go south for me in school.


My fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Pepmueller.  She did not inspire me with warm fuzzies.  In fact, I am pretty sure that she did not like me.  Quite by accident one day, my parents discovered that I was not going to an advanced class that I should have been.  I mentioned that my friend, Kara, was going to the class, but I was not.

According to my standardized test scores (a whole 'nother discussion!), I was in the 97 percentile, and as such I was supposed to be in the advanced class.  My parents went in to talk to the principal of the schoool about the situation.

The school did not have any record of my test results.  Fine, said my parents, here are our copies of the scores, feel free to make a copy.  Oh, no, we can't do that.  Fine, then test her again.  Oh, no, we can't do that.

So I was supposed to be in the advanced class, but the school was not going to change the status quo.  In addition, I was having difficulty in math with double- digit division.  It just wasn't clicking for me.  So instead of being in the advanced class, I was in danger of being put in "special" education!

The above is a long discussion of what my experience was with the public school system.   After that I was sent to a private school.  Once I got married, I was determined to home school my kids that were yet to be born.  I was convinced that was my calling as a wife and mother.

Next up: Government Schools Introduction