Thinking Ahead to School

I found a great resource today: an organization called LEAD (Learners & Educators of Atlanta & Decatur). I haven't made any decisions yet about school for our future children, but I like knowing what's out there. LEAD is an association of secular homeschooling parents that teach classes for each other's kids.

I would probably start them out in public school, but if they don't thrive there I would pull them out in a heartbeat. One argument I often hear is that if children have social problems in school, you need to support them so they work their way through it, because they'll gain valuable life experience in dealing with adversity. Whenever I hear that argument I usually keep my mouth shut, because I don't want to attack another person's parenting choice. But I violently disagree with it. I had a lot of social problems at school, especially in junior high, and I didn't learn any valuable coping skills. It just made me feel more angry, depressed, shy, fearful, bitter and resentful. It prepared me for absolutely nothing, since I never faced as many problems later on in life; the older I got, the more civilized other people behaved towards me. I'm just glad I went into that very trying time with enough self-confidence that I could build myself back up again afterwards. The only useful lesson I learned is that I don't want any other child to suffer through the same problems.