Test time

Yep...it's high season of the all-important-state-standards-test here in the Peach State. It is time for the CRCT. Which means the school year will soon end.

My kids have been attending speech at the local elementary school for....4 Springs now. And I have been looking at the same CRCT posters each and every year.
Up and down all the halls, are signs reminding the children to "read carefully" and to "reach the stars."

My not so favorite posters, however, have been conspicuously absent this year. (The Rosa Parks and MLK ones.)
That's an improvement in my book. But sadly, my other ideas have not crept into the school's head. The art displays are still without any educational merit. (But they had some pretty neat artwork this year. I do have to give credit there.)

It's very ......um....interesting for me to visit the school each week. I get a glimpse of what most homeschoolers do not.
And it doesn't change my mind about wanting to homeschool.

Sure, I get a little wistful when I watch the school plays. (We get to see the ones on our speech days.) The Principal is exactly the type of person that I would want as a principal and the custodians are the absolute nicest people I have every met. And the students are happy to be there. I don't think I have ever witnessed a major bad behavior. The music teacher is downright phenomenal.
And they conduct a very quick and thorough fire drill. (We've been there for two this year.

But I'm not tempted. No....not at all. Sometimes I am impressed by the level of work shown but I don't for a minute think that they maintain that level of work day in and day out across all the grades.
So I don't feel that I am dropping the ball with my sons.
I don't see that they are missing out on enough to justify enrolling them. Or to justify them missing out on the stuff they get here at home.

But my kids are a bit odd. My oldest is highly self-motivated and is an absolute dream student .... at home.
Around friends, he metamorphoses into Mr. Social. In a classroom setting, he would be every teacher's nightmare: the kid who does all his work quickly and correctly then chats with his buddies who haven't finished their work.
He would be like me...in class until he finished all his work and being sent on errands for the remainder of the school day.

My second and third would not be able to handle the distractions of a class room setting. The would come home every day with unfinished work that they were completely capable of doing. Another type of teacher nightmare: the one's who can but don't.

And then the baby would get into the worst possible mischief and flash that dimpled grin to get out of all repercussions. You know that kid from your own school days. The Teflon Don of the elementary school.
That grin works on works on everyone else...but I am immune.

Nope....I can't see it working for the boys. At home, they get more than what the school can provide them.

Except those school plays. That place can really put on a show.