Public school for us, for now

So every once in a while you are involved in a conversation which makes you stop and think about major life decisions you have made. This is a good thing - people change, priorities change, times change. So I just did a quick reassessment of my decision to send my daughters to public school.

So when it came time for my eldest daughter to start kindy I made appointments, and did inspections and interviewed teachers at the local public schools. Private was not an option, finding one without a religious (patooie!) base is difficult, and to be honest, well out of the price range of a single mum. Then we suddenly had to move a week before the school year commenced and all the hard work I had done finding the best of the local schools went out the window. I made 2 phone calls with the help of a street directory and enrolled in the most convenient to me. The stress of the sudden move and rent double that of the old place far outweighed any need I felt to get the choice of school perfet. That sounds terrible, but you do the best with what you know at the time, and I'm OK with it.

So the local Steiner school had a fete/open day that year and I made an effort to go along an actually check out the school to assess whether it was right for our family. I didn't know much about the Steiner method (no internet access) but went in with an open mind. The dealbreaker? Prayers. On blackboards, in workbooks, everywhere! No, no, no, that wouldn't do.

So a show on ABC called "This is Emily Young" caused me to consider home schooling more seriously. Emily (who I presume is home schooled) goes into the real world, questions the people who work there, and participates to learn. I am excited by the method of learning. Of course the student/teacher ratio is a bonus too. But who am I kidding? While I think I am smart enough to home school my children, I also feel that they would be missing out on other important things by not attending mainstream school (the benefits of mainstream public school in another post).

Back to today, where I am reassessing my quick decision to send them to a local, convenient school. Am I happy with their school? Yes. What are they missing out on that they might otherwise benefit from by being Steiner/home schooled? Nothing really. And I think this is because (quite subconsciously) the things I like about the other schooling methods have crept into our normal home life. Everything we do is an opportunity to learn - cooking, cleaning, washing, talking, shopping, driving, even watching (Gasp!) TV. Now I'm not pretending to be perfect, my kids watch too much TV and sometimes "Because it is" is the best answer they'll get from their tired, old mum- but it works for us. And maybe in a couple years something else will make me 'reassess' and I feel good that I can objectively do this.