the public school is not meeting the needs of my child

The following are excerpts from letters we have received from parents interested in receiving help and information on homeschooling in Indiana. Specifics have been removed for privacy. We are publishing these posts in an effort to portray to the general public and the media, a more balanced picture of why parents are transferring their children out of their local public schools to educate them at home.

March 2009
Madison County
I am at my wits end. My son continues to fail almost all classes despite his intelligence. He hates school. I have bent over backwards to help him succeed.

He has mentioned college, but at this point, I just want him to graduate from high school. I am seriously concerned that he might not. He has mentioned that he could drop out. This is not an option. I am an elementary school teacher. I work full-time. I am wondering if [homeschooling] may be a better way for him to succeed. Nothing else has worked and here we are now in 9th grade!

Porter County
My son is in the third grade. He's a very intelligent kid but has difficulty with the structure of the classroom and is easily bored. He is not performing at his potential and his teachers/school administrators are not equipped to give him the attention he needs. My son is very interested in science and loves to experiement. I would like to encourage this interest. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Vanderburgh County
I am considering homeschooling my 5 year old, who would start kindergarten this fall. My 3 other children are in the public school system, and I am very dissatisfied with the education that they are receiving. I would like to homeschool my son for at least kindergarten, to "see how it goes", then possibly continue from there. I work 3rd shift, and I worry about the time involved for his education, as I do not want to cause a delay in his education. I am overwhelmed just trying to navigate the wide variety of information available, and have no idea where to start. Thank you in advance for your time.

Monroe County
Subject: New to Homeschooling Old to Public Schools
After teaching in the public schools for four years, working as a remediation aide this year, and having my children in and out of daycares I have come to the realization that they are and will be cheated from me, family life, and opportunities to experience learning in a fun, natural, self motivated way. My oldest is about to enter Kindergarten next year and I just can't send her to a public school. I have taught in them and I know from first hand experience what it's like being the teacher in a room of 25+ students. Xxxxxx is intelligent, reading, writing, enjoys learning about science and social studies, computer literate, and does her math when asked ;) She's an avid learner. I'm so scared that it will be sucked out of her the day she sets foot in the door and is told to sit and to wait.

Wait to learn to read while the others learn their letters, wait to write because the others aren't reading, wait, wait, wait. And during all this waiting, she'll be bored. She'll be looking for something to keep her interested and instead will probably get in trouble....then disciplined, then squashed.

As a former public school teacher, I am guilty of saying, "Draw while I help these children finish their work," or "Read a book until the rest finish." There has to be more to learning than sitting and waiting. Please help! Thank you.

Cass County
Well my son is 16 and in the tenth grade and has been failing since the fourth grade. No one wants to do anything but keep passing him to the next person. I dont know anything about home schooling so any help I can get would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

March 2008
Huntington County
My son is in 9th grade. He has the reading and math level of a 3rd grader. He has short term memory problems and has a terrible time. The school system is not the place for him.

He feels singled out with the resource teachers coming to class and sitting with him and being taken out of class to go to the resource room for additional help. The help he receives is not to catch him up and get him to his grade level. The help is in the subjects he is forced to take that are way above his abilities (Algebra, 9th grade English). How is he ever going to graduate?

I'd like to start over. Back up to where the "No Child Left Behind" philosophy left him behind. School is nothing but stress for him. It's hard to go somewhere everyday where you are constantly set up to be a failure. I'm tired of the public school system and so is he. We've just had enough. I just need help and so does he.

Adams County
As a mom of a nearly-seventeen year old girl who has always struggled in school, I'm faced with a decision to pull her out of a public school system that has seemingly failed. I'm willing to accept some of the blame for the failure. Perhaps she needed far more attention...? More... something?

My daughter, the youngest of three children, has been passed from grade to grade every year... and now finds herself a junior at Xxxxx High School, completely lost in a system that didn't seem to care enough. She has 25 of the 44 credits needed to graduate. Even if she did pass every course in which she is enrolled this semester, AND goes to summer school, she won't have what she needs to graduate in June 2009. There has been at least one, possibly more, teachers at Xxxxxx High School who have told my daughter that she should just drop out and get her GED. This has not encouraged anything except lower self-esteem. I'm not sure where to go or what to do.