It’s the Teacher – Not the School

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

It’s the Teacher – Not the School: This isn’t news for me, but the acknowledgment comes from an unlikely source – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  In their Annual 2009 Newsletter, they discuss the U.S. Education system and how they tried to improve it over the past several years through their program.  Despite all their money and effort thrown into the public schools all across the nation (with a few success stories), most of their efforts came up empty.  Their conclusion:

If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.

Gee… isn’t that what homeschooling is all about?

We went through a private school – and had several excellent teachers.  They made all the difference in the world for my daughter!  Then we had some not so good teachers.  They made an impact too.  One we are still dealing with.

HSLDA President J. Michael Smith wrote an excellent article in his Op-Ed Column for the Washington Times on 24 February 2009: Home-schooling: It’s the Teacher, not the school. Basically he states that great teaching has nothing to do with teacher certification.  It has everything to do with caring about who you are teaching (your children) and what you are teaching.

I’ll be the first to admit homeschooling isn’t easy… it’s hard!  There are days I’m ready to throw in the towel.  But, I also know that I’m still giving my daughter a better education than she would get in the public schools here where I live.  The private schools, we simply can no longer afford, and the ones we tried were iffy at best (again, it depended on the teacher!).  We also tried a charter school.  It has an excellent reputation, and deservedly so, but it wasn’t for every child, including mine.  And again, my experience was that some of the teachers were excellent, but some were … well…  not so good.

At least now I know my daughter’s teacher cares about her and will work with her on a lesson until she “gets it.”  She won’t give up on her, or leave her behind.  If we have to repeat something… we do.  If a certain curriculum isn’t working, we can change it.