www.cbsnews.com/stories/20...58173.shtml

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstr...iscs04.htm

www.nbc10.com/news/2619696/detail.html

www.politicalusa.com/columni..._003.htm

www.icurricula.com/Magazine_3761.htm

Just a few things I found. While the first couple say crime in schools is on the decline, it's still enough to worry the shit out of parents.

I don't know about scaring people against public school. My greatest problem with it is that schools are simply no longer working.

Here's a great article from the N.Y.C. teacher of the year twice (at least) and a current school opponent. His book is incredible.

www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm

These are great. Thank you so much.

My newest hunt is for information on the foundations of curriculum.

I used to have articles, before the internet, on the public schools intention of training factory workers. A friend thought she'd come across evidence of the training of students to one day be soldiers, as well. My last online search didn't get me the info.

All on any related subjects is greatly appreciated.

Wow, that's a lot of bad info about public schools. o_0 My daughter went to a Catholic grammar school for 4 years; K-3rd grade. Those problems did not exist in her school, so I'm glad about that. I know they didn't exist because I was there at her school every day. It started out as volunteering and eventually lead to my hiring from the school. I was glad to be there every day to see what exactly went on. The problems we (my daughter and I) encountered were very different; more on the personal side. Kids are mean and especially the way girls forms clicks. No matter if your child is in public school or Catholic school, these girls will form clicks and hurt other girls.

I also had problems with other moms that were hired for lunch and recess monitors. These moms were pigs and they were assisting the younger children with their lunches. I told my daughter not to let these moms touch her lunch in any way. I saw this because I was one of those moms. I had my own roll of paper towels that I held under my arm for wiping my hands after throwing away unfinished lunches and wrappings; after each and every one of them too. These moms thought I was crazy. I washed my hands thoroughly after each lunch period and these moms never entered the kitchen to wash their hands. After each lunch period, smelly rags were used to clean the tables. Sure they used "hot" water with bleach, but not HOT enough and they still needed to change the rags at least every 3 or 4 days being used. But they kept the rags because the school wasn't buying new ones as often as they should have. So I started buying wash towels myself. I didn't care about the money. The only thing I was concerned about was the sanitary conditions of the tables and of course the kids; their safety against possible illnesses that arise from unsanitary conditions.

Another problem that was really bothering me was recess. The school hadn't had recess before and then all of a sudden I hear rumors about starting recess the following year. I was livid. So much so that I wrote a letter to the principal. He read my letter and just said, "There, there my child, everything will be fine." Of course he didn't actually say that, but he may as well have!! The following year came and I was part of the recess crew along with lunch. Everything I mentioned in the letter the previous year happened just as I wrote it. Kids were getting hurt; we didn't have an actual playground, just a parking lot; so they were falling on the hard concrete. Injuries were happening almost every day. And we didn't have a school nurse!! We didn't have a fence around the parking lot either. Cars could approach, people could approach... just the thought of some dangerous preditor approaching our children. We've heard of some car approaching after school too and how a child approached that car; scarry thought. Bullies were also my concern out at recess. Just as I thought, the bullies had a field day at recess.

Suffice it to say, my fears came true, not under my control or the other moms' either. We couldn't be 10 moms each. There were only 3 of us for around 150 kids each lunch/recess period. That was the year I decided to homeschool my daughter the following year.

I know these problems are not as dangerous as the ones in the articles found by

I kept in touch with some of the volunteering moms the following year and I also kept in touch with one of the teachers, for whom I was an aide. I learned that the kids no longer had lunch in one of the halls that the school had for large meetings. The year before my daughter started school there, the kids just ate lunch in their own classrooms. Which I really liked, unlike some other moms who would be shocked at such awful things as their child eating lunch in the classroom! Well not ME!! I loved that idea! But when my daughter actually started, she told me that they had to go down the hall and down some stairs and into a large hall to eat lunch. I ate lunch in my classroom when I was in Catholic school! Nothing wrong with that. The first year my daughter was homeschooled was the first year in 4 years that the school went back to having lunch in their own classrooms. AND not only that, there was no more recess!! WooHoo!! Only thing was I already pulled my daughter out of the school. Oh well, I'll give homeschooling a shot anyway. And we both loved it so much better. My dauther wasn't bored anymore. I had taught my daughter how to read when she was 3 years old so by the time she got into Kindergarten she was reading. My teaching continued at home and by the end of Kindergarten she was reading at a 3rd grade level. She wanted to be homeschooled before even starting school. Only she didn't call it that. She just stated that she wanted to have school at home with me as her teacher because I was such a good teacher. But I put her in school anyway and she was a sport and went along. She would tell me about her day in school and said it was boring and all they do is color. Not that coloring is bad but it was just boring for her. She wanted to learn more about reading and writing. She had some ridiculous homework. She pleaded with me to homeshool her. But I didn't listen for 3 more years. I finally pulled her out after those awful moms in the lunch room made me want to throw up and also after the bad experiences we had at recess. My daughter didn't get physically hurt or anything... but she was getting emotionally hurt with the girls she thought were her friends. She doesn't need that.

We are now thriving with homeschooling. I say "We" because I also love learning things I didn't know before. And I love my mind getting refreshed with things I remember from school. We also do things kids wouldn't normally do in school, which makes it NOT boring at all. We have our field trips we take too. And we have our day off during the week where we just do our own thing, which in the end turns out to be educational a lot of the times.

Now I know that the situations I presented were not as dangerous as in the articles that Hello Kilky™ let us know about. But nonetheless my daughter was still young and there was still time to take her out of the potential dangers the following years could've had for her. I think guns are very dangerous but the dangers that are usually ignored because of the guns and other physical violence, are the emotional dangers that could scar a child for a long time.

We love Home Schooling!!

urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dyn...ite.htm

Check the archives of 'Mothering' as well...www.mothering.com-the new issue has a great article on homeschooling and last issue had some great stuff on one-room schools and this old un-school from the turn of the century. Good luck, I'm so sorry you have to go through this drama. I think it would be good to show how much more successful homeschooled children are both academically and emotionally if you could find those statistics :-)