The New Bern Sun-Journal spoke with several families whose children had been in the public school system — sometimes several systems — and after giving public education a fair shot, decided homeschooling was the better alternative. The Baldwin family’s experience speaks volumes:
Victoria Baldwin of New Bern made a 98 several months ago on a test about the Boston Tea Party. But when Victoria, a Craven County middle school student, took the paper home, she couldn’t tell her father Gerald anything about the tea party.
“She said she thought it was about the president’s wife having a party,” Gerald Baldwin said. “I found out all their tests were open book. They weren’t learning anything.”
When Baldwin went to talk to school administrators about the tests, he said they didn’t see a problem because his daughter was making A’s.
“She has A’s, but I’m not hearing A’s,” he said.
“They’re preparing children for an end-of-grade test, not life. I feel like my tax dollars have been paying for an education for the world, and they didn’t get it.”
Gerald and Chenona Baldwin have decided to home school their daughters this year. …
