bon, tell Bob the word he's looking for is "philtrum," not "frenulum."

Bwah! I'm so glad he clarified, because nobody deserves a blood-spewing frenulum, even if one later can tell stories that begin with, "There was this one time when I was gored by a Shogun Warrior..."

My horoscope says I'll learn a wonderful secret, and that the person I'm romantically persuing is a worthy goal.

I'm hoping the secret I learn is who it is I'm romantically persuing.

Does anyone here know? If so, could you whisper it in my ear?

Still, I'm very invested in public education as the prime acculturating force in the country.

We have had fabulous teachers in our public school system. I have more trouble with the system itself, our school committee and our new super. I've only had one teacher I wouldn't call great, and even then, I never had to go through the administration (and our principals have been peaches), to deal with the issues. It was a personality thing.

My mother is one of the most brilliant women I know, and not bad at the mothering thing. She might have been fine homeschooling me, if she'd cared to spend that much time with me. Wouldn't have worked with my sister -- their brains don't make even vaguely similar leaps and twists. And that's about the same reason my father's never taught me anything other than athletic stuff.

With Ben and I, we're just too darned much alike. We love each other, and get along well, and probably understand each other, better than we either understand the rest of the family, or than they understand us. But we also have this ability to press each other's buttons, even when we don't mean to. I think that's the bottom line. Also, he just needs to be with his peers. It's good for him. I could possibly home school Julia. She is one of those kids that flourishes, no matter where you plant her. But she's so social, I don't want to cut her off from people like that. Chris? He's going to know more than I do by the time he's in second grade. He's so scary. He also needs to be with his peers.

IDT are the people who bought the profitable GEnie online bb and shut it down so they could take a tax loss, with the excuse that millennium bugs made it impracticable to upgrade the software.

My mother was too busy teaching other people to home-school me. Although there was that one magical year where my grade school was exactly one block away from my house. Nice, that.

"You can't TELL me how many minutes it is?"

"No"

"Frankly, that sounds fishy to me."

"Our unlimited plan is for phone service, not data"

"It's dial up, it IS phone service"

Welcome, Almare!

cancel them NOW Trudy!

Most of the people that I have met that homeschool do so for religious reasons. and to protect thier kids from evil influences. I haven't met any that actually do it becasue the schools are bad.

I'm not sure that sheltering kids from other beliefs is a good idea. honestly, if you want your kids to know and believe what you do , the best possible thing to do is let them know what you believe, practice what you belive, accept that they will want to explore for themselves, and welcome them with joy when they come back. It happens a lot that way.

The worst results I have seen is mom not wanting to let go of her kids. One of out library pages is over 18. finished schooling . mom thinks she is too immature for college. She is a smart girl - she'll figure it out if she ever gets the chance. I'm scared she'll get rebellious in her 20's - when the consequences are greater.

I sometimes marvel at the fact that as I recall my K-12 years in school, I NEVER had what I would call a "bad" teacher. I never even had a teacher I had a personality conflict with. They were all competent, wonderfully engaged people whom I can easily recall with great fondness.

But then, I may have just been really easy to teach. I dunno.

cancel them NOW Trudy!

Oh yeah. As soon as they knock that fifty bucks off my bill they're getting the boot.

Not all parents who homeschool do it because they're in a craxy religious group. Sometimes public schools SUCK and are actively dangerous, and private school is cost-prohibitive.

I would much rather homeschool any theoretical children of mine than put them in some of the Cincinnati Public Schools. NFW, man.

That said, if I were to homeschool, I'd only do it as part of a group, where the kids were with other kids and therefore socialized and not freaky.

I am ALL in favor of public education, but I wouldn't put my kid in a bad school just to prove how much I'm in favor of it. No way.