Even in school districts with excellent public schools, parents are choosing to homeschool:
The Los Rios subdivision in east Plano is served by some of the best public schools in Collin County. Dooley Elementary has been rated an exemplary school four of the last five years. Redbook magazine once picked Plano East Senior High, which sits in the neighborhood's northeast corner, as the best high school in Texas.
Not exactly the place you would expect to find parents going it alone on the education front. But that's exactly what's happening in this upper-middle-class enclave. Los Rios is a hotbed of home schooling.
Several neighborhood families have formed a home-schooling association, and by their account, at least 16 Los Rios families are schooling their 25 school-age children at home. There are more than 1,000 families with children in the neighborhood.
It's not just about quality of education, but about teaching children what is "real." Homeschooling is one way to ward off what some parents call the "want monster" - "the relentless pursuit of more 'stuff' – clothes, cars, trips" that are so often a part of two-income households with children in public schools. Homeschoolers are often living on one income, so life gets reduced to the basics. And homeschoolers like it that way.
Mrs. Clay, for example, used to be on the corporate fast track with Texas Health Resources, where she negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts with hospitals. Her husband, James, is a hospital administrator, but with the decision to home school, their five-bedroom, three-bathroom home is on the market. The family's high-speed Internet line is a thing of the past. So, too, is cable TV.
"It's forced us to take a look at what's real in life," said Mrs. Clay, 32. "It's real simple. To me, home schooling is real. It's authentic."
Posted by kswygert at March 23, 2004 12:54 PM