Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) recently reported an incident where a homeschooling family was threatened and intimidated by a juvenile worker and social worker. One of the questions they asked, while threatening to remove the children from the home was “Are you capable of teaching your kids trigonometry.”
While they were wrong to ask that question, and the harassment was quickly ended, I had to ask myself the same thing. Can I teach my child trigonometry? No, I cannot. On the other hand, I can make sure she gets a good and proper teacher.
My personal experience with Trigonometry was a nightmare. I got a perfect score in Algebra, but struggled a bit memorizing the Geometry theorems. Trigonometry was even harder for me. It did not help that I had a sadistic teacher who like to humiliate females. He actually would pinch me on the cheek or arm and say, “she’s pretty; let’s see if she’s smart too.” The fact that I stood up for myself landed me with an F on my report card in the third semester. A few meetings later, and squeaking by the Regents exam rewarded me an A the final semester. I think that was the only academic C I got for a course in high school.
My point in telling this story is that while I cannot teach my child trigonometry, especially with my background, there is no guarantee that my kids would learn trigonometry in school. Fortunately, we homeschool and I can hire someone who can teach them trigonometry. In addition to choosing an instructor based on ability, I can also choose someone based on character and temperament.
I sure am glad I homeschool!
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