Welcome!
This is the first blog post of the Laurel Academy for Spirited Boys and Their Uncooperative Parents. Here we will chronicle our days of fun and learning.
About Laurel Academy
The Laurel Academy is a registered family-based homeschool in the tiny but definitely first state of Delaware. The school was established in February 2017 after three-quarters of our family was perfunctorily excised from the small, private, hippie school that we had considered part of our extended family since 2013. I'm not sure why I feel the need to protect their identity, but it seems classier than flashing their name all over this blog. And this way I'll feel more free to shoot off about how I have come to despise them and how little I think of their educational and especially organizational practices. (Disclaimer: there are some wonderful teachers with excellent educational practices at the school. They just don't seem to have any authority over how the school as a whole is run or how families are treated by the so-called administration.)
Let's let the cast introduce themselves.
Will: I am a full-time student at the Laurel Academy and have been since the school started. My mother is one of the teachers here and also headmistress of the school. My father is a teacher here as well. I feel very very privileged to attend this school with my brother. I am ten years old and am the secondary author of this blog.
Ryan: I am an after-care student at the Laurel Academy. I am the only member of my family who wasn't shunned by the hippie school. I love my teachers and friends so I'm finishing the school year there. I am 8.
Heather: As headmistress of the school, I am the primary author of this blog unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are my own and are not necessarily shared by the staff and students, although I suspect many are. Also, Will tells me that he doesn't necessarily feel privileged to attend this school, but he did want to promote the school online, which is very thoughtful of him. That's the kind of kid he is. Ahem. More about me. I have near-perfected the art of studentship. In fact, I never really left school. I had a brief stint as a federal employee in the mid-2000s, but other than that, it's been school, school, school. I have a Ph.D. in physics and teach engineering students at a nearby institution of higher education. The fact that nobody at my job knows or cares about where I am when I'm not in the classroom allows me to live this double life as a full-time assistant professor and founding headmistress of my own school.
Matt: I am a teacher at the Laurel Academy. I am also a trained killer. My favorite subject to teach is science.
Why we started this blog
You can probably tell that we have some anger issues going on here. Do I think the anger is justified? Yes, indeedy. But that doesn't mean it's good or healthy or the way we always want to be. Part of our anger stems from feeling stifled, unheard, disregarded, and dismissed during the last year. We started the blog as a way of letting the words out. We are not an outwardly emotive people, but we are verbal as hell. The idea is not (only) to dump on the old school, but to write about our experiences as spontaneous homeschoolers. Some days are great and others are tremendously not great. If we feel so inclined we may get into some of the issues and situations that led us to where we are. Or maybe we'll stick to superficial writing exercises that "count" as schoolwork. As with the rest of my life, this project is pretty unplanned. So, let's go!
About Laurel Academy
The Laurel Academy is a registered family-based homeschool in the tiny but definitely first state of Delaware. The school was established in February 2017 after three-quarters of our family was perfunctorily excised from the small, private, hippie school that we had considered part of our extended family since 2013. I'm not sure why I feel the need to protect their identity, but it seems classier than flashing their name all over this blog. And this way I'll feel more free to shoot off about how I have come to despise them and how little I think of their educational and especially organizational practices. (Disclaimer: there are some wonderful teachers with excellent educational practices at the school. They just don't seem to have any authority over how the school as a whole is run or how families are treated by the so-called administration.)
Let's let the cast introduce themselves.
Will: I am a full-time student at the Laurel Academy and have been since the school started. My mother is one of the teachers here and also headmistress of the school. My father is a teacher here as well. I feel very very privileged to attend this school with my brother. I am ten years old and am the secondary author of this blog.
Ryan: I am an after-care student at the Laurel Academy. I am the only member of my family who wasn't shunned by the hippie school. I love my teachers and friends so I'm finishing the school year there. I am 8.
Heather: As headmistress of the school, I am the primary author of this blog unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are my own and are not necessarily shared by the staff and students, although I suspect many are. Also, Will tells me that he doesn't necessarily feel privileged to attend this school, but he did want to promote the school online, which is very thoughtful of him. That's the kind of kid he is. Ahem. More about me. I have near-perfected the art of studentship. In fact, I never really left school. I had a brief stint as a federal employee in the mid-2000s, but other than that, it's been school, school, school. I have a Ph.D. in physics and teach engineering students at a nearby institution of higher education. The fact that nobody at my job knows or cares about where I am when I'm not in the classroom allows me to live this double life as a full-time assistant professor and founding headmistress of my own school.
Matt: I am a teacher at the Laurel Academy. I am also a trained killer. My favorite subject to teach is science.
Why we started this blog
You can probably tell that we have some anger issues going on here. Do I think the anger is justified? Yes, indeedy. But that doesn't mean it's good or healthy or the way we always want to be. Part of our anger stems from feeling stifled, unheard, disregarded, and dismissed during the last year. We started the blog as a way of letting the words out. We are not an outwardly emotive people, but we are verbal as hell. The idea is not (only) to dump on the old school, but to write about our experiences as spontaneous homeschoolers. Some days are great and others are tremendously not great. If we feel so inclined we may get into some of the issues and situations that led us to where we are. Or maybe we'll stick to superficial writing exercises that "count" as schoolwork. As with the rest of my life, this project is pretty unplanned. So, let's go!
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