Am I Crazy? Probably

So we're thinking about homeschooling again.  Yes, I realize that you are now questioning my mental state.  And just when I've gotten a taste of the promised land (all 3 kids in public school), I'm considering taking them out of school (or technically, not putting them back in school in the Fall) and having them at home.  Every day.  All the time.  And this, after experiencing the freedom and flexibility that comes with all three being gone every day.

Why are we considering this, you ask?  Well, several reasons:

1.  We still think homeschooling is the better option for education.  You can't beat the one-on-one (or in our case, one-on-three) teacher/student ratio.  Also, you can go as fast or slow through a subject as your kid needs without having to teach to the class average.  You can also have kids learn certain subjects that they are very interested in.
2. Our kids are learning some unsavory things via their peers.  We've heard all kinds of new-to-our-kids words at home.  Our kids are also learning some attitudes from their "friends" that aren't acceptable in our home.
3. The idea of homeschooling keeps "haunting" me.  In a good way, of course.  I don't know if God is calling me to do this (and thus the way this idea keeps coming back to me) or what. If He is calling me to do this, then I want to obey, no matter how difficult a road it is for us.
4.  Something happened last semester with Jack's homework that still doesn't sit well.  Jack came home on a Tuesday with the usual math homework.  I helped him with one particular problem; when we got the "graded" (Jack doesn't get grades in 2nd grades) homework back, I was shocked.  He got the problem I had helped him with wrong.

In case you can't see the text, basically the problem is asking if all squares are rectangles.  My answer to Jack was that yes, all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles aren't squares.  I was shocked to see the teacher's response which was no, all squares are not rectangles.  So I emailed the teacher, looking to see where I was wrong (I certainly didn't want to be telling Jack the wrong information at home).  Here is what she wrote back to me regarding this problem:

I actually had a question about the answer to that problem to and asked about it when I got the key! The math book describes a square as having 4 equal sides while a rectangle has 2 sets of equal sides. Therefore, the reasoning is that a square is not considered a rectangle because it has to have 4 equal sides. 

I completely agree with your reasoning but had to follow the curriculum for 2nd grade. I think the goal is to have students understand that squares HAVE to have all equal sides in order for it to be considered a square while a rectangle does not. I believe that they further investigate this concept in higher grades and make comparisons while the goal in 2nd grade is just to be able to identify shapes.

I hope this helped! That is the answer I got when I asked about it as well. 

In talking with her, she told me that, when she took this problem up with the team-lead teacher for 2nd grade, she was told that the 2nd graders wouldn't understand the concept of squares being rectangles but rectangles not being squares.  SO THE TEACHERS TAUGHT THE KIDS THE WRONG INFORMATION BECAUSE THEY THEORIZED THAT THE STUDENTS WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND THE CORRECT INFORMATION.   I have a huge problem with that philosophy.  Better to leave off that information if the teachers don't think the students will understand than to feed them incorrect information, right?

This also makes me wonder what ELSE they are teaching incorrectly to my kids just because the Powers That Be don't think the kids will understand it.