Mother found successful alternative to public school after curriculum went woke
A Texas mother of four shared her experience home-schooling three of her kids for the first time and the huge academic advancements they made in reading.
A Texas mom saw significant advancements in her children's reading levels after she switched them to home education over what she considered a woke curriculum being taught in the public school.
"They have done really well," a mother of four, Tara Carter, told Fox News. "The advances in reading have been amazing."
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Average math scores saw the largest declines ever across every state, dropping five points for fourth graders and eight points for eighth graders from 2019 to 2022, according to the Nation's Report Card. Reading scores dropped to levels not seen since 1992, decreasing three points for both grades in two years and revealing significant proficiency setbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Carter's children have instead shown improvement this school year.
The twins "are reading way above their grade level," she said after a few months of home-schooling. "They're actually moving through it so fast that they're going to complete it before the end of the grade year, and they'll actually move up to the next level."
Carter pulled three of her kids – a kindergartner and twin first-graders – from public to home-school this year but allowed her ninth-grade daughter to attend high school with her friends. Her decision to switch to home-schooling derived from disagreements with the curriculum focusing on topics such as gender identity and sexual orientation rather than core subjects like math and language arts, Carter previously told Fox News.
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Carter says her kids are making huge improvements in their reading levels through at-home learning. (iStock)
Carter told Fox News her ability to give her kid's one-on-one instruction and move at their own pace helped their academic progress.
In public school classrooms, "there's so many children that they don't really get a whole lot of individual praise," Carter said. "I'm able to give that because I'm focused one child at a time."
Texas students pulled from public schools for home-schooling increased by 40% in spring 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the Texas Education Agency. Many families shifted to home education during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Carter previously told Fox News she believes some parents kept their kids at home to avoid classroom politicization and bias.
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"I do not miss the school setting at all," Carter told Fox News. She said at-home learning helped their social-well being.
"I think it's so much better for the children," Carter continued. "Schools, I think, can really mess with children's mental health, between bullying and feeling like they're falling behind."
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Based on the success of their first semester, Carter said she would continue to home-school her kids and recommended other parents consider the alternative.
"I've loved it and the kids have loved it," Carter told Fox News. "You do not have to be a genius or have a teaching degree to teach your kids."
To hear more from Carter on the advantages of home-schooling, click here.
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