# homeschool co-op?



## lololong (Oct 12, 2007)

I am the director of an academic Christian homeschool co-op. To start our co-op, we do have certain rules that a board has established as a matter of defining what is acceptable or not, how we operate... We do not have too many rules or regulation as not to burden unnecessary. It is a voluntary co-op. Everybody has a non paid job, and we keep our cost very low.
Parents have to sign a form stating they agree with the rules and will abide by them. Same for the students.

Some parents have absolutely no regard for the rules, even when it comes to simple things like: Strive to be on time, do your job, do not chat with Aunt Molly on your cell phone instead of doing your job. They basically want all the advantages with doing the minimum or even nothing at all.

in my opinion, it is my job, and the job of the board to confront the unfaithful instead of looking the other way.
I come from the Biblical point that if you know somebody sins, you have to confront them.
I believe that it does not have to be done in a spirit of anger, but has to be done.

Is this legalistic?

I was told by some members of the board that we can tell somebody to do their jobs, but we cannot make them.
Yes, we cannot make them do the job that they have agreed upon, but we have the right to not have them be part of our co-op (it is in our rules).

Some people on the board believe that I am too hard, and that I should just ignore it.

I am from the mindset that setting standart to the lowest denominator is never a good thing (even in my pageant upbringing, we were to strive to do our very best) , and that we should encourage each other to excellence as doing everything unto the Lord. They wanted me to be the director, and I just cannot ignore certain behavior. However, I am not asking for perfection.

Should I just chill out?

What would you do?

Thanks

Lolo


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## JBaldwin (Oct 12, 2007)

Lolo

I'm in a similar type Christian home school co-op. While I agree with you that we should maintain high standards and expect people to pitch in and help out, I do believe that as believers, we need to operate under "grace". What I mean by that is this: We don't allow people to take advantage of the situation and sit around and do nothing, but on the other hand, we try to be understanding of each parent's situation. Some of our co-op moms are having to work part time jobs on the side, are caring for invalid parents, and participating in co-op to help ease the load a bit all while trying to homeschool their children with high standards. They often walk into co-op exhausted. 

If a parent (or student) is continually late, isn't prepared or not helping out at all, we have on occasion asked them to leave, but not before finding out the reason. Our co-op also has scheduled a "mom time" for about 30 minutes which gives them time to sit back and relax and talk. The students either work on school work or play during this time. This has gone a long way to help the moms unload some of their stress. 

I don't know what your co-op does, but we have found that whenever possible, we never ask a parent to do a job just because they are sitting around. Every year, we send out a "talent" sheet asking parents what they like to do and what they are good at doing. We then ask them to do the jobs that most closely match what they have said they would like to do. We have discovered that when you ask someone to do a job they like to do, they will jump in with both feet and with enthusiasm. Interestingly enough, a lot of the moms who have been "volunteered" in this fashion for a year volunteer the next year without being asked.


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## lololong (Oct 12, 2007)

Thank you for your reply and for the words of encouragements. We are pretty much doing the same as you do (ask people their choices/gifts, give free visiting time to all, help working mom's or special need family)
Last year we did operate very well and had very few issues. This year, perhaps because of our number (we are 140) it is not as smooth.
I am talking about the hard cases that really are doing it seems "everything they can" to escape doing their part and care less about rules. 
If I understand correctly, you do have a talk with those people instead of looking the other way. That was basically my question.

Thank you again for your answer.

Lolo


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## JBaldwin (Oct 13, 2007)

Yes, we do have a talk with these people and remind them of their commitment, and as I mentioned, we occasionally ask people to leave.


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