CC: verify, then trust

There are over 1200 posts on this little blog of mine, but the one that’s garnered the most attention is my review of Classical Conversations, a homeschool “school” of sorts. Two years after it was first published, I continue to receive emails from other moms who have also had negative interactions with their individual CC group or corporate CC.

Since the post is almost three years old, I thought I should give it another look to make sure it was as even-handed as possible. I also thought I’d see if any of the tutors who caused us heartburn are still working at our local CC.

Good news: my review is not spiteful. Trust me; this is a major accomplishment after what we went through. Other good news: the state CC director has stepped down. I have no idea who took her place, but knowing she is no longer in that position is a good thing.

Bad news: the Lansing CC director who caused us such grief is still there. (I realize there are two Lansing campuses now – to be clear, I am not referring to the one that meets at the Free Methodist Church.) I do not know if Amy’s tutor, the one who was so woefully unqualified, is still there. I certainly hope not, but wouldn’t be surprised if she is, considering how all the cries to local, state and national CC leaders fell on deaf ears.

Some may wonder why I’m bringing this up. It’s been several years – shouldn’t I just let it go? I would absolutely drop the subject, except I keep getting emails from other parents harmed by CC. It’s important for those parents to know they aren’t alone. Trust me: when you complain about CC in the CC community, you are treated like you have leprosy. I want others who have been hurt by CC to know they are not the only ones.

And more importantly, I want to implore those looking at CC to really, really LOOK at CC. Interview the campus director as well as the teacher/director. Open up the Latin book and make sure the teacher can actually pronounce the words. See if he/she can explain anything from the logic book. Ask questions. Verify, then trust.

To those having a successful time with CC I say good for you. I have two dear friends who are enjoying their year with CC; I am very happy for them. The beauty of homeschooling is finding what works for your family and doing it. If you explore the concept and materials of CC (they have some of the best books on the market) and decide CC is for you, I simply wish to let you know that finding a well-qualified tutor is not as easy as CC makes it seem. Do your homework before asking your kids to do theirs.



Here's a link to my original post: To CC or not to CC You can read a post I wrote in the heat of the moment here. 

To CC or not to CC

You can read a more current CC review here. I hope you find these posts helpful as you explore the right avenues for your homeschooling adventure.
-Christy
December 4, 2013

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We’re well into March, and all home schooling moms know what that means: time to think about next year.  It matters not that we have three months left in this school year; inevitably, thoughts, dreams, plans for 2011 – 2012 will begin rolling around in lots of home schooling moms’ minds.

In my eight years as a home school mom I’ve tried a lot of different curricula, co-ops, tutors and one day a week “schools” that cater to the home school family.  Some have been great successes; others, not so much.  And while I would never dare say what worked for us will work for another family, in the next few weeks I would like to make a few suggestions for my homeschooling friends.

Today, I’ll start with one that didn’t work: Classical Conversations.  I’ve made myself wait a year before writing this; if I’d written last year it wouldn’t have been a helpful review.  Thankfully, my 40 years have taught me that sometimes it’s best to sleep on what you’ve written; I slept lots on this one, and feel enough time has passed that I can write an honest, mostly-unemotional review.

First, the good: CC’s materials are excellent.  You cannot go wrong with the majority of their books, and the history cards are excellent for the younger set.

The bad: It’s a lot of rote memorization in the early years, K – 6.  That’s not inherently wrong, but after paying what you’re going to pay, I expected some integration with other materials. Yes, someone’s going to say CC offers lots of books that go along with whatever cycle you’re on. True. But I expected the tutor (who is paid) to select some appropriate materials for the entire class to read and discuss together. This did not happen because CC only focuses on the memorization at this stage.

The ugly: Classical Conversations likes to claim it has “trained tutors,” but this is simply not true.  I guess technically, it is, because each tutor attends a three day training seminar. But three days to understand the high-level math, science and literature is simply not enough time. Oh, and did I mention that each tutor also teaches Latin and logic? Three days would hardly be enough for one of those subjects, let alone all of them. We were fortunate with Michael’s tutor; he was, indeed, excellent, but he would have been excellent without the three day training. Amy’s “tutor” was a disaster.

Amy’s tutor did not understand the logic program or the Latin pronunciations. She also failed to bring her materials to class not once, but three times in a row.  I thought Amy was exaggerating until I sat in the class with her. If anything, Amy soft-pedaled the situation. The woman was hardly fit to teach her own child, much less anyone else’s.

And this is where CC gets sticky: each tutor in grades 7 – 12 is her own “director.” If you have a problem with her, your only recourse is the state CC director. And our state director was completely unmoved by the pleas of the parents in Amy’s class until someone threatened to sue to get her money back. Then, and only then, did we get some action from her.

I won’t go in to the gory details of what happened to us last year, but suffice it to say the Michigan Classical Conversations State Director was more concerned with money than helping homeschool families. Y’all, I am a capitalist and want people to make money. But we’re talking about a Christian homeschool association – I thought, when presented with the fact that she installed an incompetent tutor, she would be concerned for the students. Trust me when I say she was not. And trust me when I say the on-site Lansing CC director (who is still there) cared more about rules than helping students, even when CC didn’t do what it said it would, which is provide a trained tutor.

I realize this is a specific situation and cannot be extrapolated to the whole of CC. But I hope our misadventure will encourage anyone who’s investigating CC to proceed with caution. Carefully interview the tutor. Ask her to actually pronounce a few Latin words. See if he really understands the basics of the logic material. And interview the campus director in addition to the tutor; she is the one who sets the tone for the group. You don’t want one with a stick up her butt. Trust me on this one.

It’s your money, and CC requires quite a bit of it; spend it wisely! Goodness knows if I’d taken these steps instead of trusting the organization to give us what they said they would, we could have avoided an unfortunate year of our homeschool adventure.

You can read a post I wrote in the heat of the moment here. And if you’d like further information on our experience, feel free to shoot me an email.