With the vaccine mandates, substandard education, and problems of ethics and morality on school campuses, many parents are choosing to pull their children out of the public school system.

If you are unable to homeschool, my suggestion is to start a small school, as many people are doing now, but establish it on sound principles, which many people are not doing.

Let's look at one of these principles today: hiring an excellent teacher.

This past school year, I had the unfortunate experience of trying to help someone who wanted to establish a small school, but who didn’t know their own limitations. About halfway through the school year, I evaluated the children’s progress much to my dismay. It was obvious that this person lacked basic teaching skills as all of the children were behind and some had even developed bad habits.

Which propelled me to think a little more deeply about what kind of qualifications I would look for before I agreed to work with someone in this capacity again as one thing became clear to me: not everyone was cut out for this kind of work.

What follows should help you separate the wheat from the chaff, so you can feel confident that your children are under the right care if you decide to hire a tutor or put your children into a small school.

11 Qualities to Look for in a Competent Teacher

1. A veteran Homeschooler

If you plan to pay someone to teach in a small school, the first rule would be to find someone who has homeschooled their own children through the sixth grade, ideally without State help. If they have kids in college, that's even better.

2. Lots of General Knowledge

The teacher should have a strong foundation of general knowledge. To give you an example, here is a list of subjects a schoolteacher would have known in the 19th century: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, navigation, french, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, English, belles lettres, logic, philosophy, and other subjects

While it's doubtful you will find anyone today who knows Latin, Greek, and rhetoric (you'll be lucky to find someone who knows Latin), they should have more general knowledge than most people.

3. Loves Working with Children

You must find someone who loves to work with children. Working with children requires a lot of patience, kindness, and understanding. Notice how the teacher interacts with your children. If there isn't a genuine spark of interest in your child, she's probably not the one for your kids.

4. Loves Learning

Find someone who loves learning, not just someone who says they do. A good teacher will be a lifetime student.

5. Loves the Classics

They must love the classics. You don't want someone who professes to "love to read" but only reads modern literature. You want someone who loves the classics and has spent a long time reading the classic authors. I would include all the classic authors, not just those who wrote fiction.

6. Possesses Authority

You want a teacher with authority who knows how to manage children and correct them when their behavior is not up to her standards. A teacher who can't handle a group of children is useless, not to mention prone to label the children with some deficiency rather than acknowledge her own inadequacies.

7. Fun and wisdom

You want a teacher who knows how to make learning fun for kids. The teacher has to have a creative mind and a sense of fun. Age is irrelevant. John Taylor Gatto once told me that anyone under 40 was too young to teach. You want a teacher with some life experience and hopefully a little wisdom.

8. Inspires Learning

You want a teacher who inspires her students to learn and has hope and absolute belief in each child's ability to excel.

9. Standards of Excellence

You want a teacher who has high standards for your children, not public school standards. Ask me if you aren't sure what "high" standards to look for.

10. Problem Solving Skills

You want a teacher with an analytical mind. The reason it's essential to have an analytical mind because a teacher needs to be able to assess where a child is stuck and how to get them unstuck. A teacher who cannot think analytically will be at a loss for what to do and blame the child for being unable to focus and slap him with a label like ADHD or declare him learning disabled.

11. Good Character

Most importantly, you want a teacher with good character who will act as a role model for your children. People can fool us, so it's in the little things they do where you look for signs of the quality of their character.

Whoever you hire, you should monitor them during the first year to make sure they are making the kind of progress with your children that you expect. While it's the teacher's job to make sure that your children are learning what they should know, it's your job to make sure that the teacher is teaching them the things she should be teaching them and doing it with competence.

Don't have low standards for your children but expect to be amazed by the many things they learn in the little school. It should be far more than you ever learned in public school. If not, something is wrong, and an incompetent teacher is often the first place to look.

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

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Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20 years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with her unique combination of mentors, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20 years of experience working in children’s education.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.