Why CC is on probation for our family

***UPDATED 8/24/17***
I guess I never came back here to post that we started our own classical community, Bridges. It’s been so freeing. I posted 5 Steps to Starting a Classical Community a while back, too.

************************

***UPDATED 7/11/15***
Despite promises to create a working situation for Director, who was grossly, mistreated, our Regional Manager did not come through for us. Our family is no longer going to provide support to CC through the enrollment of our children as long as our Support Manager and Area Manager remain in their positions taking no responsibility for the destruction of our community. For those looking for a comparable education for your children, I recommend exploring the memory work bodies by Claritas Academy or Catholic Schoolhouse.
*********************

When we decided to homeschool 5 years ago, we knew we wanted our kids to continue the classical education they had started in private school. A quick internet search showed that Classical Conversations (CC) was one of the only organized, national, homeschool organizations promoting classical education at home. As a bonus, it was an all-in-one curriculum base AND community AND there was one starting 20 minutes from our home that fall. After attending an information meeting, I was “in.”

Our first year started a little rocky due to poor leadership, but we chalked it up to the fact that most of us were newbies to CC and we just needed to find our stride. We ended up switching to a new community our second year which ended up feeling like home.

The next three years were a HUGE blessing. Our kids made friends. I made friends. I told everyone we knew to join. Many did. I was able to be a substitute Foundations tutor and tutor two years of Essentials. The more I learned about the theory behind CC’s curriculum, the more excited I became about my kids’ education. I also felt empowered to stick with homeschooling all the way through because CC has laid out such a comprehensive plan. CC was also a great fit for our non-typical kiddos. We have one who is just globally delayed and three who came to us as adolescents who had minimal education and little English.

Then events this spring revealed what I consider weaknesses in the organizational structure of CC leadership. Unfortunately, these weaknesses hurt many families and caused extreme amounts of stress and unrest. While I still think CC is probably the best classical curriculum out there for homeschoolers, there are organizational philosophies with which I disagree. I wish I had known to be cautious about these things before I jumped in wholeheartedly and brought dozens of families with me.

In the name of community, we’re letting our Foundations/Essentials kids go back as participants next year. I am no longer a contracted tutor and stopped the process of becoming a Challenge Director. I am praying for organizational change over the next year so we feel comfortable jumping back in with two feet.

Below I’m going to enumerate the concerns that I have already expressed to our Regional Manager. If you agree with me, I urge you to contact your Regional Manager (listed at the end) and have your voice be heard. If you are considering CC for your family, I don’t want to discourage you, but I want you to go in with your eyes more open than ours were when we started our journey.

  1. Individuals put in leadership positions should be able to demonstrate previous CC and leadership experience OR the leadership training initiatives need to be more comprehensive and intense. All of the conflict we’ve encountered in CC thus far can come back to this principle. CC currently believes that anyone can be a Tutor, Director, or Manager. No experience in classical education, homeschooling, leadership necessary. They claim that their 3-day summer practicums are enough training plus a one-day business training for directors. While I appreciate their philosophy to empower parents and value simplicity (the famous “stick and sand” approach), they are not providing enough training to put such inexperienced individuals in leadership when families lives and children’s education is at stake. Additionally Directors and Managers should be able to show competency in managing and schooling their family well before ever being allowed to take time to step into a CC leadership role.
  2. CC needs to decide to be a ministry OR business and stick with it. They’re a ministry when, in the name of discipleship, they want to keep unqualified people in leadership who have made grievous errors, but a business when they want to make more money or lord control over what families do. They’re a ministry when they claim they want to foster relationship and community with their materials but a business when they insist every child has to be a paying participant in one of their programs. I’ve consistently watched them identify with ministry or business as it suits them and as it’s convenient for them. An organization really needs to put priority over one or the other because you cannot put the needs of people first and still make the maximum amount of profit.
  3. CC corporate needs to be accessible. It is almost impossible to find out who to talk to if you have a concern that your Director cannot address. You have to rely on that person pointing you upward. However, if you have a conflict with that person, you could have a really hard time getting her Manager’s name and contact information. Additionally, concerns funneled up the chain of command do not have the same gravity as when each family who has the same concern can have their voice heard. If corporate hears from one regional manager (who represents dozens of families) about a concern, it’s not always felt the same way as if all of those families were able to voice their concern individually.
  4. They need to rethink their contracts. Why anyone would consent to a contract where CC has the power to end it at any time without any notice without any reason, but the Director must give 6 weeks’ notice is beyond me. They should also give Directors the ability to adjust minor policies to fit the needs of her community. There are so many considerations to take into account when dealing with families and so many cultural aspects across our country that differ from region to region. CC should stop trying to control every blessed detail and minute of every community.
  5. Foster more community among Directors and Managers. Because everyone is paid on commission, I’ve seen too many decisions made on commission rather than on what’s best. I am part of a secular network marketing team where we all get paid on commission but you’d never know it. Everyone works together as a team and puts other people above themselves because that’s where the bar has been set by our leadership. In CC, where everyone is supposed to be “knowing God and making Him known,” I, instead, see women making decisions based on the bottom line.

If you agree with the above concerns, or have concerns of your own about how CC is structured or run, please make your voice heard so that together we can make CC a better place for our families.

Region Name Email
Northwest Sarah Hirengen SHirengen@ClassicalConversations.com
Southern Pacific Amanda Kleist AKleist@ClassicalConversations.com
Rocky Mountain Heidi Truitt HTruitt@ClassicalConversations.com
Texas Randie Ward RWard@ClassicalConversations.com
Great Lakes Kirsten Ekberg KEkberg@ClassicalConversations.com
Midwest Shana Baker SBaker@ClassicalConversations.com
Lake Eerie Tiffany Redwine TRedwine@ClassicalConversations.com
Northeast Eva Zaldumbide EZaldumbide@ClassicalConversations.com
Eastern Mid-Atlantic Cheryl Reynolds CReynolds@ClassicalConversations.com
Mississippi Valley Tanya Newman TNewman@ClassicalConversations.com
Mid-Atlantic Sandy Vollmer SVollmer@ClassicalConversations.com
Southeast Julie Melendez JMelendez@ClassicalConversations.com
Gulf Lynn Doto LDoto@ClassicalConversations.com
Posted in Education and Homeschooling, Uncategorized and tagged .

134 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience. I thought I was the only one experiencing this craziness. I too have had all of the above mentioned problems. It’s sad that there is no one in corporate who really cares. My AR & SR have little to no idea of how to handle the “ Matthew 18 Model”…
    Now I’m being blacklisted by the brand new AR for something that was spread by gossip and never handled in a Christ like manner, and not by the Matt 18 model.
    Yes, I have seen the double standards, the pride and control. It’s not a ministry by any means. Such a shame. I will not be returning as a director because I cannot support an organization like this.

  2. I’m not in cc but have looked at it when some friends asked me to join. I am a classical homeschool mom and have been for 18 years. Yes, classical education can be done, quite well, without cc. I know many who have succeeded at it long before cc was a thing.

    One big issue I after reading this is the use of the word “ministry.” It
    Sounds like a word used to manipulate well-meaning moms who want to feel they are doing a work for the Lord. It also sounds like a word used at the corporate level to coerce moms into giving away a ton of their time for little pay. This is a business. Is Cc one avenue for educating your child? Yes. Is CC a ministry? No.

  3. This post was written so long ago, but I’m writing on it because I don’t feel like I can share it anywhere else. I’m on the fb tutor page, but how can you post real things on there for encouragement, when the director of your community reads it? I’ve been in 2 communities and absolutely loved our first one. This year I decided to tutor, because I actually like teaching and we recently moved here, so I needed a money break on top of it. My class is a broad range group, ranging from 7 to 11ish. My son is in the class and the directors kids are also in there. I never have parent support and the kids are out of control. I was half way through the first semester when I learned that one of the students has a defiant disorder. I knew something was wrong, but I was pulling my teeth trying to figure out what the problem actually was. These kids never sit still, they complain about everything, and it is a constant battle of wills. I’m ready to pull my kids and put them in public school at this rate. I haven’t even paid for the whole year and I don’t want to. I’d be happy to not see these people again.

    • CC has become almost ‘Cult Like’ … a ‘money changer’ cult.
      They may be Christian, but they’re really a multi-level marketing scheme.
      The bottom line is you are there to feed their bottom line.
      Try deviating from their program even a little bit.
      Try questioning their authority over your community.
      … you’ll see what I mean.

  4. Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was
    extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.

    I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still
    new to the whole thing. Do you have any recommendations
    for inexperienced blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.

  5. hi again,
    I would love your help. I tried to contact you through the other channel so I apologize if this is duplicate.

    we are in CA. NoCal. Would you happen to know the email for regional support at the state level for NorCal?

    I have reason to be very concerned—I was told a series of soft lies? I was told that F and E were required for Challenge, and that my child was not qualified even though he’s been doing F for three years—I was told that the big picture of my family never doing E, renders my son unqualified.

    The problem is—last year they asked me, for number’s sake—if as his mom, I would be OK with him doing Challenge a year early. I said yes, because we agreed three years of Latin since fourth grade etc., that it was a reasonable thing to try.

    I guess they didn’t get approval and changed their tune from, can you let him do Challenge so we can have a class—to, no you can’t, because your children don’t do Essentials.

    When I pointed this out (that public school kids enter CC for the first time at Challenge all the time), the soft lies continued. I was told we were valued etc but they kept the narrative that we were unprepared. I believe this was to coerce me into tutoring.

    In any case…if you know who I can speak to above the SR, AR—that would be helpful. Or even WHO the AR is? They won’t tell me:)

    I also didn’t realize they have a policy to avoid emails–to always talk in person. Which I understand….but the problem is, they don’t answer questions directly i.e. where is the policy for prerequisites? And, there is no paper trail.

    I just won a large settlement on behalf of my special needs child with our public school district–because I kept a clean and concise file of emails that established my case.

    With CC–there is literally no attempt to answer emails—veiled in the idea it’s best to speak in person. Me, little mom, not an employee–in a room with 3 managers? no thank you.

    Please let me know if you can help me with these email addresses, any of them:) thank you!

    • I am so sorry you heard this false information! Foundations and Essentials by no means is required to particpate in Challenge. However I may add that it is extremely helpful. Becuase of the way CC is set up everything is built like blocks upon each other. It is much easier to start at the bottom and work your way up! I would suggest finding anothet community! Hope that helped!

    • Essentials is not a requirement for going into challenge !! In fact it really doesn’t even tie into the challenge model. They do a totally different writing program in challenge . As a challenge parent I am honestly not seeing the “building blocks”happening. Even the Latin is different Challenge from what we learn in foundations. I do love our community though !!! The writing program in challenge I’m not a fan of, I would rather stick to IEW .

      • The essentials class in Foundations becomes critical as they move into, and up through Challenge. The Latin curriculum is quite intricate, and as a challenge director/tutor, (going into my 3rd year) I can say without hesitation that essentials plays directly into the grammar (Latin) strand of challenge.

        The understanding of our own English language exponentially grows through the years of Latin studies, and the students in my classes have, without a doubt, gotten their grammar “feet” under them earlier, and with more surety than the students who did not have formal language (or essentials) classes prior to challenge.

        Also-
        IEW is beautiful! And I understand your sentiments there 🙂 the LTW by Circe Institute used in Challenge pairs nicely with multiple strands. ~The debate (for persuasive writing/comparison/eloquence) the Logic (for effectively communicating logical reasoning) The literature (for analyzing and writing about the works they are reading) and much more!

        Personally, I now understand why the switch from IEW to LTW: IEW provides critical skills, such as key word outlines, training in NOT plagiarizing others works, finding sources, gathering information, writing beautifully expressed presentations on the information/topics. (All of which get carried in their entirety into challenge)

        Then- in challenge (with the “beautiful writing” understood to the students) they move to LTW- LTW is ALL about STRUCTURES- it gives them the opportunity to strip down everything to the bare bones and build from there. They are repeatedly brought through how to STRUCTURE a paper. As it moves forward, more formal/beautiful styles of writing are encouraged to be brought back in. They blend the logic and critical thinking skills into the LTW, and it can be rough the first year! By Challenge 1, it all comes into much clearer focus.

        By the time they have completed the IEW AND the LTW- the Challenge students can beautifully, articulately, and effectively communicate whatever they are trying to communicate.

        • Barbara explained how ditch level builds upon one another. As a challenge parent I can say that Essentials mix challenge Latin a thousand times easier and totally understandable. I honestly don’t know how anyone can handle the Latin without a salad Foundation of English grammar such as what is given in Essentials. It was difficult at first but I am now so so thankful and so much more knowledgeable than anything I received as a student years ago. And you explain so well how i e w gives Mini tools that will be used through college. The Lost tools of writing is a different style but you are expected to use those ITW tools also. They are like layers that you are adding together which make a beautiful outcome when combined. Thank you for sharing so beautiful thing. I agree that there may be business model problems and also each Community is unique because we as human beings are unique handsome fella. Some of the problems that are described above are not necessarily CC problems but human send problems. I think we get into a lot of problems when we try to make a parachurch Ministry fulfilling Church obligations that are given by God specifically to the church. This is an educational group that is Christian and classical. It was never meant to be anything beyond that. Following Matthew 18 with conflicts should lead to resolution or a person to be able to leave without spreading ill-will or lacking forgiveness. Hopefully those who had a problem with CC can find some homeschoolers in their area to befriend.. the curriculum CC offers is excellent though and I would disagree with anyone who says otherwise. If you don’t find a good CC community near you I would suggest looking into a Veritas pres. It seems CeCe got their start with their materials and also created materials based upon Veritas. I would suggest at least getting the Veritas catalog because they have a lot of good book suggestions. Then I would compare curriculum with CC and pick what’s best for your family.

    • Essentials is not necessary… A solid grammar background is. Let me explain. Essentials is one form of solid English grammar…. My son started Challenge B, never did Essentials. BUT, I had homeschooled him (I’m a former MS English teacher)… I was thorough with his grammar – we did diagramming… parsing, etc…. He thrived in Latin… and never did Essentials… He didn’t even start CC until Ch. B…. All was good. The kids just need a solid grammar background…. If you don’t do Essentials, I highly recommend Warner’s English Grammar….. But I do appreciate IEW…….

    • Hi, Jen. You may have heard back already but I believe your regional “representative” is Sarah Hirengen. She’s listed above in Melissa’s list for “Northwest”.

      Good luck getting a response and please keep us updated. I’ve had my own woes and I try to keep up with the way CC higher ups handle issues. For me, they just threatened to sue me in an official threat letter from their lawyers. Yikes. It seemed to me and my legal counsel that it was a bunch of intimidation with no substance, but what a way for a “Christian” corporation to respond!

      I hope you get some answers.

  6. I am shocked and saddened to find this thread on a google search. This fall would have been my fourth year with CC. I thought i had been mercifully spared of this type of CC drama and immaturity–and the infamous “ministry vs business”—but last week I fell prey, completely out of left field,

    I was told, in these words, “we have considered the big picture of your family, and your kids don’t do essentials, and this is a parent run program, where there is no parent, there is no program”. Without going into details, my director essentially told me that she had weighed our family’s perceived commitment to CC (I don’t tutor, will never, have always felt pressure, but I work 36 hours a week outside the home at night), and that because of the apparent CC-lite that we demonstrate, that she could not accept my son, whose birthday is 10 days from the guideline, into Challenge B. Even though, as primary educator, I am confident with four years of Latin, grammar and writing, and math–he is more than appropriately prepared for B–this community was more willing to passively punish me for not tutoring Ch. A, than it was to allow me to stay with my entire family on our home campus.

    The devil is in the details. I expect this from public schools first hand, as we just won a large settlement when advocating for FAPE and policy. I did not expect this from a homeschool model. I was truly heartbroken to hear my friend and director, be forced to speak from her corporate voice. I am utterly confused and human. We wont’ be returning–because it is clear we were not worthy.

    • I’m so sorry this happened to you Jen. Unfortunately, as you can read, you are not alone!

  7. I’ve been home educating my children for well over a decade. I decided to join a CC community when I needed to try something a little different. We left after two years and decided to use our books at home with another family who was also leaving. The end result of that was the director took unfounded rumors and talked to the other tutors to find out what I was doing. She cornered me at church one day and told me I had betrayed her and what I was doing was illegal. I told her it said at the front of the book we could use our purchased curriculum at home as long as everyone had their own copy. She had been led to believe a tutor was going to teach at my home. The was completely untrue and she refused to believe I was telling her the truth. We met with her and her pastor husband the next day and they both continued to insist what I was doing was illegal and that a tutor was teaching at my home. She said she had talked to an area manager who was backing her up. I talked to the area manager who said it was not illegal for me to use my purchased curriculum at home with friends and gave me tips to make sure I would not do anything illegal. The director’s untrue claims about me led to us leaving her church, who wants to attend a church where the pastor believes you are doing something illegal? CC allows a director like this to make false claims against a family with no consequences. This director’s inaccurate assumptions and refusal to believe that she was wrong has been the worst home educating experience I’ve ever had.

    • CC does not allow that. I am afraid you were at a poorly run campus clearly lacking professionalism and Christ’s love and forbearance.

      • So what is the consequence for this poorly run campus? CC involves itself seemingly in everything, but something they probably should be involved in addressing! Or is this where the “Directors are running their own businesses” comes in handy .”

  8. Dear Melissa, I just stumbled across this today. As sad as i was to read your story, I was also comforted to know I’m not alone.

    I’ve been part of CC for 6 years and a Foundations/Essentials director for 5 years. Next fall, both my girls will be up in Challenge and they want me to direct either A or 1. I’ve poured my heart and soul into directing and I’m very passionate about CC and in particular the Challenge program. I love our community and it’s become like family to us.

    However, I’m becoming very disillusioned because I’ve dealt with some of the worst management I’ve ever seen! I had a career in management and won several leadership awards which I don’t say to brag, but only to say that I do know something about managing people and I really care about people!

    For the first two years I directed – the Support Manager role didn’t exist and I was virtually on my own, figuring the job out by myself. As soon as they put that role in place – my nightmares began. Women were hired who had never been directors and had no idea what it took to do so. They made terrible decisions, mishandled situation after situation, caused huge problems with people and then would leave me to clean up the mess. I went through so much pain and heartache and when I finally tried to speak to people higher up in the organization, I got no support at all.

    I have become very disillusioned! I love CC and the curriculum has been fantastic for my children and for me. But I don’t know if I can continue to work under women who bulldoze over people, won’t listen and manage people in a way that hurts, belittles or alienates them.

    If it weren’t for the wonderful families in our community who are like family to me – I would probably have left long ago. Our newest “SR” and the Area Manager are telling me that I’ve built a community that is too loyal to each other and to me. I’m told that they want to break apart my community and force them to start other communities because we have too many families on waiting lists in our area. I’ve groomed five women who want to be directors, one who is taking over for me in the fall because both my girls will be up in Challenge, and four more who are willing to start new communities but just want one more year of tutoring under their belts. Yet, I’m told that I need to force someone to direct in the fall.

    I feel like directing is a huge undertaking and we can’t force someone into it. I believe God has and will raise up leaders but in HIS timing – not ours. I’ve seen Him do it time and again! He is always faithful and He knows far better than us. If they will be patient, we could have as many as 2-3 new communities the fall after next. But they are harassing people and trying to force them to do it when they aren’t ready. And they are criticizing me telling me that my community is long overdue to “birth” another community and they need to “step out of their comfort zone.”

    As directors – we work so hard to cultivate fellowship, support, unity and friendship. But we are supposed to say – “Don’t get too attached to each other. I’ll have split you apart in a couple of years so you can go start a new community.” It’s crazy! These people are like a family now – and that is not easy to cultivate these days. The moms and their kids have built super close friendships. I’m supposed to pull them apart? We are also prayerfully working hard to grow and build our Challenge programs. If a huge chunk of people leave – that will be a blow to Challenge as well.

    God has been so gracious and has been present every step of the way. Our community is loving, gracious, supportive and healthy! I don’t want to see them force a split. I understand the need for new communities and I personally have gone out and found 3-4 other churches willing to host a new location. We just don’t have directors that feel quite ready to take that on. And I don’t blame them. They just need some time.

    In addition – the new SR is bulldozing over me and telling me that some of my tutors are “cocky” and “entitled” when nothing could be further from the truth. This team of women are so amazing and they give and serve each other like you wouldn’t believe. It’s like this new gal is trying merely to flex her muscle and control something that doesn’t need to be controlled. She started talking about forcing people out and intentionally shrinking our community down because the group is “too comfortable.” What?? And I’m being criticized for fostering healthy fellowship, close friendship and loyalty? Isn’t that what we want?? I’m always told our community is super friendly, warm, welcoming, not cliquish – etc. Isn’t that a good thing? We love each other and we love CC!

    Anyway – I’m so sad and frustrated to see a trend of hiring women who have no experience managing others and no experience directing who come in and start trying to control the directors who know what they are doing! I thought a Support Representative was supposed to be SUPPORTIVE? Not controlling!!!

    I am so concerned about the reports of terrible management I’m hearing from fellow directors around the country. I think CC might be growing too fast and they are not being discriminating enough about who they hire. And they are not managing situations that arise very well. I’m not sure if we’ll stay with it. We love it, but I don’t know if I can work for people who are competitive, insecure and controlling rather than humble leaders who are there to help and support.

    Thank you for sharing your story. I’m so sorry for what you’ve gone through. You are helping others like me by letting us know we aren’t alone! May the Lord bless you and guide your steps, and may He work in CC to help it be as wonderful as I believe it can be!!!

    • I was with four different CC groups because we move a lot with my husband’s position. My daughter loved being with other kids. She did well and was able to do Memory Master. I tried to stay out of all the gossip, control issues and competition I saw in each group. In one group, some moms were even crying over their child not achieving Memory Master( the kids were fine! No tears. ) and the proofers were talking behind one of the mom’s back. I said they should speak directly to her. They simply ignored me.. It was pretty sad. At one group, my child was bullied by the director’s daughter. She was a new director and told me her previous director said her daughter cheated on the final proof of memory master. She then proceeded to tell me that she does not believe her child does anything wrong!! That was scary to hear. When we tried to talk about what was going on, it was beyond ridiculous . It got so bad, we left the group. The girl was constantly bullying my daughter. The other kids saw it and tried to help her. My daughter was so hurt, we finely left the groups. The regional director tried to help, but she spoke of forgiveness and made them say they forgave each other. The other girl sneered at me and my daughter after when no one was looking. We finally left peacefully, lost a lot of money, and yet the next time this director saw us, she glared at my daughter, would not look at us and her daughter did the same. I cannot even explain how insane it felt to see this behavior exhibited. To know God and make Him known is not something I have seen with CC. Some of the ciricullum is good but it is not the only one. Once a lady was sharing with me different sources she uses. I told her I like to get the teacher’s Manuel’s as a reference. One of the tutors piped in and told me if I needed them, I should not be homeschooling. I now have my child in school. Her average is 100. Or close to in most every subject. I think I did okay, And, she has some really sweet friends. Well, for all it is worth, that was our experience.

      • Janie,
        What a heartbreaking experience to have to go through! Unfortunately, Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven, but you’d certainly hope there would be more humble hearts at a CC community. Hugs!

    • Melissa and Brenda, our community is having similar issues. If either of you would be willing to advise on what channels and methods worked or didn’t work. If this is such a broad issue, hopefully if we can get corporate to listen if enough of us are contacting them. However the link for the email in this post, is not active anymore. I really cannot contact anyone in the chain of command, because one I have already and they are part of the problem and the next one in line has stepped down and the AR doesn’t even know who to contact next, which is crazy to me!

      • Honestly, my best advice? Walk away and start your own community. The time I tried to work with corporate turned out to be many wasted hours.

  9. I know it’s been a while, but did Colleen ever hear back from the IRS? I’m curious to know how that turned out, I’ve been tutoring just shy of a year now and our director is running into the legal hurdles with the employee vs independent contractor debacle.

  10. I’m currently looking into becoming a director as the closest open community day is 30 minutes away, but I had a conversation with my support representative that gave me pause. First of all, she just left me a phone message where she explained that I couldn’t pursue a church location to host until I was contracted. I understand that I can’t represent CC until I am officially hired, but it’s nonsense to pay $100 to apply for a job that I might not be able to accept! I need to know what I’m getting into, so I can weigh all the variables, and see if it might pay off in the long run. I am very comfortable in leadership positions, and my oldest is still young, so if we establish a solid community, it might pay off, but I need to know the game being played. If there’s a private Facebook group where people can talk freely, please reply so I can maybe be added? And I’ll be reading all of the comments today. Thanks for voicing your concerns for us to hear.

    • M,
      There is not a current FB group, but I can tell you that I get a couple emails/phone calls a month from folks who have read this post and feel led to share their negative experience with CC with me. Most have to do with inflexibility and mismanagement. If you are a strong leader, I would suggest starting your own classical community. I wrote a post about how we did it at http://www.thecorkums.com/2015/09/21/5-steps-to-starting-a-classical-learning-community/. Most strong leaders I’ve chatted with find that starting a new community is a much better fit for them.

    • There is now a closed Facebook group that is uncensored, but CC corporate and managers are slipping in to try to police currently contracted directors/ tutors. Let Us Reason For Real. You can also request to be in the group I will add into a second comment. It is not open to people in CC at the SR level and above and it is for a more safe and moderated space for those who have been abused by CC or who truly need answers or who are concerned about their up line stalking their participation in a group that doesn’t sing the praises of CC Corp.

      • Has anyone thought about filing a class action law suit? I tutored for 4 years and today, after already attended a 7 hour training day and signing a contract, was told to take a year off for ‘rest and rejuvenation’ because I questioned why I was mandated to attend a 3 day practicum as a volunteer. I would have to take time off of an actual paid job to not be paid to attend a mandatory 3 day practicum. This is a for-profit that likes to pretend it is not for profit. It takes advantage of the tutors by acting like they are volunteers.

  11. All I can say is your post just summed up this present year (2016-2017) for me at our location. Unqualified Challenge A tutor, upper level management trying to blame the parents for not walking along side their incompetent hire. Quoting scripture but yet unwilling to actually follow it themselves. What a horrible experience and process. I was a lifer thru Challenge IV before this debacle. I put in 7 years to end up here. How frustrating and what a waste of time and money.

    • Jeannetta, I’m so sorry for your experience. Unfortunately, it seems CC is great…until it’s not. You’re definitely not alone.

  12. *Following all*
    We are a third year military family and although I love the idea of CC and the “Utopia” of it…I wonder how it will flesh out. For example, “community” is a major selling point and a top descriptor/differentiator of the company as promoted by CC itself. However, just a quick internet search of the most likely locations we will land in our next assignment or two revealed a distressingly small number (if any at all) of campuses with a full or semi-full suite of Challenge programs. How can you promote your business on community yet ‘where you are headed’ as a student can very easily and quickly leave you with no community. Watching the business model as best I can (it’s hard when you’re not a contracted tutor at higher levels) I am trying to make a best guess as to whether this will be resolved or not. Also beginning to question the role of military families within CC and whether CC is lazily enjoying the fruit of a company with our (military families’) ‘easy loyalty.’ Am giving the benefit of the doubt but already seeing some things that make me wonder.

  13. Sounds like we had a similar experience. I was involved with CC for over seven years. I served as a tutor for Foundations, essentials and as a director. During my time as director, I saw how fragile the hierarchy of CC is and when problems arise how little they do. I also saw that a director could essentially swindle unsuspecting families out of a lot of money to them and there would be little recourse. I still love CC but have found joy in homeschooling in a slightly different vein. Still classical but not so neo classical as CC has made it. I was encouraged to read this as I thought I was the only one to have this experience. Thank you for sharing!

  14. For those disenchanted with CC, consider starting your own co-op (creating a different name of course), still using the CC material, but tweaking it as desired. Go more in depth if you’d like, or veer from the exact model that is required in CC. Meet in a public library or community center where you open it to the community and it can be a real ministry (to the staff as well as patrons), and you wouldn’t need to charge a facility fee. As long as you have mothers willing to tutor and someone willing to direct (both on a volunteer basis), you wouldn’t even need to charge tuition…just accept a semester donation for supplies.
    I suggest this because it is something I have done and am doing. It works! Our community is a beautiful, diverse group of ex-CCers, as well as new homeschoolers never having experienced a formal CC group. We can truly say that we are knowing God and making Him known in an under-served community that is unable to afford an official CC group tuition and facility fee. We have families from other religions as well as non-religious families that love the harmony in our group, the classical approach to education, and the fact that they do not need to empty their pockets in order to attend, so much so that they are open to a Christ-centric curriculum and group.
    Just some thoughts to consider… 🙂
    Thank you, Melissa, for your honesty and bravery!

  15. THank you all for sharing. I came to this site hoping to find an answer to my question about switching campuses after already starting at one. This is my sons 2nd yr in CC {and homeschooling). He is in Challenge B this yr. His tutor from last yr had to move to a different community. We both loved her and her son. This yr has been ok but my son is not excited about going anymore. We visited the other campus today for the whole day and he wants to switch. I talked to the director there, and the tutor from last year, and they both seem very worried about hurting others feelings from our present campus. They don’t want anyone to think they are ‘stealing’ my son from them. What IS that? Do I really have to tiptoe thru the tulips just to change campuses? Also, what is the policy about what I’ve already paid? Will the registration fee transfer? Will I have to pay the facility again? I haven’t even paid for the whole 1st semester- Will I have to pay that off at the present campus and then pay it again at the new one?
    Why ARE the different communities seemingly not in community with one another? I’ve been leaning more towards unschooling but really love the ‘community’ my son and I get with CC. I’d be willing to pay for just that and not worry so much about whether or not my son did his Latin homework. So all the nervousness I’m sensing about making this switch is well, making me really nervous. Can anyone answer my questions on these issues?

    • Lisa,
      Each Director is basically their own small business. As far as I know, they are not legally required to help you switch. In my opinion, they should because it’s the Christian, ethical thing to do. Best wishes!

  16. We are in our 4th year of CC and in my second year as an SM. While I agree your concerns have some valid points, I must point out that at least on the SM level, we are NOT in it for the money. In a year’s time of working some weeks 40+ hours a week for about half the year and 5+ hours the other half, I have made just over $325 total. I am partially doing it as a ministry, but the bottom line is to help pay my own children’s tuition in CC. Obviously, this won’t happen. The amount paid for our children to attend a CC community is expensive, but I have seen the break down of the funds. A director can make some money and it be worthwhile, but it is not necessarily much more than minimum wage by the time they do their training, Info Meetings, Mock Days, Programs, prep for community days, shopping for supplies and possibly even tutoring that day. I think they deserve that money. The tutors are also paid from the tuition, and after being a tutor, again, I would say that money is very deserved after training for the 3 full days and paying for a hotel, groceries and gas to go to it. Then an average of 8 hours outside of CC day to prep for class, then the time spent tutoring the class. Above the community, there is very little money. The only money that goes out of the community is the registration money. That is divided between the SM, AM, RM and ND. Each has a percentage. Depending on the amount of communities, and students enrolled will depend on what you make. But the work is still the same. If you have less students/communities you spend way more time traveling and holding Info Meetings. If you have more you spend more time visiting communities, emailing and phoning families to help. All in all, I absolutely think the training at the SM level has been amazing!!! We had to attend a full week of training and then a 3 day. After that, we have to do 16 two hour trainings online to receive our pay. They are always started with prayer and everything is always pointed back to teaching and resolving things in a way that is pleasing to God. I feel I have grown spiritually by being in this leadership position. So in the end, the decision on whether I would continue as an SM this year was based on that fact instead of the pay I received.
    Does CC need to revamp their leadership structure? Absolutely. I have a fabulous AM and RM and have had conversations with both many times. But the pay is ridiculous. It would help the leadership would stay longer if they were compensated better. All in all, I am thankful to be a part of this homeschooling endeavor.

    • Corporate level is where the money is. How they get us to work for pennies on the dollar for so corporate can line their pockets borders on spiritual abuse. Although, scripture and serving the Lord making Him known is surely quoted a lot. To try to control speech and the sharing of our opinions and experiences and to ask someone to cease and desist, speaks volumes of their fear. Rest assured, they are reading this blog.

  17. Wow Melissa! I am so sorry to hear you went through some tough things. Last year was our first with CC, I was a tutor and will be one again next year and well as the sub for Essentials. I was incredibly blessed with our year and was truly thanking God for the community. We had no issues or drama of any kind. My experience was exceptional I believe, and I attribute that to the many prayers that went up on our communities behalf. Our director is such a wonderfully sweet woman who is servant-hearted and seeks Christ first. Again, I believe that also made a huge difference in our community experience.

    I certainly don’t believe that CC is perfect and I completely agree that they need to make their mind about ministry vs business. But as far as my families experience and time last year, it was nothing short of perfectly sweet and amazing! I pray that others families have that same experience as well.

    • Ashley, We had 4 fabulous years with CC that were everything you described until a support manager (who is over most of the communities in our area) grossly mis managed our community causing the ENTIRE community of more than 50 children to fold. The Regional Manager agreed we were mis-managed and even called it “sinful” but refuses to do anything about it. We were blindsided this spring and are now all scrambling for a plan B for next year. Our Director is amazing as well. The issues are with our Support and Area Manager.

  18. This is very interesting to me. I’m in Maryland and a ton of my hsing friends use CC and are trying everyday to get me to use it as well.
    I had considered it but my local CC will cost me nearly $700 for one child in Foundations. I had thought of doing the model at home but not convinced about that either. Thanks for sharing!

    • Lisa,
      You should consider the model. It’s a great way to educate kids. It’s even better in community, but the actions of our managers in this area have made it impossible for us to continue in a community.

  19. It was good to read your post and the comments below. We now have a couple of years under our belt with CC and I am also a tutor. I as well have some problems with how things are being handled.
    I tell my husband that the guidelines seem like a moving target. Each year what was told to me by our Director seems to change (according to what works best for the Director).
    I really struggle with the arrogance of the program. I don’t know one Mom who does not prayerfully consider their child’s education whether it be public, private, homeschool, classical, un-school, etc.. etc… The idea that CC is the only way and best way is arrogant and without humility. I encourage my parents considering the program to hold off putting their children in CC until age 6. I encourage them to let them do preschool without guilt!
    This last year I was baffled when I was told that I should not be in contact with the other communities in our area. When I asked why, I was told that it may cause undue problems. It can cause jealousy between the communities and other problems. How can we say we are about community and yet not “do” community? We should never stop doing what God has commanded us because someone might have sin that creeps in and makes things difficult. Joining together, praying for each other, lifting each other up is more than community, it is what we are commanded to do in God’s Word.
    Yes, all organizations have their problems but we should be working to solve ours with the utmost humility while offering grace to those who choose to school differently than us.
    Thank you for your honesty. Iron sharpens iron… may your post sharpen all of us so we may be able to better serve our communities, our families, and our Savior.

    • I am curious to know if it was a manager who told you that you shouldn’t be in contact with other communities. I have not heard that yet. I was in charge of our mommies night outs and tried to set up a joint one and the director initially agreed but then decided it wasn’t going to work out. So is this one of those unwritten rules now for Directors that they shouldn’t patronize with one another? I’d be interested to know if others have been told this as well or if this was just a local recommendation.

      • Our Director was fine with it until she mentioned it to the SM. The SM said this was not a good idea at all and we should not be connecting with other groups for the reasons stated above. She also mentioned that our group was well established and the other groups were brand new. She said the new group needs to grapple and struggle through things without a more mature group coming along side them. This seems crazy to me. A more mature group coming along side a new group would be called discipleship. It’s called helping another miss the pitfalls that come from already having experience. It is Biblical.

  20. Thank you so much for your honesty and willingness to share your experience and feelings with CC. We too have been a part of CC for 4 years in Foundations and Challenge A and B. I really do love the material and the style of teaching through the music. My kiddos have learned a ton and I especially felt that the Challenge A and B years prepared my son for High School well. Unfortunately we too decided to leave CC this past year because of various reasons. I definitely believe CC is a business, not a ministry. We saw two of our close friends/tutors taken advantage of and hurt through the CC program because of “breaking a rule” of CC. The longer we stayed involved the more rules that we felt and we were losing the freedom of why we choose to homeschool in the first place. Decisions were made based on preferences of the director I felt (bending rules at one point and then being hardcore about another rule at another point). We ultimately ended up leaving because unfortunately as I tried to talk to the next “point of command” above the director I was shocked by her attitude and condescending words to use that had questions. It was really bad and hurtful and I couldn’t believe CC (as a Christian organization) would put someone in command that treated people in that way. As my second child approached the Challenge years he was not allowed to continue to Challenge A because of the age cut-off by a month. It all confirmed to me again that CC is a business and not a ministry. If it was truly believed the parents know the best way to teach their children than I would have been allowed to have my son begin Challenge A as he was entering 7th grade (he had already done 4 years of foundations and 3 years of essentials – but was told no because he was a month too young and never was a memory master (which I never believed in pushing)). I LOVED the other moms in our community and was sad to leave that but the business aspect and leadership was too much to take and feel comfortable giving money into.

    • Michelle,
      Could you share the rule that the tutors broke. Were they terminated mid-year or was it just that their contract was not renewed? What rules was she willing to bend and what rules was she hardcore. I understand if you don’t want to give too many details, but I am just looking to see if there is a trend in what I have heard.

    • I know of a student allowed to register for Challenge A who is a month too young, participated in 1 year of Foundations, did not participate in Essentials, but had attended a classical school prior. It doesn’t seem the policy for allowing participation in Challenge A is consistent.

  21. One last piece of advice Melissa, you have a right to be angry and passionate about this. Don’t let those supportive of CC tell you otherwise. This organization is claiming to be the leaders of the homeschool movement. They claim to be making God known. Just those two things to me are presumptuous. What I have seen in this organization is not good. And one of the reasons it is not good is because the people at the top have created a very confused situation for us all and they make very little effort to resolve the confusion . . . and they have revealed in our area to be willing to use deception and I believe, spiritual abuse if you allow them to define the terms, to accomplish their purposes. It is alright to be angry because deception should cause anger . . . and it is alright to be passionate about what you want answered. If CC does not want to answer the questions, they need to stop claiming to be our leaders or to be making God known.

    • Your comment really struck a chord with me. We were starting CC, after having been very excited about it, attended an open house, the practicum, some pre-year get togethers, and when we started the actual classes, the style of teaching and the tone in the program set by the director was authoritarian. I don’t know how many times I heard the phrase, “you must obey.” And my poor little cherub, painfully shy, was made an example of, punished in the start of class, for not “obeying” the teacher’s command to address the ladies in the back of the room. She froze, and literally couldn’t speak, but was punished and she has been traumatized by it for a week now. I spoke with the teacher, who tried to spiritually abuse me as well. There was more spiritual abuse, but the whole thing was such a shock. I hadn’t anticipated anything like that from a Christian organization. I’ve got years and years of experience as a teacher of virtually every level from pre-k to university, and both here and abroad. I have never experienced anything like it. My daughter had always had cause to implicitly trust her teachers previously. When in preschool, they understood she was shy and appreciated her model student characteristics. It was a devastating experience and has given me a deep distrust of CC.

      • Oh no! That’s awful. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I would urge you to file a formal complaint through the CC website and contact your Support Manager.

        • Thank you for the recommendation. I contacted the regional directors and the supervisor of the director of the campus we had signed up for. I had had a good relationship with the supervisor. Thank heavens, she intervened, and we were able to get our money back. The director of the campus was hostile and only refunded our tuition payment under pressure. The refund of our tuition helped smooth things out a bit, but my daughter took several weeks of a lot of support to recover from the shock and it has definitely been a dreadful experience. Very sad, too, as we have friends in that group. But everything happens for a reason, and God is in charge. We are now continuing on in our own classical curriculum, including a lot of materials from the Well-Trained Mind. CC is definitely out of the picture for us. I’m never going to subject my children to that program again.

          • Hi! I am having some issues with CC. We just started, this is week 3 and things I was told before paying are now changing drastically. I am starting to see things I don’t feel comfortable with and would like to pull out but don’t want to lose over $1,600 I just paid. I also don’t want to start conflict if I know I can’t get my money back. Can you advise me on how you went about getting a refund? CC is starting to put a lot of stress on our family and unfortunately my eyes are starting to see what is really going on.

          • Jessica,
            We decided to not return during a summer and had only paid our deposit. I do think we eventually even got that back but it’s been so long I don’t remember those details. You’ll need to look at your contract to see what your options are.

            Melissa

  22. We too are leaving CC after four years due to some significant flaws I saw in the company as well. I love our CC community and we may return one day, but for next year we are joining another classical program. One of the flaws I have seen is the training for tutor trainers is hodge-podge and feels very scattered. I served as a tutor trainer for three years and was always shocked how the on-line training I had to listen to in order to train other tutors sounded like someone recorded themselves talking off-the-cuff. There was a lack of clear direction and professionalism.

    I also have watched as directors and SM’s have rotated in and out of their position in rapid succession (We have had excellent directors in our community but have had a different SM each year). This lack of consistency really has affected getting our community’s voice heard. When our community had a major issue this year, our SM (who no one knew and who only visited once) dismissed the complaints and told everyone they were just being gossips.

    The leadership is struggling within CC. I agree they are a business who wants to make money and I certainly don’t fault them for that. What I struggle with is their focus on money and their insistence on others to see them as a ministry and to jump in to help because that is the right thing to do…. Not because they are getting paid.

    This is a huge company making lots of money being led by people who may have very little business experience. I fear huge cracks are going to be visible as they continue to grow.

    (I also really struggle with kids who enter foundations at an early age showing burnout before they are eligible for challenge. I think 4 is too early to start foundations and expect that same child to still e engaged at the age off 11 when he/she is repeating a cycle for the third time. Foundations was created after Challenge. There are some cracks there which are showing as more kids go through the program and need to be addressed. I tutored the Masters class for four years and saw those kids show burnout…which isn’t what you want to see before sending a child into Challenge.)

  23. Wow. I have heard that communities were vastly different from each other, but had no idea they could be this different. My first 2 years in CC were perfection. I clicked with my Director, tutored my second year, and hated to leave it when we moved! This past year I had a new community, and it was definitely run very differently, but it was just personality difference and we didn’t have any problems.

    This year I am Directing, and trying hard to mimic my old group, while working in the new things I learned in my new group. I’m spending hours each week hosting events for my new families, helping them chose curriculum, and prepping my tutors before practicum, and setting up more training for after.

    Of course we all want the best leadership, but as many others have said – we are all human. I am trying to be the best Director I can (and I’m getting lots of good feedback from my families) but not everyone is wired the same way. If corporate let go of every person in leadership who anyone else had problems with, CC would fall apart. it works this way in all business. My DH works for Amazon, and has dealt with good and poor managers. There are many who should have been replaced years before they were, but there was no one else to do the job. In my area, we have 1 SM over 30 directors. There are no other people to do the job, and last year they did not allow CC to expand in our area. Imagine the outcry of people who were trying to get in, and put on a waiting list for 2 years, just because there wasn’t an upline and no new Directors were allowed to start new communities and share their love and abilities with new families!!

    I just wanted to add my comment because it looks a lot different from the top down (not that I’m anywhere near the top!) There are SMs and AMs and RMs who are overworked, having a bad day, or week, or year, who maybe would like to pass the baton but there is no one to give it to. Should CC allow an entire state to shut down and drop hundreds of families because someone is burned out? Of course issues need addressed, Directors should not be telling people to keep their comments quiet or withholding emails for upline – that does need corrected, but we have no idea about what is going on in the background, interventions, etc. We need to remember to give the same Grace to others as we would like for ourselves.

  24. I wanted to continue with a more in depth response than I did above. I was completely sold on CC. Joined a community 3 years ago and tutored this past year. I have had children in all parts of CC: foundations, essentials, and Challenge. About 6 months ago I posted a question on the CC FB page about common core being advertised with their math competition. My post was immediately removed and I was removed from the group without any explanation or any chance to defend myself. I will be the first to admit I have never followed the “party line” with CC and have questioned some policies. However, I had always done it respectfully I thought. I was in tears that day and worried about how it would affect my own Director and SM (Robert Bortins was the who removed me). Because of this I did not pursue trying to understand why I had been removed nor did I follow up with corporate. I also knew that I was tired of the constant “rah, rah, rah CC is the best and only way to do classical and if you disagree there is something wrong with you” vibe that I was getting from corporate and that we would be taking a break from CC. I did have friends who messaged and commented and questioned why the Matthew 18 model was not followed when observing conflict. They were told and I quote “FB is not real life so it does not apply”. I decided that a company that did not uphold Matthew 18 in all aspects of their business is a company I do not want to be involved with. I really think that as Leigh Bortins has stepped back and let her sons take more control of the company it has become more of a business and less of a ministry. You can have both but I don’t think they care as much about the ministry side anymore. My intention was to readdress the issue with corporate but I am reaching the point where I don’t want anything to do with CC anymore. It is sad as I believe they had an incredible ministry and program but have completely lost that vision.

    • Wanted to add that my issue has nothing to do with my local community. I had an amazing Director and SM. My issue is with further up. I do think the training received for Foundations tutors is adequate. I felt equipped for tutoring. I do not believe the training for Challenge and Essentials is enough. Praying for guidance for you as you work through all of this and I pray also that CC listens to the concerns being presented.

  25. I’m a little confused over your solutions to CC problems. You want to increase qualifications for leaders and training for tutors, but after all the extra training you want tutors be able to freely change the program as they see fit. You want CC to act as a business, but soften their contracts. You say there is no way to contact the company, but you included 13 email addresses. And after all these changes that CC should make, the real problem is all us homeschool moms who are hormonal women. I have no doubt you have had a disheartening and upsetting experience. But I don’t think CC Corporate can fix your conflicts with difficult people. I admire the time and thought you put into these solutions, but I’m afraid you closed the door on the biggest opportunity for you to make a change. I’m sorry you didn’t go forward with tutoring Challenge because it’s in the Challenge classroom you can make a real difference in the lives of the teenagers in your community. And as a Challenge director, you would have more access and the ear of more upper level CC corporate people. As a Challenge director you could have a better platform
    for talking through issues and offering solutions to those in Corporate who make the policies. Support/Area/Regional managers DO NOT make policy or change
    Policy. Don’t let difficult people stop you girl!!!! CC needs tutors like you.

    • I never stated I wanted tutors to change the program as they see fit. I do not want them to soften contracts, but give me the same courtesy to leave at will. I do not want to contact other contractees, but actual people who can effect change. I do not want CC to fix my problems with difficult people because I expect smooth sailing all the time, but as someone with many years of leadership experience, I know there are ways to improve upon the way our situation was handled. It turns out our situation isn’t isolated as I’ve been contacted by families all over the country today who have been hurt or mistreated by CC contractors. I can certainly impact teens in my community without being a Challenge A director and already have plans to do so. Additionally, I should not have to be a contracted Director to access the ear of upper level CC, nor would I ever take a job just to do that.
      I fully understand S/A/R M cannot make policy change which is why I want a different audience.

      • An interesting conversation. You might want to look up At-will employment. Employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will” in all U.S. states except Montana.

        • Suzanne,
          I’m familiar with “at-will.” It’s the fact that the contracts don’t read that the Director can leave at will.

          • Suzanne, I am not sure I understand your point. Are you correcting Melissa’s observation on the lack of equity? Or are you trying to point out that perhaps the workers should be employees rather than independent contractors? You might find my Facebook group helpful . . . https://www.facebook.com/groups/643440409089565/
            My dilemma with CC was that I had an SM and AM who didn’t understand that I was an independent contractor . . . which means that I paid the taxes and had all liability so they could not come onto my campus and tell me exactly what to do and how to do it or really, make business decisions for me. My desire on the Facebook group is to lift the dilemma from only my experience to the general issue of contractor/employee so while I use examples from my experience, I don’t believe it is gossipy . . . anyone who has signed a contract with CC should look into this. I have submitted an ss8 with the IRS which is an inquiry into whether I am actually CC’s employee rather than an IC so hopefully we will get an answer to this. My opinion, and I am not an accountant or an attorney, is that CC is committing tax fraud and their workers should be employees and the reason for the “no PERPL in writing” and “no contacting the leadership” is because they know that what they are doing is shady and could lead to an audit and a reclassification of all their workers. Just my opinion and I explore it on the Facebook group.

    • You may not mean it, but you undermined all menstruating women! Fluctuating hormones are not an explanation for personality conflicts and frustrations with ineffective leadership!

      • Right?! What kind of woman stabs us all in the back like that?? “The problem isn’t with this giant corporation and their business shade but that it’s being run by women! Women who bleed! Women weren’t meant for business or management!” What in the actual world?! Why do you think you are competent to homeschool your kids if you feel this way about women??

  26. I totally agree with everything you said. I was supposed to tutor Essentials this past year for a new community. At first I was excited about it, but the first red flag was the lack of communication between the new director and our SM. The SM never called back, leaving the new director on her own trying to figure things out. She tried calling up the chain, only to be told to contact her SM, which she had already tried.

    On top of that, my Essentials Tutor Training was cancelled at the practicum, and I only found out the night before. I was able to take the training online, but it was horrible. I’m sorry, but I felt just as confused and lost as I did before the training. Now, I was new to CC, had never done Essentials (I didn’t plan to do Essentials at home either, I just needed to tutor in order to afford tuition costs), so I needed some sort of training. I wasn’t new to home school, and I felt confident that I could be a tutor, still do, but when I sat there, disappointed in the lack of training, I kept thinking of why they would hire new people who had never had an Essentials class. It made no sense to me. I had to go online to FB groups to find out information I needed. The training was a joke, but I was still prepared, as I had read through the entire Essentials Guide, and I already used IEW at home, so I was comfortable with that.

    There was a constant nagging inside of me though. I couldn’t get passed the organization as a whole when it came to Essentials and Foundations. Personally, I think any parent can do Foundations at home, without community, and get more done in the allotted time that Foundations is given.

    I couldn’t sleep at night because after going through the training, I knew that the CC Foundations and Essentials program was nothing I wanted to do. I like the idea, but the structure and lack of training bothered me, so I quit. I was only going to have three kids in my class, two of them were mine. I could teach them at home without all the stress and annoyances of leaving my house, so that’s what I did.

    We did Foundations at home with my kids, and I continued on with the LA curriculum that we use and love without doing any Essentials. This coming year I’m going to continue with Foundations at home, but I have a DD going into Challenge A. I’ve enrolled her, but if I find issues within the structure, we won’t be back for the second semester.

    Since enrolling my DD, I’ve had another campus try to get us to go to their campus. Seriously? You’re going to try to steel kids from campuses? That was a HUGE turn off. Actually, before I ever thought of joining CC, we started standardized testing at the CC campus near us. I was turned off by how pushy they all were. Every time I turned around, another person tried to get me to join. I don’t like pushy people. I left the first day annoyed, and then the second day, it was worse. Now they were shoving catalogs in my face, circling things I needed to buy. It’s crazy. I don’t like that at all. I’m glad they’re excited to be where they are, but I saw myself as a money maker to them, that’s it.

    CC is good for many people, but we can’t afford to spend that kind of money and have to deal with all the issues on top of it. I also agree it’s a program for upper-class home schoolers. It seems and feels like an exclusive club, which I honestly don’t want to be a part of. We’ll see how having a child in the Challenge level goes. It seems that many don’t continue on that far, and I’ve heard there is a lot less drama at the Challenge levels, so I am hopeful. The Challenge levels are what interests me in CC anyway.

    Angie

  27. Thank you for posting. I agree with the educational philosophy and plan of CC. It has been a game changer for me. I was actually planning on becoming a director of a new community and ignorantly paid the $100 FEE to apply for a job. It was not until I paid I became more aware of the business model and the amount of work involved. I prayerfully decided to retract my application and almost left the community as a whole. But again, it is the correct educational program for my family. I appreciate your post and I find it intriguing that your topics are the same reasons I decided not to drink the proverbial kool aid. Again, the educational components are why we do this. I am not into the direct sales without good organization and communication for no growth or gain.

  28. I am fairly new to CC and will be watching and reading and keeping myself informed. Thank you for articulating your concerns so well and informing us newbies of things we should be watchful of. I must say I wanted to dismiss everything thing you wrote as a hormonal reaction when I read one of your closing sentences. To imply we must remember all the hormones is implying that rational thought is not possible for us hormonal women. I really was disappointed to read such a well written article that ended by invalidading the author’s own ability because of her sex. What a bummer! But I put my hormonal responses aside and will continue to investigate further. Thanks again for bringing your concerns to the surface.

  29. I would like you to know that I have submitted an ss8 examination to the IRS to determine whether as a Director, I was truly an employee rather than an independent contractor. I am told it could take up to 180 days and some websites claims that I may not hear back at all so it might be a good idea that you took a year off from signing a contract with CC. If you’d like, I can come back to this site and let you know what the IRS ruling was when I get it.

      • Yes, I have a Facebook group page – the link can be found here if you read the other comments – and I will definitely post it there and I’ll try to remember to post it here too but it could take up to six months to receive an answer and sometimes longer. What happens is that I send in the ss8 and then they notify CC Inc. about the ss8 and then CC Inc. is able to give their side of the story. I felt this was necessary because of Melissa’s #3 critique. CC Inc. doesn’t seem to think they need to answer these questions, and when you read or talk to CC supporters about anything critical, you can understand why CC doesn’t think they need to answer questions . . . there are enough people who support them without asking tough questions so why answer them if you can build a business without answering them. Well, thankfully, we have another means of getting our answers addressed outside of the business and that is the ss8. The ss8 will only address my specific relationship with CC but it could result in CC having to reclassify all its Directors. The other reason I did this is because I will not sign another CC contract and I enjoy teaching but CC also has you sign a two year noncompete so they essentially claim that prevented me from teaching for two years – I can’t teach with them bc I think they are an unethical business and I can’t start my own classical coop modeled after their model for two years. Well, if you want to control people like that, then there should be accountability to our laws and a willingness to answer questions front he people whom you are exerting your control over.

        • Do you still have a Facebook group? I’m looking into becoming a director, and I want to know what I’m getting into as much as possible. Eyes wide open, hopefully. Thank you.

          • Unfortunately, the FB Group that Colleen moderated was forced to close under CC threat of legal action.

    • I believe that you should win your argument, but you never know. This is a big issue in my line of business. The model most certainly does not meet the IRS definition of employee, specifically in the area of control. This is why I believe the contract termination rules are written as they are. They tell you how they want it to run. You are free to do it differently. If you do, however, they just terminate the contract without cause. This is how they get out of taxes, but remain in control.

  30. Thank you so much for this. We just finished what will be our last year of CC because of everything you mentioned above. I absolutely LOVE CC. At the local level but I have some real issues with it beyond that.

  31. Hello Melissa, I am a new contracted Challenge Director for this fall. Our family has been involved with CC for 5 years, three of those I have tutored. While I understand many of your issues, I would like to answer some of your other concerns. 1. I do think it is a wise and good decision to take parents, even those without formal teaching or business skills, and allow them to tutor, or in other words, to become leaders. This supports CCs philosophy of equipping parents to homeschool their children. While I concur that the training is inadequate, Essentials tutors and Directors have access to the portal which is inundated with tips and tools to have a successful year. The SM and AM are also there to assist in any way if you just reach out. CC wants you to succeed as a tutor or director. 2. I agree with much of what you said in your second point. CC is a new, growing business who seeks to also be a ministry to the homeschool community. The growth the company is experiencing is phenomenal. I am willing to be patient while they figure out how to be a business and ministry. It can’t be easy. Too much ministry and they can be taken advantage of. Too much business and they are seen as unchristian. Unless you have access to their profits as a company, I would hold off saying that they are striving for maximum profit to the detriment of the parents. Everyone that I know in CC does not do this for the money. 3. On the first pages of my Director’s Licensing Guidelines, after the statement of faith, there is a page that lists the chain of command and their contact information. Should parents have this information? I’m not sure. CC uses, correctly, the Matthew 18 approach to conflict resolution. This cannot be achieved if some bypass the chain to go over someone’s head to voice a complaint. Also the chain of command are all homeschooling their own kids. People don’t have time to deal with community issues on a regional level. 4. These concerns are valid, but let me explain why I think this is necessary. You want tutors who are qualified and able to do a good job, so does CC. Suppose someone becomes a tutor just because they can’t afford CC any other way. Let’s also suppose that this tutor is going to do the very minimal to get by every week. This can be a problem at the Foundations level, but more so in Essentials and Challenge. If parents begin to complain, and the F/E director has addressed the tutor with no changes made, for the integrity of the program, they need to let that tutor go. They have probably already contracted another tutor before that happens. On the other hand, if that same tutor decides that they just can’t go on, notice needs to be given. CC isn’t a hostile work environment. They aren’t going to fire someone without a darn good reason, usually with the parents blessing. The other point about micro-managing their programs is well made. This is hard for me too because I know that I will give everything I have for my kids and parents to have a good year. Do I agree with all their curriculum choices? No. As a tutor, and a homeschooling mom who has been doing this for 10 years, I think that I can make some better choices. And I can. As a parent. Not as a tutor or director. We only have a job because of CC. It is their business really. We contract to teach and model on their terms which is the way any company should be. You must have strict rules in place, or things can go astray very quickly. Tutors/directors who do their own thing in one area, will do so in another. That’s why parents have the freedom to scale, modify, or just say that they are going to do something else. 5. I’m sorry that you have seen decisions made because of the “bottom line”. Directing is hard. Directing is time consuming. Directing can be exhausting. You have to be a very special kind of person to be a F/E Director. So, after all that, should they be compensated accordingly? Yes, of course. As I’ve said already, no one is getting rich from CC except maybe the Bortins Family. But some moms are trying to make ends meet and so decisions are made. It’s understandable. I personally am not aware of those practices going on in my community. We are all very supportive of one another because that’s the mentality of the SM and AM. If I did become aware of any of those problems, I do feel that my concerns would be heard. We are all Christian women desiring to do the best we can as we follow Christ. No single person is perfect, and since a bunch of single people are running CC, their is bound to be some issues. I hope that you, and anyone else who has read through this whole thing, can see some things from a different perspective. I have emerged on the other side of the wrestling with much of the same issues. I hope that as you take a break from CC next year your appreciation towards all that CC is, and it’s potential to be, will inspire you to try again as a director because CC can use smart women like yourself.

    • “CC isn’t a hostile work environment.” I’m not sure you should make such a bold statement because my SM and AM were hostile toward me . . . I consider calling me a gossip when I was only looking for answers and support hostile.

      • Agreed. My AM also lied about me and my director to a neighboring community. Then our RM decided to recontract her for next year anyway. SIGH.

    • 1. I agree parents can become tutors. I also agree that, in theory, Directors have SMs and AMs to help them. In our case, our SM and AM were not helpful (actually aggressively made moves to destroy our community) and our RM decided to let them continue anyway. While I do not expect perfection, I do expect wrong actions to be addressed more appropriately.
      2. While no one I know is necessarily in it for the money, I’ve seen moves by leadership in our are that put money before families. As a social enterprise owner, I know firsthand how hard it is to balance the ministry/money line. In the end, we are choosing relationship over profit. Each ministry or business has to make the decision.
      3. I have a problem with “they don’t have time to deal with people on a regional level.” While they are homeschoolers, they took on a role as REGIONAL manager. They are free to point people back down the chain, but parents should have access to information up the chain.
      4. CC became a hostile work environment for multiple communities in our area.
      5. I’m glad you feel your SM and AM would hear your concerns. We are not in that position.

  32. I’m in agreement about corporate needing to be more accessible and actually putting policies in writing for all to see. Playing a game of telephone is an unprofessional and ineffective way to communicate.

    After asking a question to other tutors and contacting corporate to see if anyone knew the official policy on something, (I had already spoken to my director who didn’t really understand it either), I was told that I was not allowed to ask questions anywhere and to anyone about CC except to my director. And I was to never contact corporate.

    I wasn’t trying to change the policy. I only wanted to understand it. It became clear that no one truly knew and corporate was unwilling to put anything in writing for everyone to read. I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to overlook these unpleasant parts about CC if we wanted to stay in it. I think the program has value, my daughter enjoyed it, and I loved tutoring so we were looking forward to continuing with CC for many years.

    Due to an unknown reason, my tutor position wasn’t available for next year so we aren’t able to return. The pay was needed to help us offset the cost. I’m sad and disappointed about some parts of our CC experience but looking forward to continuing it at home next year.

    Regardless of whether I or anyone else agree with you or not, you have a right to your opinion and to share your experiences. A program that is above scrutiny is a program that 1 sees itself above God and 2 that will never be able to improve.

  33. Thank you for your open honesty. As with anything we do as a fallen people there will be flaws.

    I’m a 27 year long homeschool veteran, have graduated 10 of my 14. I love the classical approach: teaching my children to think about issues, engaging them in conversation and alliowing them to question everything taking nothing for granted.
    My biggest concern is the lack of communication and holding the party line. Yes, I’m a rebel. But would love to see CC. succeed as it meets many needs.
    But it really is for small, upper clas families and that saddens me.

  34. I have been a part of a large F&E community for 3 years and am taking over as a Director this year. My business degree and past leadership experience was valued highly but I don’t feel it’s totally necessary to have that background if a person has the “heart” for the position and some talent and lots of desire to learn. There is most certainly lots of training for Directors (annually and periodically through the year) and they are improving that training process every year. It certainly isn’t perfect yet though and sometimes a community’s leadership doesn’t follow the training they are given.

    A LARGE focus in the Director training this year was/is conflict resolution according to the Matthew 18 model. It sounds as if your leadership simply didn’t handle conflict well. This doesn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t trained to handle it properly.

    Thankfully, we have a fantastic group of families in our community and had lots of unity among them. It has not been without issues though. Unfortunately, the community is made up of humans. I pray you are able to find resolution and that CC Corporate will continue to grow in leadership development. I also pray that I will handle situations in a manner which honors God and shows love to the families in my community. Although I am certain I won’t be able to make everyone happy with every decision I make. That’s been made clear within just a few weeks of taking over.

    May God bless you, your family, and your CC community with Christlike love and unity.

    • Carrie, I appreciate your optimism. I do not expect perfection from anyone, but do expect integrity. The mistakes in our community were repeatedly lied about and covered up. I’ve been told that one only needs to “love Jesus” and “feel called” to be in leadership. At least that’s how our leadership is interpreting CC policy.

    • The group has magically disappeared. Is it ultra top secret now or is it truly gone?

      • It’s now a secret group, but when I went to navigate to it, I’ve been removed as a member, so maybe it’s been dismantled?

  35. Interesting thoughts, for sure. And most have run through most people’s minds if they’ve been in CC for a few years. We’re embarking on our 10th year. Challenge has been exactly what I needed, both for my children and myself (went from F/E directing to Ch II, have 2 in Challenge, 2 in F/E). While I agree with almost all of your points, I am thankful that our campus has never really had any major issues, both within our campus and with the area management, and the curriculum has been able to prove it’s worth. I have had a few instances where I felt like the CC rules were messing with what I felt was right, but in both cases, looking back a year or two later, things have worked out well. What it really comes down to for me is that my children are doing so well, whether my oldest in Ch III and B or my younger ones in F/E The kids are unaware of issues I may be dealing with (or did deal with. As a Ch tutor, I really don’t see the drama I did as F/E director. It’s great!), and I’d like to keep it that way. I do know that at its core, the CC leadership’s heart and intentions are good. Seems to me that the problems come with the trickling down of info through too many layers of leadership, where things are interpreted differently by each person. And let’s be honest, it’s hard for homeschool parents to be submissive to anyone, period. So many of us bristle at any rule, especially if on the surface we don’t like it. It’s imperative that CC parents make a point daily to pray for the programs, and especially for the leadership, that CC parents with a knowledge of the programs and experience will step-up. I pray that you and your husband will find peace in however the Lord leads you!

  36. There was a lot of turmoil at our CC group this year, and one of the biggest problems was that everything was kept hush-hush, such that if anybody even spoke of their concerns, or asked questions, they were accused of gossiping. It left many confused and hurt and angry.

    Our area also had need for various managers above the director level. When I inquired about the positions and asked about the remuneration (an appropriate question when considering a paid position, in my opinion), I was told that if I’m in it for the money, I should be a Director. (PS I wasn’t in it for the money.)

    But I agree with you–the fact that it is so difficult to communicate upwards is problematic at best and disastrous at worst.

    I loved the CC curriculum. I plan on using it at home next year with my kids. But I won’t be joining a community again because I am not the kind of person who can go and just be a parent.

    Thanks for posting this.

    • Janie,
      I’ve heard the “you shouldn’t be in it for the money” comment, too. In the next breath though, they’re telling us to split our community because they want to grow the business (and because our SM will get paid more that way.)

      • I am a F/E Director and if you broke down my pay by the hours I work YEAR ROUND for our community then my pay is laughable. I ‘work’ roughly 15+ hours a week to help make our community a healthy community. I feel like you are making broad blanket statements based on your specific experience. Please consider those of us doing what we are suppose to be doing and certainly not making a profit.

        • Mel, my concerns are not at the tutor level so much as the management levels. I have great respect for you and many of my fellow tutors.

          • I am a Director, not a tutor, I work closely with our SM and have a working understanding of the leadership. From everything that I have seen in 5 years, your perception of the management levels is not wholly correct. From reading your post and your replys to comments it appears to me that you have some bad blood with your specific leadership and have not been given accurate info about management.

          • If you truly have ‘great repect’ for me (as a woman Director with no college degree) then you should know that it does not come across in how you are writing.

          • Melissa,
            Keep asking your questions and don’t be deterred by those who have had a good experience in CC trying to minimize what you have experienced. After starting my Facebook group, I have heard a lot of stories and after seeing what I saw in our area, they ring true. There are many solid advocates of CC who finally see the censorship or their manager’s secretive dealings or their cover-up of something serious to preserve CC’s rep or are accused of gossiping for simply asking questions and all of this hits them like a brick because they were once defending CC. I know because I was one of them. We need you to ask questions and not be deterred. There is something sketchy in this organization and since they claim to be the leaders of the homeschool movement and making God known, they need to be transparent and available and able to answer your questions directly. So keep asking and know that you aren’t the only one.

    • And to those who are implying that her questions arise from her own personal dilemma with leadership, please visit my Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/643440409089565/. I discuss the business structure of CC. One thing that has nothing to do with anyone’s personal experience is that if a Director is found to be misclassifying her tutors (remember CC provided training and tutor contracts), then CC Inc. claims no liability. In Ohio, where I live, a homeschool group was fined thousands of dollars for misclassifying and when I started asking questions about this to my AM and other Directors, I was called a gossip. . .. This is CC’s policy . . . has nothing to do with bad blood between people . . . it is about CC policy. CC knows they are instructing Directors to do something that might bring about a finding of misclassification. I have actually learned that Leigh was warned about this back in 2008. And what do they do, assure the Director that they will take the hit if a misclassification is found. No no no, they say that the Director is liable, not CC Inc. And why is the Director liable, because in this instance, CC has decided to emphasize the independence in independent contractor. Now, when the IC wants to exercise her judgment with respect to certain aspect of what is supposed to be her business (since she pays taxes), CC decided to remind the Director that it is CC’s business. So, just as Melissa points out they decide to be a ministry and business whenever it suits them, they also decide to remind the worker that they are independent when it comes to paying taxes and insurance and liability in the case of an audit, but then they disregard the independent contractor designation when they want you to do the manager’s will. Shady dealings and Melissa, keep asking and don’t stop until you get answers. I was never able to speak to the leadership team about these issues and they would not let me speak to their attorney. So, if they bring me to court, just know that I never received a Matthew 18 meeting with those whom I believe ensnared me into tax fraud.

      • My Facebook Group is public so someone on the CC leadership team can see what I and others post at any time and they can post at any time to answer the various questions . . . not gossipy questions . . . legitimate questions. But, thus far, we have not heard from them. Real classical conversations were not censored for positivity as they do on CC’s Facebook groups, they dealt with real issues like the balance of power and freedom and our leaders at CC choose not to engage when the issues deal with their own business. It has been really freeing to leave CC, kind of like leaving a controlling church . . . and I hope others will do the same if they continue the censorship.

  37. Our family has participated in a local CC community for two years, and our experience has been very positive. Both our Support Manager and Area Manager are at my campus, so maybe that helps; but they constantly meet with the directors and provide a lot of equipping beyond the Practicum training. They also gave us a brochure at orientation before the year began that listed phone numbers for the director and a couple of people ‘above’ her (for lack of a better term), so maybe someone is dropping the ball on these things at your campus.

    CC really seems like a great organization to me, but I guess a lot is dependent upon the local leadership. We have amazing directors and tutors here, and CC truly seems more like a ministry that a business in our community (which I don’t see as a bad thing). One of our favorite aspects of CC is that they strive to know God and make Him known and exhort us to do likewise.

    • Mary Beth,
      Thanks for your thoughts. I, also, know a lot of amazing women. I, clearly, am also one. However, if we’re honest with ourselves, the majority of us think with our emotions, not our heads. The balance of male input that exists in most other organziations is missing in CC and our experience over the past 4 years is that this plays a role in what happens in communities.

  38. 1st year director, 2nd year CC, 3rd year homeschooling. I’ve never been to practicum but will obviously going this year with my tutors. I would love to hear in a private message about practicum as I have my husband taking off work to attend so he can see what classical conversations and education looks like. Thanks for your honesty and politeness of dealing with a tough situation. Sure does make me wonder what my year will look like.

  39. I would also like to add a comment about your point number two. Classical conversations considers itself a business when they supply your practicum training with a bookstore. However, they are a ministry when they fail to provide housing for the bookstore lady and expect us to house her and her family for the week. Does anyone else think this is weird?

    • I was told by the SM that our bookstore rep has an allowance for travel and lodging, but our SM opens up her home to her out of friendship and hospitality. Maybe that is the case in your community as well.

    • https://www.thecorkboardonline.com/2015/06/10/why-cc-is-on-probation-for-our-family/?replytocom=269452#respond
      No, I don’t think it’s weird. As husbands and wives are instructed, it follows that we (believers), too, are to to be hospitable to one another without complaining. We are called to build ourselves (the body of believers) up in LOVE. My Father’s World employees also stay at host homes, sometimes, when traveling, and have hosted families in THEIR homes as well. How the enemy seeks to destroy us.

  40. I kind of figured your post would be deleted, but let me encourage you. Your concerns are real, probably some more than others depending on the community. I’ve subbed for Foundations, and then directed Ch. B and II. However, this year I needed to step back for several reasons: the rules were too restrictive for Directors and didn’t fit our family. As a large family, it was too expensive to enroll every student so that I could still teach. (4,500 in tuition last year) I ended up teaching two campuses to pay for tuition and expenses, which resulted in burnout. Additionally, at the challenge level, some students love the classical method others not so much.

    The newer methodology (since last year) dictates that parents pre-teach all the challenge material. The student comes to class for “the conversation.” For large families, this can be a burden. Yes, students become self learners, but the struggle is real. We had 3 challenge students this year and two of them dropped (although as a Director, I still had to pay their tuition). So, yes the training is minimal, the workload to be prepared is heavy and admittedly my own homeschooling suffered. The philosophy is that the parent, even without a lot of training, is a better tutor than a teacher. Qualified (sometimes extremely well qualified) Directors who are not homeschool parents, must wait each year until every opportunity to replace her with a parent is exhausted.

    I pray for wisdom for you. I found a charter/hybrid situation which offered the pre-teaching, offered the classical classes and traditional classes and was free. The whole point of homeschooling is freedom of choice. We learn from them all. I learned so much from CC, as a parent and as a teacher. I still recommend CC to many families, but speak frankly about the expectations of the challenge level so people can make informed decisions.

  41. I loved CC and left for many of those same reasons. I was a tutor and felt qualified, but I had taught my own children for several years before that. Here were my biggest reasons for leaving the community:
    1. There was always a “this is the rule for everyone else, but I can be the exception” mentality. One director’s kids could be opted out of the program, but others were told that they MUST enroll all children in the family. One tutor could teach well past the time that their kids moved up to Challenge, but others must stop being a tutor as soon as their kids were past 7th grade. There were just too many “exceptions” to the rules by the rulemakers for my taste.
    2. I did not like the idea of Challenge. It was too time consuming for my child and would not allow for any extra subjects or curricula that I might want to teach. If I wanted to offer complete control of my child’s education to someone else, why not just enroll them in public school? I would have prefered to enroll my child in an “a la carte” program, where I got to choose what classes he took at CC and what I wanted to teach at home.

    This is simply my opinion and we now teach at home in a small group, using many of the good things that I learned as a tutor in CC. We love the classical approach, but there were far too many rules to follow in CC, that not everyone had to follow!

  42. Melissa, thank you for being brave enough to step up and speak with candor and love. We have had a similar situation with CC this year. Our family has not yet decided how to move forward, but I am glad to know that there is someone above local management.

    As a later-in-life mom, I had many years in business before starting a family, and I have continued in various community leadership after the birth of my children. I have often avoided high concentrations of women because of similar concerns.

    I would love to work together to help CC develop into a system that can truly know Him and make Him known.

    • Wendy,
      I love that last line. While some have read my post and had a very visceral reaction, I’m glad that you see that my heart is for change to support CC, not bad mouth it.

  43. I am a new director this year in a brand new community. I have read your blog and I will try to use this in my first year. I have to say our first year in CC was last year. I was a parent for the first 7 weeks. After that time I was asked to become a tutor. I spent more than 20 hours a week preparing for my ABC class. I took my role as a tutor and homeshooling mom seriously. I also have run two successful business in my past. I took college courses in administration and marketing. While I do not have a college degree I feel this role was placed upon me by the Lord. I am probably in no way the type of person you are talking about in your blog. However I want to use these wise words to make my community strong and successful. Thank you.

    • Kimberly, Your humbleness reflected in your post alone makes me confident that you will do well and your families will be blessed. You are definitely not the type of person to which I am referring, and I wish CC would value your outside-of-CC business experience more than it currently does.

  44. First, I’m sorry to hear about your experiences with CC. Whereas we are a part of a wonderful community where I see our director putting the needs of of community first. Always. I have two good friends that I led to CC that live in another part of our state and they have both struggled with their communities. Both because of leadership. One had a major problem with her director but was not given an avenue to resolve the problem. It was quite sad. The other was disenchanted with poor leadership in other areas. It makes me sad to see these families go through the pain and stress of situations that most likely could have been avoided with better training. I’d like to add that I have been a tutor for three years without prior CC experience to tutoring but I am a certified teacher with years of teaching under my belt. Each year I attend practicum and always leaving thinking it left little to be desired. I have received tutor training from exceptional to subpar with radically incorrect information being given. So much so that our director had to have all of our tutors go through additional training to correct the information given at practicum tutor training.

    • I didn’t talk about my concerns with Practicum. It’s a great idea but needs some tweaking for sure.

Comments are closed.