How Were You Schooled? Part 1: Homeschooling
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 7:00AM 
(Click photo for source)I was homeschooled for a goodly portion of my education - from fourth through eighth grades, and I attended private schools for the other years. We are lucky to live in a nation where we are afforded all kinds of educational choices. In so many other places in the world, children are not guaranteed the opportunity to go to grade school, much less to a university. For the most part, if you live in our country and want to attend school, you can. We aren't turned away from a classroom based on financial need. Right there, we have something huge to be thankful for!
Homeschoolers get started for all kinds of reasons. My parents decided to homeschool us because my mother felt she could give me the best education of the options afforded to us. She has a Masters degree in Education and was already a teacher when she met my father. A1 qualified. However, some other homeschoolers get into it because they want to control the kinds of moral influences exerted on their children. They want to shield them from "bad kids" or from adults that might teach students against the parents' belief systems. So that's two major reasons behind homeschooling. Some want to provide a better education, some want to protect their family's belief systems - some are going for both. Just the facts.
There are all kinds of homeschoolers out there.
- Some are traditionalists who select a standard curriculum that models after a standard/average school and may be protected under an umbrella program that monitors the students' progress.
- You may have heard of "unschooling", which allows children to seek out what they want to study - areas of study are dictated by the student, rather than the other way around. Unschoolers take the approach that life is the best teacher and every moment is an opportunity for learning.
- Some homeschoolers use "e-schooling", a correspondance-style course - kind of like an online university for grade schoolers.
Even within all those types of schooling, there are differences, particularly among the traditionalists. Some homeschoolers follow a strict daily schedule with lots of work, and others are a bit more laid-back... just as brick-and-mortar schools differ from location to location, class to class. I would venture to say my siblings and I attended a freaking difficult homeschool. We not only studied all of the "average" subjects, but my parents thought it'd be fun to add Creative Writing and Geography to the mix, just to make us mad. We had daily reading, research, project, and writing assignments, as well as classtime with our mother. Our school day went from about 9a until 6p Monday through Friday, with a lunch break. This might seem long, but I bet it's pretty average when you count in the time needed for homework that the average student brings home.
My homeschool years were extremely challenging. However, for as much as I complained and argued with my mother about grades, study time, and project accuracy, I see now the educational gift I received. My parents sent us to a standard high school so that we could have more opportunities for college scholarships. Despite the fact that my parents knew they had done an outstanding job with our education (and our state-mandated testing proved it), colleges are iffy on homeschoolers sometimes. They didn't want to take any chances as far as us getting into the universities of our choice. I graduated a National Merit Scholar with a number of scholarship offers, and I was extremely lucky to get to go to my first choice university. I don't say this to brag, but to indicate that homeschooling can succeed mightily when done well. My mother is a great teacher and she gave all of us a matchingly great education. I am so thankful we had that option!
One of the biggest criticisms of homeschooling is a lack of social skills development. I totally agree that it's pretty impossible to teach social skills at home, even in a really big family like mine. To me, it's a really subjective decision. Yes, standard schools provide many opportunities for positive social skill-building, but... they are also hot beds of extreme bullying and cruelty. SO I see both sides to that.
I am definitely pro homeschooling, when it makes the most sense. There are pros and cons to any educational choice a family makes. Sometimes homeschooling's biggest con is the development of social skills. Sometimes brick-and-mortar school's biggest con is each individual student learning the way they need, to their fullest potential. You have to choose which pros/cons are most important to you.
So that's my story - Next, I'll talk about education in a private school setting. I'd love to hear from other homeschoolers out there... Or really anyone with questions, ideas, anything to help us all learn!
Reader Comments (5)
Hi, Penny!! You were such a great student!! You paved the way for all your siblings!!!!!! Thanks for the kind words!!
I had no idea you were home-schooled! (I was from 3rd grade-high school.) This is a really insightful post on the reasons for and methods of homeschooling.
For our own kids, E is somewhat skeptical of it because he is concerned about our qualifications, but I think my college graduate (but non-education) parents did a great job.
We would consider it through 8th grade if the circumstances were such that it would be the best option for our kids...we have even discussed customizing educational experiences to each child (from personal experience: I was a great 'candidate' for home schooling because I'm more of a self-learner, but my brother would have really benefited from the structure and constant social interaction a traditional school provided)
i consider it a huge blessing to have avoided the stress bullying, and humiliation of my junior high years in school (I had friends that spent 6th-8th grade in agony), but there are parts of me that know I would have enjoyed parts of high school (even though we participated in a co-op for classes in social studies, the arts, etc and had the opportunity to play sports for a small local school)
I have almost experienced the gamut in education as well (I attended a public community college in between home-schooling and attending a private school for college) so I'm interested to read your next post!
My sister goes to a school that is half home school and half attending school. I like the concept and know that she is getting a really good education with the curriculum the parents have a large part in helping to choose while also getting the opportunity to be a part of extra-curriculars that she might not have the chance to be a part of such as school dances. There is also not the problems I've seen elsewhere with schools because of the parents playing such a huge role in the education both at home and in the school.
I'm interested to see your post on private schools. I attended private schools my entire schooling (kindergarten to high school) My fiance attended public schools his entire life, and has said he'd love for our future kids to go to the same high school he went to (so did his mom and grandfather).
I was homeschooled from 6th-12th grades, after attending a small public elementary. My parents (who are both teachers with Masters degrees) decided to switch to homeschooling for several reasons, one of which being my elem school had the highest numbers/grades/scores in the county, but the middle school I was slated to go to had the lowest. It took me a bit to adjust to the new format ((Mum is ALL ABOUT unschooling)), but once I did, I thrived. I had the option of going to public school for junior/senior year of high school - my dad was teaching at a really good, small public high school - but I opted to dual-enroll at the community college instead. Which was awesome - I got to readjust to being back in the classroom, and dealing with "big crowds" and etc. which made my transition into undergrad so much easier. I was also able to transfer in 43 hours of college credit when I enrolled as a "freshman". I only applied to one university - my first choice/the one I fell in love with on campus tour - and it was a small, private liberal arts school. Because of my high SAT scores and the college transcript I'd earned through the dual-enrollment, I was able to legitimately compete for the highest-level university scholarships (and won one!). I am a huge fan and supporter of homeschooling - I know it had a huge role in my development as an academic AND as a person. But I also recognize that sometimes it's not the perfect answer. I'm not sure I personally could homeschool my kids (whenever they come), but I also know that my kids will not go into the public school systems. It'll either be home or carefully selected private.
Homeschoolers rock! :o)
I know I'm late to the party on this, but I read part II and couldn't help but come back to part I. I was homeschooled K-12. There's so much that I want to say, I think I'll have to gather my thoughts and write a post of my own. The one thing I did want to comment on here is that the social aspect of homeschooling is not something that can be generalized. I had a thriving social life, full of field trips with other homeschoolers, church friends, neighborhood friends, sports teams, drama clubs, dance/gymnastic lessons, handbell choir, volunteering with the elderly, etc. The level of social interaction is completely dependent on the exposure that the parents are willing to acheive. I hate that this sterotype persists and I think it should be only a very small con that is perfectly surmountable. Anyways, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and the other commenters that chimed in!