I recently came across this article from Wired Magazine: home schooling . And it really struck me.
What I'm about to write is long and probably drawn out at times but I want to say everything I believe I should say and furthermore everything I want to say.
I was homeschooled my entire life until I went to college full-time at the age of 18 (fall of 2006). I come from a large, conservative family not unlike most homeschoolers in our area. Most the homeschoolers in our area came from large Christian families, very tight-knit, and most of them owned their own businesses, typically in the construction industry.
We did form a tight bond within the homeschool community but we also were actively involved in the larger community in general, not just with homeschoolers. We had our church, city activities, work, and city-league sports. Riding on the coattails of that subject, the whole "homeschoolers are socially retarded" or any other related saying is nothing more than utter nonesense. Yes, there are homeschoolers that still fit the traditional mold and are no very socially active and I've known many of them but I would argue that the proportion of homeschoolers who are not socially active according to modern norms are no more or less than their public or private-schooled compatriots. I feel as though it is an outdated and vastly uninformed idea.
My family had three things that we did each and everyday: work, study, play sports. From as early as I can remember my parents had me out pulling weeds and gardening to working construction and doing chores around the house. We were busy and our lives were never dull. I would wake up typically around 7:00 AM, eat breakfast, exercise, have bible study, then hit the books. My mother had prepared a school schedule for us over the weekend so we knew what to study and when our tests and quizzes were. However there were times she would hit us with a surprise quiz and see how we were doing.
In my personal opinion and experiences I would argue that homeschooling has much higher stakes and a higher risk/reward ratio than public and often private school. First, homeschooling is done where? In the home! So you school where you play, eat, sleep, and live! There is no separating the two and typically this encourages good behavior and a more relaxed setting. Secondly, the teachers are the parents, or in my case, mostly my mother as my father would be out working. So there is no hiding my school performance from my parents, there is no "detention" or school punishments like the traditional school systems offer, instead everything is linked to your personal life. Poor performance in school can mean being issued more studying time, having sports taken away, toys, or even being grounded. And we face our parents everyday! It's not like we leave everyday to school, see our friends, and talk about every little detail of our lives and complain about our parents! Well, we still did that when we were with out friends but not nearly to the same degree as our counterparts in the educational system. We had no traditional "refuge" as you could call it and this forced us to be responsible for ourselves and to take action. We didn't retreat from hard times, instead we thrived on hard times and eventually overcame them to succeed.
In addition to being homeschooled, my family comes from a strictly Norwegian/Swedish background. My parents took their heritage very seriously and they thrived on hard work to a degree that makes them superhuman. For example, I've never lived in a house built by someone other than my father. We started out poor, I mean so poor that McDonalds was considered a treat every other month. But he would manage to save enough to build us a nice home to live in, and he built these houses by himself. That's what he did for a living, he designed and built homes. He has no college degree either. He learned to draft in highschool and after a few years of drafting he figured he could build a house. Sure enough he did! My mother is an Olympic runner and comes from a rough background, ever since I've been around she's been getting up at 4:00 AM to run anywhere from 3-10 miles. She's in her fifties and still going strong.
Everything my siblings and I were taught, we took very seriously. And one thing that sets us and I'd argue most homeschoolers apart from their school-system counterparts are their social skills. Society typically views us as "weird" or "backwards" or "awkward" and I used to resent those phrases but now I actually feel warmth. Because we spent (and many homeschoolers still spend) most our time working, schooling, playing sports, and being active in clubs and organizations, we never really got "time to ourselves" as most kids do. We simply didn't have time for it, so when the opportunity would arise where we could hang out with our friends without the pressure of upcoming deadlines, we relished it. We would speak about our ideas and passions that we cared most deeply for, and form bonds with each other that few would understand. There is simply no way to describe it.
Homeschooling allows kids to tinker, play, and experiment without any extended pressure. While our counterparts in public and private institutions are focusing on memorizing for an exam simply so that can pass the test and then forget everything, we are truely learning, working at a dynamic pace and fulfilling a need that every child deserves. So what if our clothes aren't as hip, or we aren't familiar with the latest slang and gossip. We know how to build stuff, to create, to innovate, to lead others, and to think outside of societies box. That's a proper education! While millions of kids are learning how to play follow the leader and work in a small cubicle doing God know's what, we are creating small-businesses, developing new medicines, building skyscrapers, and setting our communities and families up for success. We don't always become rich but we are successful, happy, and willing to learn. Homeschooling provides an environment that fosters passion for learning, for hard work, and for family bonding. What's typical for us is atypical for the rest.
