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In the second part of this series I wish to cover common myths I?ve encountered both as a child and an adult.
This is definitely the one I faced the most, and laughed at each time. My mother made a conscious effort to allow us to be involved in our community and make friends with children our age. Our faith definitely aided us, as most of my friends were from my church. Home school students have just as many opportunities to get involved as children in other educational venues. I was able to be involved in various sports, arts, music, camps and the like. I was just as ?normal? as the kid next door. I had a ton of friends growing up and never lacked social skills at all. In fact, many adults would often comment that I spoke like an adult and interacted so well especially with adults. Even as I grew up, I remember interviewing for a job when I was 20 and found out later that the manager was amazed with my speaking skills! My five other siblings as well have continued to have thriving and healthy friendships and have never lacked opportunities to be involved.
My tip: take advantage of district wide events and sports! Even though I ended up not thriving as an athlete, I found my niche in the arts: music and drawing. It wasn?t a challenge to find local art classes, home school groups and socials, district sports, and religious communities.
This can be the case, for sure. Just as in the public school district, there are some exceptionally smart children, and some exceptionally lacking students. Home schooling, to me, doesn?t make the difference. It?s the child (or the parent, in either case). Of course there are exceptions to this because some families home-school irresponsibly.
I never excelled in academics; it?s simply not my forte. But I was never dumb. I had my fair share of failed tests, and my share of hard work to receive that A+. I graduated with a high GPA, went to a community college and graduated there with a good GPA. I had many home-schooled friends who did follow the path of graduating with a 4.0, getting accepted as Honors students to prestigious schools and maintain full-ride academic scholarships. I also have home school friends who barely made it out of high school and chose not to continue a post-secondary education. Every student is different.
Per state regulation* we had to take mandatory standardized tests at the end of each school year and submit it to our district for review. Each state is different in their rules, as well as individual districts. I remember often scoring 3-4 grades ahead in English, and 2-3 grades behind in math. In the end, I always made up the difference. Even if I hadn?t eventually caught up in some subjects, I still had the same access to tutors and additional help if I needed it.
From the responses based on my first post, this seems to be a genuine concern, so I want to spend a little time on this one.
Firstly, neither of my parents have college degrees. This was a definite concern for my mother when she started home schooling. As any mother does, she wanted to offer her children the best academic experience and she was convicted in her heart that the public school system was not right for her family. I highly support a parent?s right to choose what they feel is best for their child(ren).
It is generally pretty clear-cut to teach pre-schoolers, kindergarteners and most of elementary. My mom chose a curriculum and followed the book. As she became more experienced in being a home school mom, she began to branch out. As of now, she has an entire basement filled with thousands upon thousands of books ranging from actual curriculum to historical fiction, to biographies, to religion and everything else. She and my dad invested a lot of time, energy and money into choosing books that would keep all of us excited about learning. For example: I never cared for history, it was boring to me. When she bought me several different historical fiction novels, I was intrigued and all of a sudden interested! When my younger brother struggled with math because of its bland nature, she brought home a new math textbook that was embedded with an ongoing story. My brother loved it and found it much more user-friendly.
By the time we graduated elementary school, we were independent enough to do our schoolwork on our own. I basically taught myself all throughout junior and senior high school. If I needed help, they were available and if they couldn?t help me then they would find someone who could. We were involved in a home school community group and it wasn?t difficult to find ?tutors? for subjects we struggled in. The same happened with my other siblings; by junior high we all became self-taught. It wasn?t so much a matter of some children being more independent than the fact that home-schooling encourages self- sufficiency.
I remember when I was in sixth grade my mom started doing a history/geography course with me and it was so exciting because I remember my mom saying, ?I am learning this right along with you!? It was thrilling to experience and learn together. When my mom didn?t know something, she wasn?t afraid to admit it, but she always helped us figure it out.
One of the advantages of joining a local home school coop is that it not only brought like-minded families together, but it also offered classes taught by other home schooling moms. The majority of the moms in the coop had college degrees ranging from physics to English to Spanish and the like. We still experienced the benefit of learning from multiple teachers, and more advanced subjects with our peers.
I will admit my parents struggled at times. It took a few years for them to realize how deep my struggle with mathematics really was and how much I truly despaired about my inability to complete my lessons. At those times it would have been helpful to have a teacher to work with on a consistent basis. Home schooling is not for the weary of heart to be sure; it takes dedication, commitment, a whole lot of love and patience. My parents may not have had a college degree or stellar high school education ? but they had that. They had our best interests at heart and followed their convictions to do what was right by us, and quite honestly, no one can fault them for that.
You know how in public school the mean girls pick on the girls who don?t dress right? It was the opposite for me! Since being a young girl I have loved fashion and dressing stylishly; and I was teased and belittled by fellow home-schoolers because they dressed like their mothers! Okay, so not all of them do ? I didn?t. That?s one huge reason people would balk when they heard I was home schooled, ?But you dress so? normal!? So really, this myth isn?t really a myth as much as a truth, but it doesn?t have to be! :)
I do think that there is a large population of home schooling families who are in some way affiliated with an organized religion or faith, however this is not always the case. I myself come from a family rooted in a particular faith and I am proud of it, but I also know that it wasn?t the sole basis of my parents? decision in choosing my education. Sure, it played a part and granted because of it most of the families we knew shared our faith. However we did meet a handful of families who weren?t religious in any way and home schooled their children because they believed in home schooling for reasons other than personal religious preferences.
Another comment I want to address as a result of my first post is that although home-schoolers may be able to socialize just as well, the diversity in socialization is lacking. I want to address this because I believe this issue lies with each individual family. The families who are more proactive in encouraging diverse socialization will more than likely be successful. 95% of the people I encounter who have pre-conceived ideas of what home schooling is rides on their interactions with a few select families who have home-schooled.
Home schooling is what each family makes of it. When parents are irresponsible; announce they plan to home-school and don?t take charge in their child?s academics or encourage healthy socialization, those are the rare circumstances the rest of us are up against. Pre-conceived notions are typically from those cases and as a child I remember feeling that it was so unfair that others shunned me because of their judgments.
If a family wants social diversity, then they can achieve that. If a family wants their child to have one-on-one help, it is possible. There is an answer to any of the concerns one might have; however if someone is, in their deepest heart of hearts wholly against even considering the notion of a home education, then they will always find an issue and that is okay. I have said it is not for everyone and I am not here to judge or convince or say one way is right or one way is wrong, I only ask that there is no judgment for those of us on this side of things.
What questions or generalizations do you have about home schooling?
Source: http://www.hellobee.com/2012/12/13/a-case-for-home-schooling-part-2-dispelling-myths/
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