Are you being home schooled or were you home schooled?
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I’d ask my kids your questions but they’re in bed right now. I’ll see what they say tomorrow, possibly, and add their answers in. But I think your perspective is a little off. Your last question makes it sound like it’s some inalienable requirement to be around other kids all day. As though we are somehow just born with an instinctive need to be in a herd of other kids the same age. We aren’t. It’s a social fabrication. A recent one at that. “Make up for”… Make up for what? There’s no need to be around other kids all day. Truly. There’s no real advantage to being around other kids all day. Especially same-age kids. My children don’t have anything “made up” for not being around other kids all the time because it’s not a developmental need. They therefore have nothing to be resentful about.
I stopped going to school at 14; I started reading a lot because I spent my days cutting at the library, and I started working part-time. I really began to flourish socially, once I was out of school, because I had always been shy, and getting out of such an intimidating environmnent helped me to come out of my shell a bit, plus when I went to school, a place I’d always hated, I was always depressed. Dropping out felt like a weight off my shoulders, I was simply a happier person.
By the time I was 16, my parents signed me out officially, but I still was self-motivated to educate myself, was learning valuable working skills, and finally had friends and a social life.
I ended up getting my GED, went to college and graduated with honors (B.A. degree). I wasn’t officially homeschooled by my parents, but basically unschooling is what I was doing.
My parents decided to home school us (my 7 siblings and me) because the public schools in our area were awful. My parents went there and swore they would never send any of their children there.
I am certainly not resentful. Infact, we, being home schooled, had advantages over public schoolers. My three older brothers were all in vocational school by the age of 15. My brothers and I all graduated at 16. We had our futures planned out and kicked started them before public schoolers our age graduated.
As for us being socialized, we had home schooling groups, jobs, numerous sports and activities. We were definitely “around other kids” nearly everyday. The best part about that was we weren’t in age groups. The older kids helped the younger kids learn what they knew, at the same time being taught new things themselves. Socialization isn’t only learning to deal with peers and teachers, it’s about being in the real world, which I don’t believe public school is.
Oh and my Dad reckons he isn’t paying $25,000 a year for strangers to teach me bad habits when he can do it himself for free! LOL!
Hannah