When I was younger and someone asked me where I went to school honesty demanded that I say I’m homeschooled. Here's the responses I hear most often; an “Oh...” followed by awkward silence or a query about my possible social deficiency and how lucky I am not to get homework.
In my experience, homeschooling didn't mean my dad wrote math equations on the nonexistent chalkboard in the living room. My mom didn't assign a book report and drill my Spanish vocabulary. That's not to say, on the other had, I could watch the Discovery Channel in my pajamas then call it a day. Being homeschooled doesn't mean I was exceptionally smart or stupid. It doesn’t mean I lived under a rock before college without music, hobbies, or friends. I have pre-college friends who I’ve met through clubs, classes, camp, the rec center or by walking or my front door.
In high school, I was actually what some call "unschooled" when trying to be cool or a self-directed learner when trying to be clear. I chose what topics to study based on my interests. That’s not to say never I never cracked open a math textbook because I didn't like math. There are laws and parents that make necessary for a homeschooler to learn core subjects. I learned from books, yes, but also from doing. Instead of reading about erosion in a dusty textbook I might look up water erosion on YouTube or listen to an Open Yale lecture. I could even take a day trip to Lake Erie to look at weathered rocks.
In “normal” schooling high school students probably wouldn’t get pick their own science courses or choose to do art before history and art after I baking cookies. For example, one week I learn how a camera works and various poisonous plants of North America. Especially as a teenager, I enjoyed having freedom and homeschooling is a way for me to have some choice in my education.
Homeschooling isn't perfect and I missed out on childhood staples like homecoming, volleyball games, the latest gossip, and having the benefit of multiple teachers. But there are many ways to go about it with co-ops and partial enrollments. There are ex-homschoolers on some college campuses that came from families of twelve and drove a creeper van past forty minutes of farmland to get to church every day. There are former homeschooler who are urbanites or disabled or sheltered by parents or given too much freedom... There are so many different incarnations of homeschooling that it's okay to laugh at the cliches, but don't assume they always hold true.
I liked my brand of nontraditional school, but homeschooling is still school and that meant I had homework. Real work, in fact. And having that background helps me now as a college student. Having that freedom when I was young helped me pick a major I loved quickly. I knew my own interest and I was in the habit of trying new things. It made college classes both more difficult, easy and strange than I could have expected.
Difficult, because due dates and deadlines were now part of my vocabulary. Worksheets, exams and small papers supplemented my high school "quiz and final project" approach to learning. It was easy because the information I used to have to seek out was given to me in a (usually engaging) 50 minute lecture. All I had to do was sit and take notes and the learning would just happen. That left the already odd combination of classmates, professors, homework, all nighters and whatever else college is to make school strange to me.
Still, there's nothing like a little variety and a little fun. Make it practical, make it worth talking about. If it can make me a better person too, there's not much more to want out of education at home or far away.
