I was homeschooled from first grade all the way through twelfth grade. I earned my HiSet which is a GED equivalent and with that was finished with 'high school.' Now people seem to be consistently surprised when they find out I was homeschooled. Perhaps its the fact that I'm not socially awkward, a complete idiot or some kind of kid genius. A lot of society seems to think all these crazy things about people who are/were homeschooled and I can guarantee that the majority of them are myths. So here are 5 things that most homeschoolers are sick of hearing.
1. Were your siblings your only friends growing up?
No...who is even friends with their siblings when they're kids? I would have actual wrestling matches with my big brother over the stupidest things. That's not to say I'm not friends with my siblings, I am, but only now that we've all grown up and are (for the most part) mature adults. In all fairness I did spend a lot of my time with my brothers and sister, but I did also have friends outside my immediate family.
2. You don't seem socially awkward.
Thank you? I think... Some folks seem to think that if you weren't shut inside a school for eight hours a day you have no social skills. Quite the contrary actually, as a child I often got told that I was very mature and unlike most kids my age I could hold a nice conversation with any adult I came across. My parents were also complimented on how well behaved me and my siblings were. Not because we were too uncomfortable in social situations to misbehave, but because we were taught by our mother the right way to act in situations.
3. How do you make friends?
How does anyone make friends? You find people who share an interest in similar things you do! I don't speak for all homeschoolers, but for my family? Sports. A lot of people don't know it but most schools welcome homeschoolers to play sports on the school sports teams. My family kind of chose one sport and stuck with it, it was just kind of what we did. Our sport was basketball. My big sister started it all and each one of the rest of us followed her example. I played basketball for 8 years! We had other friends that also homeschooled, and for a time we were part of a homeschool group that got together regularly. People are under the illusion that you can only make friends through school, but honestly most kids I know don't even talk to their high school chums anymore.
4. Did you actually learn anything?
Yes! In fact due to the structure of homeschooling a lot of my learning was self-motivated! I also got some say in how and what I learned. I got to do science experiments in my own kitchen. Instead of spending all of high school trying to learn a language that I'll never use, I got to choose to learn American Sign Language and took a college level ASL course my senior year.
5. Do you wish you went to public school?
There were times I did, I just wanted to be like my friends and go to high school like everyone else. But I was able to go to almost every school dance including prom (twice), being homeschooled gave me the flexible schedule that I needed to become a responsible, capable adult. I began working (childcare) at a young age and still managed to have a 3.7 GPA through highschool. I took the SAT's and managed to get a score that I was quite happy with. I was able to take time off to travel more with my family and when I got my HiSet I passed with near perfect scores and by the state's standards: college ready.
So next time you encounter someone who was schooled at home, no matter the reason; instead of asking stupid questions that they've probably heard a million times, try asking them what they learned at home that they would never have learned in the confines of a classroom.
