OP-ED: Homeschooling an option

People often lump all homeschooling together to create one stereotypical mess of uber-religious, unsocialized children. I myself was homeschooled officially for two years of my life. Throughout my experience, I found that my home environment was a much better institution of learning than any traditional school. While, of course, different children have different experiences, to believe that every homeschooled child is sheltered, lacking social opportunities or indoctrinated with religion is ignorant and yet remains a prevalent belief among otherwise intelligent individuals. There are many ways people homeschool and many types of homeschooling. While there are homeschooling environments that imitate regular schools with strict schedules, in which the parent teaches a set curriculum to his or her children, there also exists a homeschooling method, unschooling, in which children decide what to learn and when to learn it. Unschooling focuses on the learning and education of the individual rather than pushing a curriculum on the children.

Despite certain differences, each homeschool experience is different because of the low student-to-teacher ratio. My experience in homeschooling gave me the ability to have free reign over how long it took me to learn certain subjects and how I wanted to learn them. When I was taken out of school in 7th grade, I was able to finish the public school curriculum for that year at my own speed-which happened to be about a month and a half-giving me time to pursue other interests during the days at home. I still went to the public school for extracurricular activities that my mom did not have the funds or ability to offer, such as band, orchestra and choir. I also was enrolled in some online high school classes through an accredited independent study, where I set my own pace.

I set my own schedule as well, which started out with me waking up every morning at 8 a.m. and watching TV, playing guitar and eating. Afterward, I would go to the library and choose books to read. On some of them, I would write book reports that my mom would read over with me and suggest ways I could improve. Later in the day, when everyone was out of school, I tended to hang out with friends from my neighborhood. The day usually ended with me going to sleep whenever I wanted to.

While, of course, my experience is not the same as all homeschooled children, I would say that it isn't outside the norm. In my experience, criticisms regarding homeschooling most commonly center around the idea that there is no socialization. However, it is absurd to think that socialization only goes on in school. Even before school, children socialize all the time. Beyond that, there are many homeschooling groups in which children do socialize with other homeschoolers in the area during times that other kids may be in school.

Homeschoolers also learn important social skills that are not necessarily taught in regular schools. Because they aren't in a school all day, homeschoolers are free to socialize with adults and with their own families. I find it very sad to see children who see adults as nothing other than unrelatable authority figures who need to be obeyed. As someone who works with kids, I don't like being treated as an authority figure. It seems like the kids feel they aren't worthy of being talked to as an equal. This comes as no surprise, as institutional teachers see no problem asserting themselves as unquestionable presences.

The myth that all homeschoolers are from damaging religious families is just that, a myth. While it is true that many religious families choose to homeschool their children, teaching them specific values that they find important, this is hardly different from sending a child to a religious school. Moreover, public school teachers do not have the authority to teach certain values to children because it is considered overstepping their boundaries. In contrast, in a homeschooling environment, schooling subjects can be tied into life values. Because of this, there are many homeschooling movements that focus on better ways to teach children important values that aren't necessarily tied to any religion.

Homeschooling is becoming more popular today due to bad experiences with traditional schools or just because parents think it's an excellent option for learning. From my experiences I agree with this assessment and would not want to give my future child anything but the best education, which, in my opinion, is homeschooling.



The writer is a member of the Class of 2010.