Noelle - Homeschooling Q&A!

Hi guys!

It’s Noelle (obviously :P ) and I...have no clue what to talk about today.  I think I said last week that I was going to talk about...*frantically checks* homeschooling??  What was I going to- OH.  Right.  *ahem*

So today I was going to talk about what being a military homeschooler has taught me, and probably debunk some myths about homeschooling.  Having recently moved to a new location, I’ve been hanging out more with public schoolers than homeschoolers, and some seriously interesting questions that really surprised me, both from adults and kids*.

(*I’d like to stress, before I even start, that my answers don’t apply to every homeschooler ever.  I’m not a spokesperson for the homeschoolers, nor do I claim to be.  There are always outliers who won’t act in the way I describe.  In general, remember that everybody is an individual and has their own personality, no matter the kind of education they have.  Alright, moving on now)

As a homeschooler, you get a lot of questions that seem dumb to you, but make sense to those who ask...but I’d say none top the cake better than so what’s it like?

Uh...what?  What are you even asking?  USE YOUR WORDS.

This one usually comes from public school kids, who are asking what is it like to be homeschooled, but honestly, I don’t know what you’re expecting.  “It’s like a magical land of fairies and pizza unicorns?”  I mean, it’s just school to me.  I don’t go around asking public schoolers, “So what’s it like being a socially accepted, ‘normal’ school attendee, despite the fact that your format of education has only been popular for the last century and a half?”  I always just kinda stutter out an ‘okay I guess’ before moving on, like we’ll do right now.  NEXT.

Q:  How do you make friends?

Yeah...no.

A:  People who have never heard/asked this question think that homeschoolers are exaggerating, but we’re not.  It’s kinda sad that this is even a prevalent question, but it is.  I have been asked this multiple times.  And every time, I have to bite back the sarcastic comment of, “I don’t.  I haven’t seen another human being in a year and a half,” or even better, the deadpanned, “I use my mouth and vocal cords to form words and speak to people!  Shocking, isn’t it.”

But I understand this is an actual question, and something that I think is a huge misconception about homeschooling.  When I switched to public school (which I did, for the first couple months of my 6th grade year), I even got comments from family members congratulating me and saying how proud they were for socializing.

And yet...what do you get in trouble for in public school?  Oh yeah, socializing.  (this sarcastic quote from my Mom.  Thanks Mom!)

Anyway, to answer this question and hopefully do my part to get rid of this giant myth about homeschooling, we do actually socialize!  We often, however, socialize with those of our own species and make other homeschooling friends, through events, online connecting, co-op, and-

Q:  What’s a co-op?

...*sigh*.  This is going to take a while, isn’t it.  We’ll come back to that question in a minute.  Anyway, we often make friends with anyone and everyone, no matter the kind of education those people originate from, and while true, we aren’t constantly surrounded by people while we work on school, that doesn’t mean we never leave the house and/or never make friends.  Homeschoolers usually have to put themselves out there even more than public schoolers, and sometimes we don’t have the energy for it, which is why we come across as ‘shy’ or ‘a-social’ (not antisocial...that’s a symptom of psychopathy)

Before I move on, I just want to dismiss one more myth: homeschoolers are stuck ups.  I’d just like to apologize to anyone who ever thought this...while in general I think homeschoolers are very social creatures, and work well with anyone, I do recognize that sometimes, we stick to homeschoolers and somewhat avoid public schoolers.

Why, you ask?  Because we get questions like this pretty much all the time.  It can get a little boring, and we usually prefer.  NEXT QUESTION.

A:  A co-op is like fun-festival for homeschoolers.  The ones that I’ve heard of are on every other Friday, and they’re AWESOME.

A more technical definition:  Co-op means ‘cooperative’, and its a group of people that come together to discuss or participate in a common interest.  In homeschool terms, a co-op is a homeschool group of parents that teach special classes.  The one I currently attend here in St. Louis is for all age groups, me being in the high school (+7th and 8th graders) group.  I attend a film class, a basic art class, and then occasionally the gym class afterwards.

That’s all I can really think of to say on that, but it’s really fun.

Q:  What is a ‘computer school’?  I thought you were homeschooled?

A:  Alllllllrighty, clarification time!  I know, this is so fun.  When I say ‘computer school’, I mean an online academy which I attend from my computer.  I go to a Catholic ‘computer school’ called Queen of Heaven Academy, and trust me, it’s still homeschooling.

Just like there’s public and private school, there’s multiple branches of homeschooling, because not every kid is the same and heck, if we’re going to educate at home, we’re going to do it the best way for the kids.  So in ‘kid lingo’ (parents use other words, but I am not a parent, so whatever) there are two kinds of computer school:  recorded school, and actual classes...school.

The first, ‘recorded school’, I attended in my 7th grade year.  Instead of having ‘live’ classes (more later)  In this format, there’s a lot more looseness and less dead lines.  Instead of talking a teacher, the teacher records his or herself teaching, and then you watch those recording at your leisure, and often take quizzes as you wish.  It doesn’t mean we’re lazy, but it is kinda handy that you can put off a class to go rollerblading with your friends when the public schoolers are all at school.

The second is what QHA is like, and I much prefer that one.  If you know what Adobe Connect, or are somewhat familiar with Facetime, then you’ll get this.  We meet with our teachers and several other students at a specific time, for a specific class, to learn and discuss what we’ve previously learned.  This is not ‘goofing off’ time, we’re there to learn, but there is a chat box that everybody can use, and we have to the ability to speak on a microphone if we need to ask a question.  Teachers use this in such a variety of ways, it’s actually kinda awesome-

• My Algebra 2 teacher reviews very basic slides that she’s taken from our textbook to explain things, and then uses a whiteboard to work through problems students don’t understand.
• My Religion and English teachers use the webcam during their lectures so we can see their wild gestures and facial expressions while they talk.
• My History teacher lectures and uses the ability to show pictures to supplement her classes
• My Science teacher loves showing goofy Gif.s (so glad I don’t have to read this post out loud, I never can remember if it’s jif or gif or G.I.F.s)

Q: Is all your school work...homework?

A: Please.  Stop.  This stopped being funny about eight years ago.  Please, you sound like an idiot to all homeschoolers.

Q: So...what denomination are you?

A: This is something that even other homeschoolers ask me, and I just wanted to say that while a majority of people who homeschool are indeed Christian, some are just atheists that wanted to educate their kids differently.

And I’m Catholic, thank you very much.

Q: Do you think you’re sheltered?

A: You know what?  Yes, yes I do.  What I fail to understand is how that’s a BAD thing.  So I was slightly sheltered from a nasty, spoiled, and corrupted world until I was ready to at least make some sense of it.

Please, be my guest, go ahead, tell me why this is such a terrible thing?

Q: Do you do school in pajamas?

A: This is asked me to me in two different ways: by kids, in total awe like “wow do you do school in pjs?”   And then by adults, like “ugh, lazy parents letting their kids do school in pjs.”  It’s honestly kind of insulting but I’ll let it slide.  Anyway, to answer the question, I actually do.  Some people make their kids get dressed, but why in the world would working in pajamas make me less of a student?

Q: So...like...how do you do P.E.?  (no, really, that’s how people ask me)

A: We...have to leave the house...and seek out physical activity.  Some co-ops or homeschool groups have a P.E. set up at the local gym or youth center, but in general, you create your own P.E.

Q: Do you ever goof off when you’re supposed to be doing school work?

A: I dunno, do you ever goof off when you’re supposed to be doing homework?

The answer is yes.  But when you’re home schooled, you often know that there WILL be consequences if you put things off - not just bad grades, but often that means that you’re forced to work double, triple or even quadruple later (homeschoolers are infamous for doing 8th grade work for half their ninth grade year, and/or doing a year’s worth of school in a month.  It’s possible, y’all)

So yes.  We goof off.  Who wouldn’t?

Q: Do you ever wish you went to “real” school?

Short A: Yes, but then again, I also wish that I could eat chocolate without consequences, and respond to all questions with scathing sarcasm. Notice that I don't do that (unless I'm talking about questions I get asked about homeschooling)

REEEEEALLY LONG A: I get asked this a lot, and I don’t think people realize how extremely insulting this question is.  It’s like “these are the best years of your life”.  There’s no possible way that this question is kind, and there’s no interpretation of it that’s nice to ask.

I won’t go on a Dear Parents rant, but first off, I don’t have to ‘wish’ to go to a school, because I made a CHOICE to be homeschooled.  If my parents and I decided that homeschooling was not the right option for me, I could go back to public school.  Secondly, how DARE you assume that simply because homeschooling isn’t the education choice of the majority that it isn’t “real”.

Homeschooling was, for centuries, the major form of education.  If you were not tutored by your parents, you were either too poor for proper education, or had a special tutor.  It’s been that way since the beginning of time until the Industrial Revolution, during which the government started paying for a public education system.  Even in Ancient Rome, the only schools were private schools, which parents payed for.

The closest thing history can present as a ‘public school’ is the schools that nuns set up to teach children how to read, write their alphabet, and about God’s love.  Are you taught by nuns?  No.  In today’s culture, sadly, that would be considered horribly offensive.  So up until about a 125 years ago, the idea of publicly educating masses of children, and making such a thing required, was nonsense.

As of right now, homeschooling is most certainly on the rise.  According to the U.S. Department of Education, it rose from 1.1 million children to 1.7 in five years (source).  That’s a LOT of kids.  Many people are very concerned about the morals and ideals that public schools are teaching, as well as how stressful the standardized tests are becoming.

So, to sum up that lovely rant argument....THIS AIN’T CALI.  Wait no, wrong post.  Ahem.  MY SCHOOL AIN’T FAKE!

Ahem.

Homeschool is taught me a lot over the years, and I don't mean to insult anybody in this post. I'm not saying public school is inferior, or that everybody should just quit school and become a homeschooler. But please, for the love of all that is good, remember that homeschoolers, are not big head kid:

This is not us.

And so next time you start to ask a homeschooler questions, take a moment and say, "Would it be insulting or ridiculously stupid sounding if I asked this to another public schooler?"

See?  Even Big Head Kid understands.  AND YOU CAN TOO.

Great, now that we all understand each other, let's go watch Blimey Cow, play Uno, and nail each other with dodgeballs!!!

YAAAAY.

Have a great day!