Your rambling is contagious. There's going to be a lot of words. We've been through this. Your fault, not mine. I'm not a parent, but I have a couple of friends who are just starting families and one of them is currently weighing the pros and cons of home schooling. I feel like there's definitely a risk of social maladjustment for home schooled kids, but considering the state of public education in I also feel like it's a risk worth taking these days. They are also a staunchly Christian family and have the same concerns your parents did (and then some). The only thing you could possibly fault your parents for is them not realizing how grounded you were at that age, and to be fair, how could they have known? It would've been even trickier for them considering you were their first and they didn't exactly have a benchmark. Most tweens/teens don't possess the intellectual resilience to withstand the tests of faith that public school and its environs relentlessly bombard them with. I think you might be an exception to the rule. Do you think you would have turned out substantially different if you had not been home schooled? Would your belief system still be fully intact? Regardless of the answers, I think the most important takeaway is that your parents cared deeply about your future and your well being, and that's a quality that far too many parents lack in . I've nothing but respect for them and I can tell you feel the same way. You have every right to be annoyed, though. On the social deprivation topic: I'm part of a small circle of friends, all of whom now regularly meet up online via discord because as adulthood would have it, everyone lives in different cities/states/countries/planets. I've only known two of the guys for about 5 years, but all of them (8 people total, the remainder of whom I've only met and interacted with online) have known one another since middle school or before. Everybody's cool but I often feel detached and isolated in a crowded discord chat when they make inside jokes or recount funny stories from their childhood, which happens often. As for myself, I'm not in contact with anyone I grew up with, and hearing the friends of my friends reminisce sometimes makes me feel like I'm missing important parts of my own childhood without someone to share those memories with. It's a very poignant sensation and tends to stay with me longer than I'd like when it creeps in. You might have missed out on making some of those early life connections, and I can empathize even though I'm a government schoolkid; but is losing friends better than never having made those friends at all? Is my experience significantly different than yours? Nobody knows, not your friends, not my friends, and not even we can answer that ourselves. We just have to keep looking ahead. There are always friends we haven't made yet, and there always will be. Some of them might be forever, most will not. I suspected you were a fellow word nerd! I was tested and placed into an accelerated learning course as a sophomore in high school, studying college freshman level English/creative writing. I was also a devoted metalhead which proved uncomfortable for the teachers and students I found myself surrounded by in that environment. My (extremely) long hair and endless supply of Slayer t-shirts were a stark contrast to the pressed slacks and polo collars of my peers, and I was judged ruthlessly by them. My most memorable achievement was being accused of plagiarism by the teacher herself because, as she confided to my parents: "I find it difficult to believe a 16 year old wrote this." This was in reference to a school short story contest... that I didn't even win! I dropped out of high school less than a week into my junior year and got my GED, the final score of which estimated my education level at 11 years and 4 months. So apparently I missed out on some senior-year trigonometry; the plot twist is that I'm a software engineer now (living proof that left brain/right brain neuroscience is pure mythology). XD So yeah, I think it's important for parents who want to home school to pay close attention to how their child socializes outside of the home and even go out of their way to ensure they are not deprived of those interactions. Still, I have a difficult time mustering an argument in favor of structured learning environments, especially in when the resources for self-started education are practically boundless. I hated every second of public school. I didn't like the kids, I didn't like the teachers, I didn't like the judgment. Most of my socialization was with the other emo/goth/metal/outcast kids and most of it was done off campus because none of us really felt welcome there. Obviously college was not a consideration. When a child is raised to WANT to learn, teaching becomes less mandatory. And some are just blessed and born that way. Feel as annoyed as you want, but be proud of your parents and your maker because I feel like you were made and raised to be a rare kind. =)
I love long rambling comments so please never apologise and keep the rambling comments coming. Yep sounds like you had a very similar growing up experience to me. Lmk if you’d ever want to have a conversation about it, recorded or unrecorded. Doesn’t matter. Also I think that homeschooling is a great way to be educated as long as you have daily contact with a lot of kids your age. That’s what I would’ve benefited from. Thanks as always for watching!
Your rambling is contagious. There's going to be a lot of words. We've been through this. Your fault, not mine.
I'm not a parent, but I have a couple of friends who are just starting families and one of them is currently weighing the pros and cons of home schooling. I feel like there's definitely a risk of social maladjustment for home schooled kids, but considering the state of public education in I also feel like it's a risk worth taking these days. They are also a staunchly Christian family and have the same concerns your parents did (and then some).
The only thing you could possibly fault your parents for is them not realizing how grounded you were at that age, and to be fair, how could they have known? It would've been even trickier for them considering you were their first and they didn't exactly have a benchmark. Most tweens/teens don't possess the intellectual resilience to withstand the tests of faith that public school and its environs relentlessly bombard them with. I think you might be an exception to the rule. Do you think you would have turned out substantially different if you had not been home schooled? Would your belief system still be fully intact? Regardless of the answers, I think the most important takeaway is that your parents cared deeply about your future and your well being, and that's a quality that far too many parents lack in . I've nothing but respect for them and I can tell you feel the same way. You have every right to be annoyed, though.
On the social deprivation topic: I'm part of a small circle of friends, all of whom now regularly meet up online via discord because as adulthood would have it, everyone lives in different cities/states/countries/planets. I've only known two of the guys for about 5 years, but all of them (8 people total, the remainder of whom I've only met and interacted with online) have known one another since middle school or before. Everybody's cool but I often feel detached and isolated in a crowded discord chat when they make inside jokes or recount funny stories from their childhood, which happens often. As for myself, I'm not in contact with anyone I grew up with, and hearing the friends of my friends reminisce sometimes makes me feel like I'm missing important parts of my own childhood without someone to share those memories with. It's a very poignant sensation and tends to stay with me longer than I'd like when it creeps in.
You might have missed out on making some of those early life connections, and I can empathize even though I'm a government schoolkid; but is losing friends better than never having made those friends at all? Is my experience significantly different than yours? Nobody knows, not your friends, not my friends, and not even we can answer that ourselves. We just have to keep looking ahead. There are always friends we haven't made yet, and there always will be. Some of them might be forever, most will not.
I suspected you were a fellow word nerd! I was tested and placed into an accelerated learning course as a sophomore in high school, studying college freshman level English/creative writing. I was also a devoted metalhead which proved uncomfortable for the teachers and students I found myself surrounded by in that environment. My (extremely) long hair and endless supply of Slayer t-shirts were a stark contrast to the pressed slacks and polo collars of my peers, and I was judged ruthlessly by them. My most memorable achievement was being accused of plagiarism by the teacher herself because, as she confided to my parents: "I find it difficult to believe a 16 year old wrote this." This was in reference to a school short story contest... that I didn't even win! I dropped out of high school less than a week into my junior year and got my GED, the final score of which estimated my education level at 11 years and 4 months. So apparently I missed out on some senior-year trigonometry; the plot twist is that I'm a software engineer now (living proof that left brain/right brain neuroscience is pure mythology). XD
So yeah, I think it's important for parents who want to home school to pay close attention to how their child socializes outside of the home and even go out of their way to ensure they are not deprived of those interactions. Still, I have a difficult time mustering an argument in favor of structured learning environments, especially in when the resources for self-started education are practically boundless. I hated every second of public school. I didn't like the kids, I didn't like the teachers, I didn't like the judgment. Most of my socialization was with the other emo/goth/metal/outcast kids and most of it was done off campus because none of us really felt welcome there. Obviously college was not a consideration. When a child is raised to WANT to learn, teaching becomes less mandatory. And some are just blessed and born that way. Feel as annoyed as you want, but be proud of your parents and your maker because I feel like you were made and raised to be a rare kind. =)
I love long rambling comments so please never apologise and keep the rambling comments coming.
Yep sounds like you had a very similar growing up experience to me. Lmk if you’d ever want to have a conversation about it, recorded or unrecorded. Doesn’t matter.
Also I think that homeschooling is a great way to be educated as long as you have daily contact with a lot of kids your age. That’s what I would’ve benefited from.
Thanks as always for watching!