Continued from Third Declension, Learning Latin Forum…
Yes, I live in Alabama, America. Homeschooling is becoming more common now, but when I started, it was still outside of what normal, acceptable people did. Not even my grandparents thought we’d make it, but we did…I just took my standardized graduation test a couple of weeks ago (a year late, unfortunately, because it’s expensive, and I had to save up for it), and I should know how I did in another week or two.
I love the freedom it gives me…I can just wake up one morning and decide to learn Latin, and go and learn it. I have certain subjects, of about two or three hours duration, that I have to do, and beyond that, I can pick my own subjects.
If 1) education is not very, very important in your family, 2) at least one of your parents doesn’t stay at home, and 3) the public schools where you live are very, very good, then I would say that one would be better off attending public school. However, in my case, my mother works from home, education is incredibly important, and the public schools here are awful, so homeschooling is the best option. (Not to mention that I love it!)
Keesa
there is one thing i just can’t work out… don’t you have to pay any teachers? or do you just learn with books? isn’t homeschooling every expensive if there are schools available in the area that would take you?
one of my cousins teaches kids who were chucked out of school, and the government pays for their education, but what does your family do?
i’m in canada and homeschooling is free. in fact the government here in alberta will give you money to help with educational expenses… my family uses that money for books and field trips. as far as i know there is no fee for writing the standardized graduation tests… as long as you can pass, you’re good to go. they don’t care how you prepare, as long as you can do it.
ps: you don’t pay for teachers. you teach yourself, and your parents help… that is why keesa noted that it’s usually best to have one parent at home.
Ahh, I understand now. You’d need well-educated parents then.
I think it’s good that the government supports home schooling. I don’t think they do that here (I go to school in Germany). In England they might do, as I think the school receives a certain amount of money per student, which could just as well be given directly to the student. In Germany that would not work, though. I know how much money my school gets. It would work out at me getting maybe a euro a year from the government!
Anyway…
It sounds fun, but I’m not sure I’d like it really. I enjoy seeing my friends at school, and every teacher has a different view on life, their own philosophy as it were. I think I would miss it if I had to listen to what my parents thought all day (even though I agree more with my parents than I do with most teachers); it’s just refreshing sometimes.
But the best thing about home school must be, that no teacher can spoil a subject. I just hate teachers that really spoil a subject. I wasn’t bad at Latin, until I go this zombie teacher.
They don’t have exams here either, that a home-schooled student could take. It’s continual assessment system here, and how hard you work in class counts a lot too.
Here in Alabama, two options are open; if your parent is a certified teacher, then she (or he) can just teach you, and as long as you keep a good grade on the Stanford Achievement Test (different from the college entry SAT) you don’t have to worry about anything else. (The Stanford Achievement test is required every couple of years, to make sure you aren’t falling behind other children your age.)
If, on the other hand, neither parent is a certified teacher, you are then required to register with a cover or umbrella school, which is more a group than a school. A cover school can be either a school or a church; they are responsible for administering the tests, issuing diplomas, etc. You’re required to be under a cover school until age 16. However, you do have to pay yearly dues.
Because of that, we dropped my cover school as soon as I was old enough. Since I’m no longer under a cover school, I wasn’t given a diploma when I graduated, so I had to take the General Educational Developement test (GED), which is the equivalent of a high school diploma.
Keesa
that makes sense.
you know if or what you want to study, yet? or are you waiting for your results?
[quote author=Keesa link=board=6;threadid=548;start=0#4883 date=1061851013]
Here in Alabama, two options are open; if your parent is a certified teacher, then she (or he) can just teach you, and as long as you keep a good grade on the Stanford Achievement Test (different from the college entry SAT) you don’t have to worry about anything else. (The Stanford Achievement test is required every couple of years, to make sure you aren’t falling behind other children your age.)
If, on the other hand, neither parent is a certified teacher, you are then required to register with a cover or umbrella school, which is more a group than a school. A cover school can be either a school or a church; they are responsible for administering the tests, issuing diplomas, etc. You’re required to be under a cover school until age 16. However, you do have to pay yearly dues.
Because of that, we dropped my cover school as soon as I was old enough. Since I’m no longer under a cover school, I wasn’t given a diploma when I graduated, so I had to take the General Educational Developement test (GED), which is the equivalent of a high school diploma.
Keesa
[/quote]oh, it’s very different here in canada. the parents are not required to have any sort of certification… and I find that most homeschool parents don’t really do actually teaching anyway, except with very young children. They simply guide the curriculum and help with learning skills… most homeschooling that I’ve seen has been mainly self-directed by the child. We are also not required to do testing every two years… it is only the final graduation that counts. In fact the only restriction I can think of is that if you want government funding you have to show that you are at least partially sticking with the provincial curriculum… but even then you are pretty free to do whatever you like.
I want to major in English Literature in college. I’ve always wanted that, so my test scores won’t really alter that. They’re just required for my acceptance into college.
After my first four years of college, I plan to try to study Classics and English at Oxford University. Then, who knows? I may spend some time travelling Europe. As a writer, I have easy working hours, and I can write just about anywhere. ;D
Keesa
[quote author=klewlis link=board=6;threadid=548;start=0#4888 date=1061852633]
oh, it’s very different here in canada…[/quote]
It also varies from province to province here in Canada. I have a very good buddy who is at this exact moment in time in the process of moving from Edmonton to Peace River. She’s homeschooled her four kids in BC, Ontario and Alberta, and thus far, Alberta is by far the most encouraging. Ontario badly discouraged homeschooling - school funding there is also based on enrollment, which may have had something to do with it - and wanted school board members to be able to drop in at any time to see how the teaching was going. (Note that school board members don’t have to be any more educationally qualified than anyone else in society! They just have to get elected!) I don’t recall what BC did specifically, but the mandatory public school curriculum was beginning to get very weird, and at one point was telling parents that it wasn’t their business what their kids were learning in school(!!). To be fair, after an uproar, they did change their minds (and the curriculum) on this one…
The expensive part in BC comes from the fact that you have to purchase your own curriculum supplies. You can choose whichever means of doing the teaching that you’d like, but you do have to pay for workbooks, textbooks, teacher’s manuals, answer keys, and the like. This gets quite expensive! On the other hand, the curricula available to homeschoolers, from what I’ve seen, are several notches above what public schools are mandated to use!
There are also standardized tests across the country that all kids have to take at certain grade levels, and most if not all the provinces now have provincial exams that kids have to take in high school, to ensure that everyone has met a uniform standard (and, potentially, win provincial scholarships…)
A lot of people have commented that they don’t think that homeschooled kids get “properly socialized”; this assumes that school is the only place that kids interact with each other. Given things like scouts/guides, organized sports, swimming lessons, and on and on, this certainly isn’t the case! School socialization can be “anti-socialization”, too, which is a part of why my friend is homeschooling her kids - she didn’t want to see what happened to herself (and me - we got each other through high school) happen to them.
I have a lot of time for the people who decide to homeschool their kids - it is a majorly big undertaking, but I don’t see that it’s disadvantaging them in any way at all. The kids are able to learn at their own pace, rather than being held back to the slowest level, and it’s a lot easier in such a small class to see if someone is having trouble…
Kilmeny
oh yes I guess bc wasn’t as helpful–I was homeschooled there and we did have to pay for all the stuff but we also got to choose what we used… I ended up back in public school for the last three years and wrote the provincials there.
Alberta doesn’t have provincial exams, to my knowledge, and my younger brother and sister are currently being homeschooled here.
As for socialization, my brother is in air cadets and absolutely loves it, and they are both in music lessons and such. There are also lots of activities exclusively for homeschooled kids, where they get together and do things like putting on plays and going on field trips (we also had that in BC but it wasn’t as prominent waaaaaaaay back then!).
ps: what would possess your friend to move from edmonton to peace river??? I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars (well I might, provided I was allowed to move right back in a few weeks…)
I spent 8 months (cumulative) working in Peace River as a student because my dad lives there… hated it, dirty awful little town… I certainly wouldn’t want to raise kids there… they have more bars and drugs per capita than I’ve seen across northern alberta and bc… and Edmonton is so pretty and wonderful and perfect… 
Milito:
Ontario badly discouraged homeschooling - school funding there is also based on enrollment, which may have had something to do with it - and wanted school board members to be able to drop in at any time to see how the teaching was going. (Note that school board members don’t have to be any more educationally qualified than anyone else in society! They just have to get elected!)
Yes, Ontario is probably the most negative homeschooling environment in Canada. The enrollment quotas are insane and due to its funding ties, board members or even teachers in general often discourage parents who wish to homeschool. Case in point: This year I’ll be paying about $650 CDN for books for 1st year university courses, a friend of mine who will be entering Gr. 12 and is homeschooled is paying over $1500 for books b/c the tax breaks her parents are entitled to do not cover curriculum material. Ever since Mike Harris (former Premier of Ontario) introduced standardized provincial testing those who are homeschooled have had a measure of “freedom” taken away.
While I would have loved the opportunity to delve into topics that actually held my interest, I must admit that I enjoyed “slacking off” from time to time.
Keesa: Are one or both of your parents certified teachers? Most Americans I know rail against their area public schools so I doubt the problem is isolated in Alabama.
I don’t think very highly of the school systems anywhere in America, myself, but the Alabama system is the only one I’m even vaguely familiar with, and I know it isn’t worth a thing.
No, neither of my parents are teachers, unfortunately. I wish they were; it would have simplified things. Instead I was required to stay with my cover school until I was sixteen.
Other than the cover school requirement and the standardized tests every couple of years (which may be national requirements, and not limited to Alabama) it’s actually a very good and friendly environment for homeschoolers.
Keesa
I must admit that what I’ve heard of schools in America, they really don’t seem to be that good. Loads of people here went off to America for one year. Now they’ve returned with excellent high school certificates, for which they apparently did nothing at all. All year long they just partied and got top grades anyway, and they say they learned absolutely nothing in that one year (and they had to pay for going to school there! imagine, they paid to go to a private school and they taught them zero!).
You’re probably getting a much better education at home, though I’m sure there must be some good schools in America.
When you say you want to study at oxford, I suppose you mean oxford uni in England? If you want to get in there you have to prepare a lot and do a lot of research, unless you know someone who has been to school there. It’s really hard to get in there with out the backing of a private school or the advise of someone who went there themselves. I’m going to try for Cambridge, but I don’t expect I’ll have much luck and I don’t know anyone who could help me either.
The thing is, you’ll have to apply via UCAS (at least normally you have, may be different for overseas), and you also have to apply to a college, not the university itself. And there are so many colleges to choose from, you’ll want to look them up on the Oxford uni website and find out which one you want to go to. Don’t make the mistake of applying to the uni, you’ll have less chance of getting in then.
Then again… if it’s classics you want to study… not too many people will be trying for classics so you may be in luck.
I don’t mean to put you off or anything, just trying to help .
I say I want to “study at Oxford” only because I haven’t yet decided on the specific college. (It’s still several years away yet.) I am taking special care to prepare for it, both in the undergraduate courses I plan to take here in the States, in the amount of research I’m doing, and in the extracurricular activities I plan to participate in one I get into college here. I spend a lot of my life these days on their website.
What is “UCAS”? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that…
Thanks for your advice. I’m always on the lookout for good suggestions!
Keesa
UCAS is terrible! it’s a government institution. when i want to apply to a uni i have to do it through UCAS. so i have to fill in an UCAS form with like my top 10 unis i want to go to. they’ll send my details to all the unis and then tell me if my 1st choice is interested. if they don’t like the sound of me then they’ll tell me that my 2nd choice is interested and so on.
it’s very annoying and confusing!
go to www.ucas.ac.uk to find out more about this stupid system.
Down with UCAS! ;D
I have to agree with you, Emma - for some people, UCAS is a blessing b/c they only have to write one personal statement and so on - though I’d have preferred to contact each uni individually, tailoring what I send to the character of each uni…
To Keesa: for undergraduate degrees, applying to Oxford (or any UK university) happens through UCAS no matter where in the world you are. For postgraduate degrees, however - such as if you are applying after getting a first degree in the US - I believe you apply directly to the university.
On homeschooling:
This has been a fascinating thread so far, but one thing hasn’t come up (interestingly enough) is what happens when you move! I should think homeschooling certainly is an advantage there; having moved internationally 6 times and having attended 9 different schools, sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off homeschooled.
I also often get the feeling that education is hindered when you’re tied down to a syllabus. Granted, some amount of structure is necessary and having certain topics suggested can be a big help - but some systems are so stringent. There’s so much prescribed material there is no time for asides, and your thoughts are on meeting the exam/coursework requirements than actually learning the material!
homeschooling is very appealing to families that move a lot… and moving is very appealing to families that homeschool… i know my mom always wished we could afford to go on trips everywhere so that we could turn them into educational experiences… in fact last spring she took my little brother and sister on a roadtrip down to the grand canyon, stopping also at the cliff dwellings and other interesting places. it was very educational and she wrote an article on it for the local homeschooling magazine… so that’s cool.
while i definitely agree that education needs to be flexible and adaptive, i also think we can’t sacrifice the core elements… a lot of homeschooling tends towards “let them study what interests them” and they miss out on a lot of stuff that way. i know that had i only learned what i liked when i was a kid, i wouldn’t have learned the grammar, logic, and communication skills that were forced into me… and today i am so thankful to have them.
I’ve only moved once in the last ten years (exactly ten years ago, actually) but yes, homeschooling is easier to move with. You just grab your books and go. I didn’t move far enough to have to change my cover school; I imagine it would make it a little more difficult, but I can’t speak to that from personal experience.
Every two years, you have to take a standardized test that has certain subjects on it. As long as you pass the test, the government really doesn’t care how you learn the subjects. I probably have the strangest curriculum in the world, but I’ve really learned the material, and I do well on the tests.
Keesa