If I said that I was homeschooled just a couple of months ago, people will certainly ask me: “Homeschooling? How do you study? How do you socialize?”
Well, jokes on them; now, everyone is homeschooling. I now often ask the people who constantly asked me questions about homeschooling the same questions they asked me just to mildly annoy them.
Homeschooling used to be considered weird to some and I was considered strange to them. When I started homeschooling, people thought that it was weird and it was for kids who can’t socialize, have subpar academic skills; but now, homeschooling is known for popular people or artists who don’t have enough time to go to public schools.
Myth
Did you know that the word school derives from the Greek word σχολή (scholē)? Its original definition was “leisure” and “that in which leisure is employed”?
A myth of homeschooled kids that is we have problems with our social life. However, that isn’t true.
I have many people I can socialize with comfortably, ranging from people in my age group to people in their thirties.
I have no problem striking up a conversation with somebody ten years older than me and I am also comfortable socializing with people my age, or even younger than me.
Some people still consider homeschooling as hiring a private tutor(s) and continuing to study using a curriculum. That is just moving school to your house. That’s not homeschooling, but flexi-schooling.
Flexibility
In my opinion, homeschooling is probably one of the best studying methods out there for providing us flexible schedule and make us able to learn from anyone, from anywhere, anytime.
Homeschooling enables me to do some activities that I might not be able to do if I was public schooled, such as exploring myself to find out my talents and hobbies more and being able to go on trips on weekdays without worrying about school.
I can also work on projects that seem less important now but are valuable for my future, such as writing books and articles, designing logos and graphics, and making games.
Being a homeschooler makes it possible for me to study things that I may not be able to study if I were to be public schooled, such as coding (since I was six. Back then, being able to code was a rarity, since schools didn’t teach code yet), philosophy and advanced cosmology and astronomy.
I’ve always been a curious person since I was little and being homeschooled enhanced my curiosity and will to learn.
Motivation
My Mom always motivated me to do some research about everything I found interesting, whether from Googling, reading books or gaining information from people.
Because of that encouragement, I sometimes ask some “stupid” questions. Questions like “How much does a fart weigh?” But I also contemplate some more serious questions, mostly regarding our perception of the world and life, such as “Are your colors the same as my colors?” or “What are the chances of God, or even Gods, existing?”
My Mom always taught me to learn anywhere, anytime. Don’t be ashamed to learn from people younger than you or how stupid they may look.
She also taught me that you don’t have to be in a classroom to learn something. The universe could be your “classroom. It can be your main source of knowledge.
That mindset was engraved in my mind since I was about two years old and it has stayed with me. Thus, I’m willing to learn with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Cons
Even though I like being homeschooled, there are some cons to it. One of them is that I sometimes feel that it can be repetitive and boring.
Many of my friends often complain about how boring school is, how uninteresting the subjects are, how boring the teachers are and how they wish they could just be homeschooled.
What they don’t know is that I sometimes feel the same thing.
At times, I find myself not knowing what to do once it’s about four PM if none of my friends come over. Chores have been done, studies have been studied, books have been read, and games have been played. I usually just find myself sitting on the terrace of my house, petting my cats.
Everyone whether they’re public schooled or not has their problems and must deal with their boredom.
I sometimes feel an injustice towards homeschoolers or a bias towards public schoolers.
An example of the injustice I felt is when I was still attending golf courses; I heard that to earn a scholarship, you need to be public schooled because homeschoolers are “lazy and undisciplined”.
Meanwhile, maybe homeschoolers are as disciplined as public schoolers. How can they simply assume that homeschoolers aren’t disciplined? How disciplined a person is depending on the values their parents teach them and whether the child wants to implement those values in their life or not.
Even in some events, whether it is a science, mathematics or a sports event, several of those contests require you to be in a public school to participate for some reasons beyond my understanding.
Future System
Homeschooling has the best system for long term education because of its flexibility. Almost everyone out there implemented the philosophy of homeschooling into their lifestyle, ranging from kindergarten to college students. Learning from anyone, anywhere, anytime, that is the purest form of learning.
Being homeschooled can strengthen the bond between parents and their children, for they get to interact with each other more.
Children can also focus more on subjects they are more gifted and interested in. Although it may be draining for the parents, they can constantly learn new things and evolve along with the world along with their children.
* Azarel Christopher Singarimbun, 14 years old, is a homeschooled student from Indonesia. He started homeschooling at five years old
