How Were You Schooled? Part 2: Private Schools

Missed Part 1: Homeschooling?  Catch up HERE

In short form, I was homeschooled from fourth grade through to my freshman year of high school.  My parents decided to put me into a "brick-and-mortar" school at that time because they didn't want to take any chances where scholarships or university admissions were concerned. They enrolled me in a small private school attached to our protestant Christian church.  Classes were small, and they offered accelerated courses for students who wanted the more challenging academic route.  It seemed promising.

Being totally honest, I have a lot of mixed feelings about attending a school that used a religiously biased curriculum.  Private Christian schools in the south/southwest are different than the Catholic schools in the North.  The school I attended required that each student be a Christian, moral codes are enacted, and the curriculum was religious (taught only Creationism, evolution in a disagreeable light, science and history was told in a Christian light, etc.)  Catholic schools here in Chicago also often have moral codes, but the Bible is taught in a literary manner, the curriculum is usually unbiased, and any student can attend, Catholic or not.  I explain these differences so that my readers in both the North and the South understand the very distinct differences.

For me, now that I have some years and a college degree between me and high school, I wouldn't advocate for education that has a religious bias.  It's one thing for the atmosphere of the school to encourage a particular religious point of view or create religious literacy (which I totally advocate for), but I dislike the idea of an entire curriculum that edits everything toward that viewpoint.  I was at a significant disadvantage in college, because I knew very little about evolution and scientific initiatives that didn't jive with the Christian church.  My high school history courses ignored the fact that our founding fathers were NOT all Christians - in fact the textbooks bordered on total misrepresentation in that department.  I felt like the textbooks were trying to tell me what to think instead of equipping me to make my own decisions.

I think, when I'm a mom, I'd be willing to look into Catholic school or a secular private school.  Here in Chicago, depending on the suburb/neighborhood, we have some pretty great public schools, as well, which I'd be open to.  However, I am NOT open to any school that uses a religiously biased set of textbooks.  You can't just ignore parts of history that happened, and misrepresenting history really makes me angry.  History is one of the greatest ways to understand humanity, and to do better.  How can you learn, if it's not represented accurately?  Don't even get me started on the proposed TX textbook changes.  I can't even talk about them without making myself apoplectic.

Every school has significant pros and cons - it's normal.  At my school, I met several peeps with whom I am still dear friends.  I had a number of teachers that were great.  I started developing socially (my BFA in Theatre finished that off... you can't really be shy in theatre school).  I learned how to be an academic self-starter.  I also got into the university of my choice without a hitch, since I graduated from a "normal" school.

As you can see, I have a lot of mixed feelings about my high school experience, mainly due to the way I later found out that several of my textbooks were so strongly biased.  To me, schools should focus on learning and equipping you to make your own choices, NOT telling you what those choices should be.  To me, producing graduates who think for themselves is a school's highest achievement. 

Did you attend a private high school?  How about a public high school?  No school is perfect, but I'd be interested in hearing what were the pros and cons for you?

How Were You Schooled? Part 1: Homeschooling

(Click photo for source)I was homeschooled for a goodly portion of my education - from fourth through eighth grades, and I attended private schools for the other years.  We are lucky to live in a nation where we are afforded all kinds of educational choices.  In so many other places in the world, children are not guaranteed the opportunity to go to grade school, much less to a university.  For the most part, if you live in our country and want to attend school, you can.  We aren't turned away from a classroom based on financial need.  Right there, we have something huge to be thankful for!

Homeschoolers get started for all kinds of reasons.  My parents decided to homeschool us because my mother felt she could give me the best education of the options afforded to us.  She has a Masters degree in Education and was already a teacher when she met my father.  A1 qualified.  However, some other homeschoolers get into it because they want to control the kinds of moral influences exerted on their children.  They want to shield them from "bad kids" or from adults that might teach students against the parents' belief systems.  So that's two major reasons behind homeschooling.  Some want to provide a better education, some want to protect their family's belief systems - some are going for both.  Just the facts.

There are all kinds of homeschoolers out there. 

• Some are traditionalists who select a standard curriculum that models after a standard/average school and may be protected under an umbrella program that monitors the students' progress. 
• You may have heard of "unschooling", which allows children to seek out what they want to study - areas of study are dictated by the student, rather than the other way around.  Unschoolers take the approach that life is the best teacher and every moment is an opportunity for learning. 
• Some homeschoolers use "e-schooling", a correspondance-style course - kind of like an online university for grade schoolers. 

Even within all those types of schooling, there are differences, particularly among the traditionalists.  Some homeschoolers follow a strict daily schedule with lots of work, and others are a bit more laid-back... just as brick-and-mortar schools differ from location to location, class to class.  I would venture to say my siblings and I attended a freaking difficult homeschool.  We not only studied all of the "average" subjects, but my parents thought it'd be fun to add Creative Writing and Geography to the mix, just to make us mad.  We had daily reading, research, project, and writing assignments, as well as classtime with our mother.  Our school day went from about 9a until 6p Monday through Friday, with a lunch break.  This might seem long, but I bet it's pretty average when you count in the time needed for homework that the average student brings home.

My homeschool years were extremely challenging.  However, for as much as I complained and argued with my mother about grades, study time, and project accuracy, I see now the educational gift I received.  My parents sent us to a standard high school so that we could have more opportunities for college scholarships.  Despite the fact that my parents knew they had done an outstanding job with our education (and our state-mandated testing proved it), colleges are iffy on homeschoolers sometimes.  They didn't want to take any chances as far as us getting into the universities of our choice.  I graduated a National Merit Scholar with a number of scholarship offers, and I was extremely lucky to get to go to my first choice university.  I don't say this to brag, but to indicate that homeschooling can succeed mightily when done well.  My mother is a great teacher and she gave all of us a matchingly great education.  I am so thankful we had that option!

One of the biggest criticisms of homeschooling is a lack of social skills development.  I totally agree that it's pretty impossible to teach social skills at home, even in a really big family like mine.  To me, it's a really subjective decision.  Yes, standard schools provide many opportunities for positive social skill-building, but... they are also hot beds of extreme bullying and cruelty.  SO I see both sides to that.

I am definitely pro homeschooling, when it makes the most sense.  There are pros and cons to any educational choice a family makes.  Sometimes homeschooling's biggest con is the development of social skills.  Sometimes brick-and-mortar school's biggest con is each individual student learning the way they need, to their fullest potential.  You have to choose which pros/cons are most important to you.

So that's my story - Next, I'll talk about education in a private school setting.  I'd love to hear from other homeschoolers out there...  Or really anyone with questions, ideas, anything to help us all learn!