KF Members Who Homeschooled

Patrick · KF Administrator

I was also homeschooled. I don't think I knew that about you, John.

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Zaine · Black Belt

I don't believe it's ever come up before! It's funny to find other homeschooled people in the wild. You never know where we are.
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DarthPenguin · Pre-Black Belt

Pardon the tangent but i am curious about the homeschooling (it is something that rarely happens over here) . How does it work? Does the education board give an ideal list of topics that would need to be covered for exams or do your parents just teach as they see fit? I assume you still get to register for exams etc though?

Apologies for the nosiness!

Zaine · Black Belt

It largely depends on the state. Each state has standards that can be different. Texas, where I am and grew up, has pretty lax standards for homeschooling.

While there are public standards that someone can look up and go through available for any state, my parents mostly bought various curricula depending on where I was in the learning process. There were a lot of group activities for me. We tied ourselves to a group where we would present a project once a month based on different subjects. I didn't have tests, I just moved on when I had mastered a subject. I didn't take a test until my SATs, which marked my graduation. After that, Texas allowed my father to write a notarized note saying that I have graduated and then I was done. I had a lot of freedom to study what I wanted. When it came to English, I got to read what I wanted and write reports on those books. I got to study what I wanted for history and social studies as well.

At the end of the day, if I could do it differently I probably would. I don't regret my education, but I do think that I might have been better served in a traditional school environment.
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DarthPenguin · Pre-Black Belt

Sounds interesting - i assume having parents with a broad education / level of knowledge makes a massive difference. I can imagine some people really struggling to teach maths/physics/computer science without a related background.

Sounds like it worked out well for you though (i think you have mentioned you have a masters degree before so they must have done a good job!)

Zaine · Black Belt

I do have an M.A.! Thank you! Funnily enough, my parents didn't have a formal, college education. They were very much into a free exploration type of education. Their philosophy was that if we could teach it to them effectively, then we were adept enough in it to move on. My siblings and I were pulled out of school because of my ADHD. I only ever had one teacher, who was my last elementary school teacher, who was ever good enough of a teacher to handle a kid with ADHD. My parents took my proclivity to be distracted and worked it to my advantage. It allowed me to jump from subject to subject at will in a fun way.

Ironically enough, my mother ended up getting her Bachelors and is now a high school teacher. Special education and working with ADHD kids has changed so much. Were I a kid now, I would probably have stayed in traditional school.

Now that I'm thinking about it, KarateForums actually played a role in my education. Karate counted as my physical education and I wrote more than one paper about Karate. A lot of the information I got outside of my Sensei came from this website.
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Patrick · KF Administrator

I decided to go ahead and split this off into its own conversation. My initial first post above was from the PS5 thread, where Zaine had said:

Patrick · KF Administrator

Thank you for sharing your story, John. I appreciated the opportunity to read it.

When I talk to people about homeschooling, they may have a preconceived notion of it because of some media portrayal or an anecdotal experience or two or just how they think of the idea. Homeschoolers can be the butt of a lot of jokes.

Ultimately, homeschoolers are a pretty diverse group, especially in 2023.

Adding to what John said, DarthPenguin, I'd just say that teachers teach curriculum, teaching takes many forms, and there is more to teaching than having a degree. There are amazing teachers out there, and bad teachers, and everything in between, and I respect the profession.

As John's story illustrates, it's a big world with a lot of people with a lot of needs.

In the best light, homeschooling is a way to tailor education to a student's strengths, as opposed to a standardized approach that maybe doesn't work as well for some, and they are graded as such.

I think homeschooling can be great. I think homeschooling can be bad.

I think public education can be great. And also bad. And I think the same of most other forms of education. You'll find great stories and horror stories of all of the above.

I am the oldest of 3. I was homeschooled K-12, graduated high school a year early, and was already working in online community, moderation, trust, and safety, and just dove in. I have a high school diploma from an actual accredited school where we sent my work off to. I took the SATs.

I know you didn't mean anything like this, DarthPenguin, but just to say... my parents didn't do a poor job because I don't have a master's.

Anymore than public education did poorly with a student who decides not to go further. Ironically, I have spoken to classes at several major universities.

My parents did a great job because they offered me flexibility and encouraged me to find what I was interested in. Even if they didn't always understand why I was on the computer so much, they supported me. I never felt pressure to go to college or to just go get any job.

Just to share a bit more of the differences, my middle brother used Penn Foster's program for high school (they send you the curriculum), and has a BA from a major university. My youngest brother also did Penn Foster, but opted not to go to college.

My wife, who was not homeschooled, has a BA from a major university and a master's degree, too. I respect the commitment and dedication that required. I have a 1 year old, and we're leaning toward public education but we have a couple of years. We'll see where life takes us! Again, big world. I'm pretty flexible on this stuff.

I had a lot of the flexibility John expressed, but I'm also different in some ways. For example, I used to take end-of-year standardized tests to gauge where I was. And depending on where we lived, I would go to the school and meet yearly with someone at the local school just to satisfy their general interest that I was moving along. For a time, I went to gym at my local public school, because I enjoyed it. I also took art and music for a while in elementary school. Though my Mom did get mad when the art teacher said I used colors in the wrong order once.

Personally, I loved the flexibility and freedom. To be able to be done with school in a much shorter time and move onto other things... like starting KarateForums.com. This place almost certainly wouldn't exist if I hadn't been homeschooled. It's funny because I just met in-person with James Dasher (jdash here, member #2), who was also homeschooled for a time. And we talked about homeschooling while I gave him my quick, personal tour of Hollywood.

But it's not for everyone. Anyway, this got way too long. Hope you find it worthwhile.

Thanks for asking.
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DarthPenguin · Pre-Black Belt

Thanks for the info Patrick, it was a really interesting read - totally hope i didn't inadvertently offend! Actually my personal view is that education is a very nuanced subject - getting good grades does not mean that the teacher is good (the pupil may have got them regardless) and the same for poor grades. Tbh I have also met plenty of people with 'good' degrees that were not the cleverest (one surprising example was a former colleague who had a Phd in Maths from an excellent ivy league university and was so inept that she eventually was let go as clients wouldn't let her work in their buildings - even for free!).

I can see a lot of benefits to home schooling actually - sitting the SATs as you both did seems to be a sensible idea as i assume it means that there are no glaring holes or omissions in the variety of areas that have been covered. Home schooling allows the learning to be tailored to the needs of the learner too i imagine, so weak points can be easily addressed and areas of strength identified

Again, hopefully there was no accidental offence - totally wasn't my intention, i didn't even think of that as a possibility!

sensei8 · KF Sensei

Greatly appreciate you sharing about yourself, Patrick; thank you.

I'm the product of the public school system in California. When I was going to school in California, homeschooling was illegal. I graduated from high school in 1975.

Homeschooling in California has only been legal since 1985 when a homeschool law was enacted by the state legislature. In 1984, the state’s compulsory attendance law, which stated that parents had to send their kids to a public or state accredited school, was ruled void by two judges due to its lack of clarity about private schools. In August 2008, the court issued a new decision unanimously reversing its earlier decision and the Court further stated that homeschooling was legal in California. The state’s current homeschool statute was passed into law in 2003.

I wish I had had the opportunity to have been homeschooled because of a chance of the 1-on-1 teaching model. A student can be overlooked amongst a crowded classroom.

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