Faith’s Homeschool Story

 

Perhaps the most valuable tool I gained from being homeschooled was learning to think for myself. Let me explain.

When I was in 6th grade, I begged my mom to try public school. I couldn’t even make it one month before begging to be homeschooled again.

As a homeschooled child, I was treated like an adult. I was awarded with responsibilities that matured me and helped establish my self-worth and self-confidence as an individual.

In public school, I had to raise my hand to speak. Otherwise, I was censored and punished. I had to ask PERMISSION to go to the bathroom to take care of feminine needs and bodily functions. Even my meals were scheduled, like a prison ward. Please tell me how this works in any kind of adult job environment. It doesn’t.

Furthermore, when I was verbally abused and even name-called by one of my teachers and reported it to my parents as well as the school principal, both the teacher and principal called me a liar and refused to acknowledge the abuse. That was the final straw for me that made me realize that I wanted to return to homeschooling, because I valued being treated as an individual human being. I valued thinking for myself and being taken care of seriously by other adults.

In that one month I tried public school, they tried to reverse and destroy all of that for me. I saw in firsthand in the way my peers had toxic relationships with one another and were a walking fuse of bottled down emotional trauma. Because unlike me, they had never been treated like an adult before and didn’t know how to use their voices. All they knew was survival mode and conformity, because the alternative was abuse. There was no morale character being built, and this was evident in how many of the students used cheating as an emergency mechanism when they were berated for not keeping up with the rest of the class, and engaging in disruptive behavior as a way of crying out for help and much-deserved attention.

If there is one ability that I believe every individual should have that will prove successful in the advancement of any career, relationship, family, and so forth, it is most certainly the ability to think for oneself. The most important life sustaining values that follow it, such as self-worth, self-confidence, and self-character, are imperative things to know in life. And I can certainly say that public school did not teach any of those things to me, but rather tried to destroy them. Nonetheless, I consider it a life-altering experience that I will passionately use to share with parents and children alike.