An Average Homeschooler: Part Eight, In Summation

“What gets identified as the ‘fringe’ group is the sort of homeschooling culture I’ve spent the last few days describing: conservative religious (they might say ‘fundamentalist’) homeschooling. However, these groups are not as fringe as they’ve been portrayed.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Seven, Graduate School

“Like all stories, mine is messy, and nuanced, and there isn’t any one thing to point fingers at. However, homeschooling was a part of my experience. It is one of the reasons why adulthood is still a struggle for me.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Six, College

“The night before I left for college, I was a gigantic mess. I was all packed, all ready to go, when I about had a meltdown and my mother stayed up with me late that night trying to talk me out of my tree. I was panicking — absolutely positive that college was going to be nightmarish.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Five, High School Textbooks

“I have very clear memories of my high school experience. I remember the way all the books looked, I remember specific passages and illustrations. I remember quizzes and homework problems. 10th grade was A Beka biology, grammar, and history, BJUPress geometry and literature.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Four, Junior High

“Junior high is mostly when I started understanding how much pressure I was under. I realized that one of the reasons why homeschooling is considered superior to all other forms of education is that homeschoolers are ‘better-educated’ and ‘smarter.’ We test better. We’re better-read… And, in junior high, I became one of them. Suddenly, it was my job to convince everyone that I was fantastic.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Three, Middle School

“Middle school is where we first ran into problems with my education. Up until that point I remember being a pretty easy kid to homeschool. But when we hit middle school, all I can remember is either being incredibly bored or hating school.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part Two, The Beginning

“When I got home from school that day and tried to explain to my mother what I’d ‘learned,’ her reaction was, of course, rather horrified. We’d practically held a séance in class. I didn’t go back to school, and that was when my mother officially began homeschooling me.”

An Average Homeschooler: Part One, Introduction

“There were some very good things about my education that you can hear from a lot of other homeschoolers — a love of reading, unbridled curiosity, and plenty of time to explore. However, even those incredibly positive, valuable things have their downsides. I’m going to be brutally honest, and sharing my experiences is going to be complicated, and messy, but as nuanced and balanced as I can make it.”