Homeschool or public school?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>hey there, I need help.</p>

<p>I am 14, soon to be 15, and I am going to be a sophomore (high school.) I was homeschooled for my freshman year, and I applied and got into a public school that was better than the one that I would have had to go to if I went back to public school (the reason I am homeschooled now.)</p>

<p>I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go.</p>

<p>The reason why I want to go is for the high school experience, to make more friends (I have friends, but I don't always get to be around a diverse group of people,) and to get more time out of the house.</p>

<p>But, I want to graduate early, that won't happen if I go back. I'm almost mature for my age... not to the point that I find everything that people my age find funny or entertaining immature or something... but in school, you have a lot of immature people that start drama, and I can't stand that. </p>

<p>Also, I'm on different grade levels at everything. I'm a little low in math, really high in English, and at grade level with science and social studies.</p>

<p>The main reason I want to go back to public school is because no one in my family has ever graduated from high school. My mom left school at 17, just a few months before graduation. My dad didn't get out of the 9th grade, my oldest brother didn't finish, my other brother and my oldest sister both dropped out of the 10th grade, and my other sister also dropped out of the 10th grade. Both of my sisters passed the GED with high scores, though. My brothers are 30 and 18 and neither one of them have gotten theirs. My dad has never even seriously considered getting his, and my mom got hers about a week before she would have graduated.</p>

<p>If I could afford a distance learning high school, I would finish that way. I would definitely count it as graduating high school... except a lot of my family members wouldn't. Their idea is that anyone 14+ that is homeschooled is a drop out. Dumb idea, but yeah, they're pretty closed-minded..</p>

<p>But, anyway, if I stay homeschooled, chances are, I'll be doing home study until I turn 16, and then taking the GED test and either taking some time off or going to the local CC. I have no problem with taking the GED... but my whole family is expecting me to be the first to finish high school... so I'm not sure what to do.</p>

<p>I need advice. Help?</p>

2

<p>do HS its one of the best times of your life</p>

3

<p>Why don't you make a list of the pros and cons and then see how you feel about it. In some regards, going to public school can make it easier for you especially when applying to colleges (if you plan to go that route). Getting adequate advanced classes while home-schooling can be a challenge. Do you have resources / help/ tutors for courses like algebra, geometry, pre-calculus? Chemistry, physics? It might be easier for you to find the help you need with the advanced classes in a school setting. </p>

<p>Look at it this way, if it doesn't work out for you, you can alway drop out at 16 and take that GED. I would, however, encourage you to do the very best that you can and stick with the public school program until graduation - I don't think that you will ever regret doing that and if you do well, it should provide you with many opportunities for your future. (Home-schooling can too, but you have to have the necessary resources/help/tutoring to make it really work well).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>I enjoyed HS alot, made alot of cool friends, participated in activities. its all how you look at it though, if you want to spend alot of time on graduating early, i suppose you could do home school, but then again you can do AP classes and stuff at HS. were you home schooled during jr/middle school?</p>

5

<p>I did not enjoy high school, although I had several excellent teachers and attended what was actually a very good school. The problem was my classmates. As your post mentions, there was a lot of immaturity and nonsense that detracted from the learning experience.<br>
I ended up attending a local college for my senior year as a dual-enrolled student, and it felt like being set free. </p>

<p>Anyway, I homeschool my kids now, but we have access to courses through a resource center run by our local school district, distance ed classes, and community college classes. It would be much harder to homeschool without these resources, and it sounds like you're pretty much on your own from what you wrote. You might be better off in the high school just because you'd have access to teachers, labs, language instruction, etc. It's really hard to have to self study EVERYTHING.</p>

<p>It also sounds as if you'd only homeschool for 1 more year if you stuck with homeschooling, and then you'd take the GED. It seems to me that you'd be shortchanging yourself by not taking the full 4 years to get through a typical high school courseload. Are you considering a 4-year college at all?</p>

6

<p>To the OP-</p>

<p>A very mature post. It sounds to me that you are about ready for college. My bias is to start taking college courses where it make sense to you and avoid high school entirely. I have to think that if family members see you in college the whole "high school" issue will start to fade in importance.
One issue is state law. In my state home schooled students are entitled to take public high school course on an "a la carte" basis so long as there is room- such as a foreign language or a lab science. If that is available, that may or may not appeal to you. Also in my state you can just print out a high school diploma if you are home schooled and have covered the areas of knowledge.
My first two home schoolers were admitted to college without anyone asking for such a thing as a high school diploma. If they had been asked, they just would have printed one out. My guess is that they would have favored a "Hogwarts" sort of style, but I guess I'll never know.</p>

7

<p>Yes during my senior year i took some college classes, along with staying in high school, it was very good and its a great advantage, i took them in high school so it was less money and now they are out of my way so i can do other classes, plus it counted for high school credit too. I onlt did a couple cause i still wanted to have a senior year for high school, hand with friends.</p>

8

<p>I homeschooled through 6th grade. I am a rising sophomore. I mix and match my high school classes with dual enrollment classes. Perhaps that would work for you. In California, community college classes are free (sans books) for high schoolers.</p>