I was homeschooled from Kindergarten through 12th grade. As someone who was homeschooled, I am limited to my own experience and perceptions. When I started high school through my community college last year, I was not even aware of what subjects I would need to study. However, my parents and other homeschool parents often told… Continue reading Homeschooling and the Dunning-Kruger Effect
I was homeschooled from the ages of 4 to 18. I was isolated and treated like an extra parent and teacher for my younger siblings. My work for the family business and around the house was underpaid or unpaid altogether. I learned more about Christian conservative politics than about core subjects like history, math, and… Continue reading Different Approaches to Homeschooling
In Christian homeschool speech and debate, we were told that we were learning logic and critical thinking. What we learned was a kind of feigned intellectualism, one that behaves under the pretense that the most reasonable reaction to anything is no reaction at all. Almost without fail, the winning competitors were charismatic and attractive, smooth… Continue reading Heartlessness and Hate, Part 2
Many people have asked me about speech and debate and whether it helped me with my communication and critical thinking skills. Now that a decade has passed, I can say with certainty that it did not. Years of frustration with speech and debate eventually led to some relative competitive success, but I had to sacrifice… Continue reading Heartlessness and Hate, Part 1
I was severely unprepared for adulthood in every way. I had been indoctrinated to view the entire world through a religious lens. This meant that I thought the world was small. I lacked (and still lack) the professional and social skills needed to attain and maintain gainful employment. I also lack the skills needed to… Continue reading I am an Ignorant Adult
The prevailing myth surrounding homeschooling is that it is a superior form of education. The problem is that homeschooling is such a broad and vague categorization. A wide variety of experiences exist. Furthermore, it is difficult to objectively judge one’s own quality of education. I know because when I first “graduated,” I believed that I… Continue reading Homeschooling as Indoctrination
I was taught primarily for religious and political purposes, not to prepare me for independence in adulthood. My high school transcript, and the fact that I wrote it myself, demonstrates how little I was taught. For me, being homeschooled meant that my access to information was severely limited by what my parents thought was true.… Continue reading My Homeschool Transcript