(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

I have a question for anyone who's been homeschooled or knows someone who's been homeschooled. How exactly do you graduate? I mean, I'd guess you just take a GED, but is that all you have to do? And if you hit fourteen or fifteen or something and you've reached whatever requirements you need to finish, you can just do that, right?

Don't mind me. I'm debating whether or not to have one of my characters be homeschooled.

*sigh* You know, if I replaced "characters" with "children," that might not sound so damn silly.

Comments

[telaryn.livejournal.com]

Your local school board should have all the necessary information you need -- the particulars vary from state to state, district to district. Check their website.

Here in Florida (I'm in the second year of homeschooling my twelve year old daughter), they've done away this year with "grade designations" for homeschooled kids. You're required to have your kid tested/reviewed every year by a person certified by the school board to administer the appropriate tests -- beyond that, they don't much care unless you can prove that the child is significantly behind the expected schooling for their age.

As far as finishing early -- yes, it is possible that if a fourteen year old or so can prove that they're versed in all the educational requirements that state requires for finishing high school, they can be considered finished.

They can then sit for the GED, or a lot of districts have started having graduations for homeschooled kids, where they get the ceremony and diploma and everything.

Hope this helps -- I'd definitely hit your state's Dept. of Education website to learn more (or you can e-mail me at telaryn at gmail dot com -- I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll answer what I can).

[conuly]

Some people do take GEDs, but others don't, as they feel it hinders them more than it helps. Those people might take a lot of AP tests, or not, and just apply to college at a certain age. They don't have to "graduate".

[agonystar.livejournal.com]

Woohoo, I may very well be the first person to comment on this. :) I got my GED although I had the option of completing my senior year at the public high school. And yes, as far as I know, you can graduate as early as you want as long as you have all the requirements out of the way.

[tardis-chan.livejournal.com]

Woohoo, I may very well be the first person to comment on this.

lol

Didn't happen. :P

[telaryn.livejournal.com]

you can prove that the child is significantly behind the expected schooling for their age.

Wow -- just showed my conversational incompetance there, huh? Blame it on the Ewan coming on my television screen. :)

What I *meant* to say was "unless you can't prove that the child is performing according to the expected standards for their age group".

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

I'm debating whether or not to have one of my characters be homeschooled.

I actually read that as children. Then I read what you said afterwards, and got confused. Too tired to be online. Yet here I am. *Headdesk*

[tsiankiio.livejournal.com]

A lot of people homeschool with a curriculum like Seton (Trad. Catholic) or Abeka (Bob Jones University) and the curriculum people keep transcripts and such for you and at the end you pass a specific number of credits and they "graduate" you from their program and you send their transcripts into colleges. Or your parents keep detailed curricula for all your classes and when you've completed whatever state requirements there are you apply for college. Taking the GED is usually kind of a bad idea. Most colleges will look at a homeschool graduation diploma with a back up curriculum and possibly a portfolio of work as a much better option.

[tardis-chan.livejournal.com]

I never really "graduated" from homeschooling, because I went back to high school after homeschooling from grades 6-9.

Wheeeeee.

[topaz08.livejournal.com]

Here in Michigan, a student is required to have a certain amount of hours of study, only a few required subjects. There is no testing unless you want to get it done, not required. Once they have their hours, they are considered graduated.

[magarettt.livejournal.com]

Do home-schooled Michigan kids have to take the MEAP?

[topaz08.livejournal.com]

Nope. Nothing. Or at least they didn't have to 4 years ago.

[gramaraye.livejournal.com]

i'm in Oklahoma, graduated from homeschooling a little over 10 years ago. I was in the Abecka (prev. mentioned) program, but i don't believe they did that transcript thing back then. I took the ACT test during my senior year, and all the other local seniors and i got together and had a graduation. i got a diploma thats signed and all, but probably not official in the strictest sense. i did have a teensy bit of trouble getting into college because i didn't have an official seal from the state board of education, but i did eventually get in. we had records of the type of classes i took, amount of hours, and that ACT score.

[genno.livejournal.com]

In Montana, a kid can totally disappear when being homeschooled. There are no rules about it except that a parent can take a kid out of school just by signing on the line.

Okay. Here I go.

[wicked-dragon-x.livejournal.com]

I'm 15 and homeschooled. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me -- I've been out of public school since I was 7.

I use an "umbrella school" called Clonlara. They do not advocate any curriculum (though they support whatever you want to do, unless you're getting a Home Ec credit by cooking babies). I do not use any curriculum: we have timesheets, where I keep track of the number of hours I spend on the required subjects and electives, and I get credits, like in normal school. When I have enough credits I can graduate, with a real diploma from a real private school.

The way you get credits can be pretty much anything. We buy old textbooks at the thrift store, and I also check stuff out and all. I pretty much teach myself the stuff (I get some help on math from my mom, since I suck at it), especially the electives (linguistics, graphic design, web design, sociology, etc.)
Phys Ed. (required) can be acquired by hiking, gardening, skating, bowling, running around like a maniac (and wielding a sword *cough*) with your friends for an hour.

Um... dang, it's hard to answer when I don't have anything specific to say.

Anyway. I'm planning on graduating a year early (I've heard of, and spoken to, other people who graduated at 13, 14, 15). As I said, I get a diploma and all, and Clonlara even has a graduation ceremony. They used to have a yearly conference, with a big dance (the best kind ever, completely informal, where one year a guy showed up in a kilt and no one batted an eye, and the entire room got together to sing songs from Grease).

A family I'm friends with doesn't use Clonlara -- the oldest, Rachel, got a G.E.D. (with only a small hitch, where the stupid people lost her essay and she had to write a new one) and got accepted very quickly into ATI (Agricultural Technical Institute), a branch of Ohio State University.

Homeschoolers can be accepted into any university -- Clonlara's had a few go on to Yale, even. Even total unschoolers (no curriculum whatsoever).

Well. As I said, if you have any other questions, just ask me.

Re: Okay. Here I go.

[topaz08.livejournal.com]

Hey! I started my kids at Clonlara for their first year!! Cool!

Re: Okay. Here I go.

[wicked-dragon-x.livejournal.com]

HEY! I don't think I have EVER randomly stumbled upon another Clonlara family.

So, how old are your kids?

Re: Okay. Here I go.

[topaz08.livejournal.com]

20 & 23.

Re: Okay. Here I go.

[wicked-dragon-x.livejournal.com]

Ohh, okay. From the way you phrased it it sounded like "I JUST started my kids at Clonlara".

Actually, I think it's just my general lack of brains tonight.

Anyway. Were they just in for their first year? And if so, why did you pull them out? (I know that money is a big reason for a lot of people to leave Clonlara, and some people have gotten tired of the contact teachers).

Re: Okay. Here I go.

[topaz08.livejournal.com]

They were just there the first year, but then we moved.

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has a younger brother who was home schooled. He just "graduated" by taking the GED.

Every year he had to go to Erie (I'm in Pittsburgh, PA - there is probably a city closer to your side of the state that does this too) for competency exams to make sure he was actually learning something.

If you need more details on how the system works here (I'm pretty sure I remember reading that you set your novel in PA), let me know and I can talk to my friend.

[unanon.livejournal.com]

When I was set to enter elementary school (Kindergarden? What Kindergarden?) my sib, Mir, had just spent her first year in Junior High...and celebrated by developing a (rather age-appropriate) habit of mouthing off to our parents. My very-old-world parents, never ones to beat around the bush, yanked her out of public school and placed both of us in a 'Christian school' held in a church in a nearby village. I never knew any different, but for Mir it was like being sentenced to purgatory.

The curriculum was a learn-at-your-own-pace system called ACE: Accelerated Christian Education. (http://www.schooloftomorrow.com) Basically you complete 12 booklets (called Paces) per subject per school year. I finished 1st grade in six weeks and merrily whisked through more. It was a very socially-important time for me, as it was my first contact with children who were anywhere near my age-mates (aside from the 2 hours of church on Sundays). I got into my first fist fight, suffered the agony of childhood crushes (*cries for the Barker brothers still*) and generally flourished.

The Paces for the younger grades generally ran a Christian-morality-based comic strip designed to illustrate general values, etc... (the characters were boring as fuck, but my (already a great Archie-fan) comic-loving heart clung to them. There also were little places at the end of a lesson designed to help you memorize a Bible passage...one passage per Pace. These were tedious, but sometimes NOW I realize how much actually got into my brain.

Around the time I was 14 or so I'd already dropped out of the Mexican Public school system I had been attending in addition to the homeschooling for socialization purposes (there were paperwork issues that they began to demand). I started breezing through my Paces pretty swiftly; I finished enough booklets by 16, got my high-school diploma in the mail, and was off to college. Lickety-split.

College did what it was supposed to do: teach me how to think critically (when necessary); however, having been raised with an education system that taught Creationism alongside 'poor misguided Darwin' I think my ability to make up my own mind was already fairly well-developed.

There are certain aspects in which home-schooling is severely lacking, IMO. In addition to the need for socialization (one that I filled by going to Mexican public school in addition to homework) there's the lack of hands-on experience in science labs, the lack of equipment (I didn't touch a computer until I was in college), and the lack of competition. Also, there were times I could have used actual instruction or tutoring (especially in higher mathematics) but none was available for me.

Granted, I see parents of home-schooled children try very hard to meet these additional challenges to their child's education. They form groups for socialization, peer study and tutoring, etc... Very few are isolationist religious freaks. *grin*

I'll tell you this. If I ever have children they will be homeschooled. I've heard far too many horror stories just in our tiny local school system. There's no way I'd ever feel comfortable leaving my child in the hands of the State...that is, assuming I love it at all.

[abbylee]

On the other hand, some homeschoolers have more opportunity for hands-on experience :D

Sometimes the lack of competition is a good thing, in that kids don't know where they're "supposed" to be and instead can focus on where they are ready to be. Kids have the opportunity to finish grade one in six weeks and move on to something else so that they're always challenged. Or they can spend two years figuring out addition so that they aren't lost when they move on to the next step.

I'm adding, not arguing. I very much believe that each kid works best in a different setting. I can very much see myself homeschooling my own children (when I have them), but I also appreciated my own public (and parochial) education.