For Indiana, what is there to know about Home Schooling?

Anyone know about home schooling ?

• im 15, turning 16 next month. regular schooling doesnt give me the right help i need, so me and my mother thought about home schooling after i turn 16. any home schooling websites ? ...show more

• Answer:

  Be sure to look up the homeschooling laws in your state...each state gets to decide their education laws, so what works for you in Ohio is gonna change once you move to Georgia or for your buddy in Michigan. Local homeschool support groups are pretty good for this; try Googling your nearest metro city with the words “homeschool support” to find a few near you. Some places will want you to submit your curriculum ahead of time for “approval” (almost always a formality); other states don’t even require that you tell them you’re homeschooling, you just stop going to school one day and that’s that. The next thing to realize is that there's a whole spectrum of what's called "homeschool." Some people sign up with an online version of public school; that’s really technically not “homeschool,” since you're counted as public school student and you’re assigned a teacher, a strict schedule, and predetermined workload assigned by the school district, etc. The Dirty Little Secret here is that the district gets to keep the federal funds for you, as you’re a public school student this way. (Quite obviously, your school district will like this option best. Often when one queries the school as to the options available for “homeschool,” the school administrators will smile sweetly and mention just such an arrangement, conveniently omitting the rest of your options. This “lie by omission” quietly implies that this is the one and only way “homeschooling is done.” There’s a quite a debate in the homeschooling community about whether or not this constitutes an effort by the educational bureaucracy to redefine the meaning of homeschool, and what effect that would have on legislation and regulation of more traditional homeschool. But I digress.) Thankfully, the rigged game isn't the only one in town. Another route chosen by some people is to buy materials from the curriculum companies and enroll with online schools, but they're "independent" of the school districts, and they don't owe anyone a darned thing...their test scores (if any; few homeschoolers in the traditional sense are obligated to take state standardized tests) are their own business, as is the pace, order or depth at which they choose to go through the material. Others choose to mix and match from places that offer a "curriculum-in-a-box." Caveat Emptor on this one...and it will depend heavily on how you learn best as to whether or not a particular course or kit works well for you. Others decide to create their own curriculum, based on their own personal criteria. Some states want you to keep a portfolio of material to prove you're doing something there at home (makes for a great portfolio to turn in to colleges for admissions!), other states want you to submit your curriculum for the year for approval, others may require testing that could send you back to public or private school if you fall below a particular percentile...just in case. Again, depends on the state. Still other people endorse what they call "unschooling," and they throw out all the textbooks and tests altogether and simply follow what interests them in a more holistic way. (See the writings of John Holt, or Google "unschooling" for more on that theory of education.) A good book on the subject is “The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education,” by Grace Llewellyn. Here’s an excerpt: "Did your guidance counselor ever tell you to consider quitting school? That you have other choices, quite beyond lifelong hamburger flipping or inner-city crack dealing? That legally you can find a way out of school, that once you're out you'll learn and grow better, faster, and more naturally than you ever did in school, that there are zillions of alternatives, that you can quit school and still go to A Good College and even have a Real Life in the Suburbs if you so desire? Just in case your counselor never told you these things, I'm going to. That's what this book is for." Even if you don’t hold with what the author has to say, the point of view she has is dramatically different and can be a great springboard to help you get in touch with what you believe school and learning should be like. The book also outlines a very nice reference for curriculum, as well as chapters about dealing with your school, convincing your parents, and getting a social life. There’s a also a big section on interviews with college admissions officers, and what they see as pros and cons when they’re looking at a homeschooled student’s application. It's meant to be a very usable book.