Unschooling: Why I Chose to Homeschool
I never went to public school. It was an idea my mother proposed before I, the oldest of 6, was ever born. My mom was smart enough to see the landscape of the public school system and started teaching her kids at home.
Now, I am not going to be one of those homeschool people that says public school is evil. You can earn a good education in public school, and all my cousins did. The crux of the issue was character, and the young adults my mother envisioned her children becoming.
Again, I am not going to say that public school nurtures young minds into terrible people. However, it is much easier in my experience to raise a solid kid through homeschooling.
Growing Up Early
When I was 13, myself and 2 of my younger brothers began delivering newspapers. Because we were homeschooling, we had the flexibility to build our own little business and service our customers better than they ever experienced.
In the 5 years we ran our business, we had one of the best customer reviews and tip totals of any delivery folks in the area. Hayden, who was 6 at the time we started, was earning $200 a month through the year and $700-$800 at Christmas (his customers loved him). My mother made sure that he was doing the deliveries that were within eyesight of our home.
My dad helped us with our books each month as our customers paid their bills, and left the delinquent customers for us to talk to. "It is your business," as he used to say. We learned from a young age what income, expenses, and difficult customers were all about.
Running a Household
The experience with our paper route became a great foundation for us to run a household. My mom and dad decided to have more kids and number 4, 5, and 6 came along. In the midst of that, mom relied on me, Corbin, and Hayden to run the household.
When mom was raising the babies or teaching the younger kids their lessons, one of the older kids was making lunch. When my mom was sick in bed and dad was off at work, the teaching came upon my high school shoulders (granted it was 2nd-3rd-grade material). We worked as a unit with the goal of a top notch education and even better morals.
My dad was gracious enough in his budgeting to include the older 3 children in his accounting. We learned what it meant to raise a family and balance the checkbook each month. Since my dad was great at stocks, he showed us his own portfolio month to month and encouraged us to invest our paper route money for the long term. Each of my siblings has been able to save 40-50,000 dollars till they finished high school. My dad was not someone who believed in giving out an allowance. "I pay for the roof over your head" he liked to say.
EntreLeader Mentality
You may wonder why I said that I chose to homeschool in the title. The reason is that my mother asked us each year if we wanted to homeschool - the decision was completely ours. Did I want to play sports at the high school level and take advantage of D1 coaches offering to mentor me? Sure I did, but I saw the vision of what my parents were doing.
The family is the backbone of any society, and teaching kids how to be EntreLeaders is the economic catalyst for a nation. What do I mean by EntreLeader?
Dave Ramsey wrote a book by that title a few years back. The premise of the book is to develop an entrepreneurial mentality whether you are a manager of the business or the business owner. You are a leader in the company, and you are the business owner of You Inc. Your client is either the business you work for, or the client you are blessing with your product and service.
My parents recognized that some of their children may choose to do other things than the family business, and that was ok. My gifting is in business, so I work with my dad there. Corbin chose to be a Marine and work as a personal trainer on the side - a darn good one at that. The point was to homeschool so that the academic skills we learned were coupled with a worldview that looked beyond the petty present that surrounds you in public school.
Like I said, you can earn a good education in public school. You can also come out of public school with a decent head on your shoulders and be respectful to the people around you. In my experience, there is nothing that prepares a young man or woman better for the real world than homeschooling. Let's face it, schools have become a place for indoctrination. Homeschooling is brainwashing by parents. Do you want the government or you to be in your kid's ear for the better part of their life?
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I enjoyed reading your story regarding being homeschooled. Homeschooling can be a great opportunity when done right. I feel like there needs to be a great support system built in to make homeschooling work. Lack of socialization with other children can be a problem if parents are not proactive in involving their children in activities around the community or local school.
Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, homeschooling can be a great option for those who choose to do so.
Socializing is an odd subject to discuss. You are basically discussing the opportunity to lead and interact with people. You're right, there needs to be something in place for homeschoolers to do so.
I actually preferred talking with adults when I was growing up versus some of my peers. I couldn't care less about some of the things they were concerned with. To be fair, it was some of them, and not all. The ones who had parents deeply engaged with them I connected with more easily.
Most of the homeschool kids that I knew who ended up not liking it and switching to public school at some point mentioned that for them they felt like they didnt get the socialization with kids their age that they wanted. Public school tended to be a hard transition. Often whenever homeschooling came up amongst public school kids, the number one concern was socialization.
And that is fair. Homeschooling is not for everyone no matter how biased I may be, haha.
The situation at home plays a big part in where kids want to go to school. I enjoyed being around my family, and interacting with my grandparents in their work life.
I agree with that 100%. I feel like something that can be lacking in public school is involvement with family. Between school schedules, extracurricular activities, and busy work schedules of parents, children can sometimes not have the attention from parents that they want and need. I think as long as children get the education, parenting, and socialization they need, the method of schooling is more personal preference.
Boom.... You nailed it. I have some other reasoning and history for why I believe in homeschooling instead of public school but that is more for the conspiracy discussion.
It does come down to personal preference. When the parents are involved and the kids have the socializing opportunities they want, education can be done anywhere.
In Borneo, homeschooling is not really an option. But this is a very interesting read. What is more important is the education that we receive regardless of of the system.
Glad to hear it was interesting for you. Education regardless of how we receive it is important.
It was my education that got me out of poverty.
I see you are an economist. That is a solid education.
Indeed it is. I am using my skills as an economist to contribute back to society.
That is an excellent profession.
Never thought of homeschooling as "brainwashing by parents", but you are 100% correct! I've always told people to think about the time children spend at public school and what they are being told.
I am doing the same exact thing at home with my children. It's why I chose to homeschool; so I can make sure they are learning the morals and education that I want them to learn. It's really no opposite than what is being accomplished at a public school.
Thanks for sharing a bit of your childhood with us. It's refreshing to hear of young people having their own business AND having to take care of the negative issues that come along with it. That builds a lot of character.
I was looking forward to your comments since you are knee deep in this world. Glad you enjoyed it!
We must be proactive as parents and mentors to the young minds around us - there are many messages competing for their attention.
It definitely builds character, haha. The Frank Martin quote sums it up for me. We receive what we expect whether that is from our kids or the life we lead.
I appreciate your insight. We homeschooled and my daughter has moved on to higher education with no problems. As I find with many things in life, its not all black or white. Sure they miss some of the good, but they miss the bad as well.
That is well said. I moved into higher education with no problems as well. It is nice to have the options for your child and their schooling.
Great article, I enjoyed the read. Sounds like you had some really smart and caring parents. Your story highlights one of the many wonderful benefits of homeschooling, which is that it enables the parent to teach practical business and financial skills at a early age in addition to the usual curriculum. Plus you free up time which can be focused on actually working in the market in someway, just like you did. Love the Frank Martin quote as well.
Glad you enjoyed it! It was a priority for my parents that we understoood the rules of the marketplace from an early age. I believe we were learning Kiyosaki's cash flow quadrant around 10 or so. Homeschooling provided some nice flexibility to implement what we were learning.
My respect for Frank Martin continues to grow.
Hi, Lydon,
Thanks for sharing more of your history here. It is clear to me from this account that you've been tremendously blessed with wise parents and an excellent foundation, both in your home school education and in the encouragement you received to be an entrepreneur. I am thankful to hear of it.
😄😇😄
You always share uplifting comments @creatr. Thank you for your blessing. :)
This was a revelation to me, reading this, What a wise Mother you had. You were absolutely prepared for real life. I hated School. ( check your 2nd last sentence)
Yes, I have a wise mother. She put us each in a spot where we could learn at our pace. (Thank you for that, it is fixed.)
It's an interesting perspective for sure! Especially for me, who works in the public school system. I was raised by a public educator father and a private school educator mother. The thing I have always wondered is: did you feel at a disadvantage socially at all or were you all involved in activities along the way that allowed you to grow in that way as well?
Great question @thesimplelife! The socializing me and siblings had revolved around the sports we played, activities at our church, and organizations we chose to join.
Sports and church are pretty basic for public, private or homeschool. The opportunities for socializing I enjoyed were annual bank meetings that me and my dad invested in - their meetings were during the school day - and helping out at my grandparents business during business hours. Again, it is the flexibility of schedule that allowed us to socialize with quality people.
My parents raised us to be around influencers in our community that were typically older than us. That fosters a different type of child than those only interacting with their peers. I enjoyed time with my peers to a degree but I also found myself wanting to hang around the customers at my grandparents' business.
Again thanks for the additional insight! I occasionally get a homeschooled student coming into test. I was curious because of some of my experiences with them. I suppose it depends on the level of involvement and expectations that the parents themselves have as well. It sounds like your parents had great expectations of you all and were very involved with your eduction versus sitting the student in front of a computer on their own (which is what happened with the one student in particular I was thinking about when I asked the question!) thanks for entertaining my curiosity!
And thank you for reading my book of a reply! Glad we could have a civil conversation about it. Happy to entertain your curiosity.
I wouldn't say I'm in one camp or another. Not every kid needs the same path as others. Education shouldn't be a one size fits all since it is filled with unique individual learners! I just like to learn more about others' experiences in education!
That is a healthy way to look at the educational landscape. It ought to be crafted to the child.
I know my mom worked with my brother Hayden to include him in a local mechanic shop. He was a hands on learner and needed that time out of the books to balance his time in the books.
That's awesome she could figure out an experience like that for him and that there were people in the community who worked with her! Great that she recognized that need. Our district has recently recognized that need and started a Career and Technical Education program. I'm hoping it's the key to keeping some of my students who end up dropping out in school instead.
A Career and Technical Education program is a great idea! I know some of my male cousins enjoyed their time there versus sitting at a desk - it was a hands on approach.
Having also been homeschooled in a large family, it's hard to disagree with any of this. Although I don't have any children, I can't imagine sending them into the public school system.
But ultimately, anything goes. The two homeschool kids I hung out with most growing up, one is a lawyer, the other a cashier.
I wondered if you and your siblings were homeschooled. The way you carry yourselves in your videos and the writing style you have had a certain feel to it - probably because I grew up similarly, haha.
Agreed, ultimately the choice is there for the individual family. Like anything else we choose to do, we decide where we want to end up.
Well said. Yes, my family almost developed our own micro-culture from spending so much time together. Pros and cons, but ultimately I feel truely blessed to have had such a childhood,
One think worth mentioning about the stereotypes homeschoolers face, although not necessarily accurate, I believe the stereotype of homeschoolers being proficient academically was one we took to heart. I think it helped give us a lot of confidence and a drive to learn. Something I never appreciated until I got to college and felt gifted in comparison to many of my peers.
I guess I've always found that interesting, how cultural stereotypes can become self-fulfilling. Unfortunately, there seem to be more negative stereotypes than positive ones.
It is funny how we move in our out of the stereotypes of society. We want to belong and we want to be different at the same time.
I hear you on feeling like a gifted student in college. The study habits I built during homeschooling were of enormous value to me in college. The culture of excellence at home
Nice story. Thanks for sharing. We will be homeschooling our daughter (with plenty of opportunities for her to opt into public school if she chooses). Children are the future. Do we want to build a weak future? Or one that can adapt and learn and better us all? :)
Thank you for your encouraging words. Glad to hear you are starting your daughter in homeschooling and leaving some options for her in time. Indeed, what kind of future do we desire to build? :)