Recently, homeschooling has become a popular choice among families who are not comfortable with the limitations of formal schooling, my family included. Some people confuse homeschool with flexi school or tutoring. Homeschooling is learning on our own in our home. As for Flexi schools, students study at home but still go to classes organized by the educational organization two to three days a week. Whereas tutoring is having someone come and teach you at your home.
There are also many different home schooling methods. Some followed a method made by Charlotte Mason and there are those who pay for a program where they can get printable modules. Some others, like me, designed our own lessons. There are various more types of homeschooling, but those 3 methods above are the ones that I’m most familiar with.
I studied in a formal school up to primary level. Afterwards, I began homeschooling for junior high level. Homeschooling is much more flexible in many aspects, including time management, subjects we learn, teaching methods, etc. Although homeschooling is far from perfect, I think its benefits outweigh its limitations.
I experienced quiet a staggering amount of school tasks when I was in primary school and up till now, I still get plenty of complaints from my former primary classmates about their pile of works. They had to follow the government’s curriculum, which includes a lot of subjects. Students have to study math, science, Bahasa Indonesia, religion, PKN, etc. After school, they still have academic courses (bimbel) to catch up with their school subjects. Additionally, they also must complete tons of projects and study for exams. That leaves no time for them to pursue subjects that they are interested in.
With homeschooling, I had a more flexible schedule compared to my school friends. I only studied the necessary subjects that I need for my life and things that interests me. I study basic lessons such as math to calculate well, science to understand how everything works, language so I can communicate correctly with others, geography and history so I know about the world I live in. I also play music for fun. My average schedule everyday consists of several hours of math, science, and geography. Additionally, I also study English, history, and music as subjects that I have great interest in.
In most schools, students are usually taught in a uniform style. Students’ uniqueness and abilities are not taken into consideration. All students have their own learning styles and talents. Teachers expect students to learn what they teach in the same way and the same pace. This will result in that some students will fail in some subjects because they are not good at it. They will be given extra lessons and pressured to improve their grade. On the other hand, the subjects that the students excelled at will be overlooked because their grade is already good enough to pass. This situation will make the students feel frustrated because they are only drilled to focus to improve their weaknesses. Yes, weaknesses should not be ignored, but it’s the students’ capabilities that should be developed. This will make them excel in what they’re good at; they will not become a “Jack of all trades”. It’s a figure of speech used to call people who are able to do everything, both their weaknesses and strengths, but they are a master of none.
School teaching methods are also usually teacher-centered. Teachers control the subject materials and study pace. They “spoon fed” the lessons to the students; the teacher explain and the students are expected to pay attention. Afterwards, they will be given exercises to do and they will be expected to complete the exercises according to what the teachers have taught. Students are usually not allowed to have different answers or working methods to the exercises.
Meanwhile homeschool is student centered. This means that the children have control (with parent supervision) over their study pace. They have to make their own study schedules and learn the lessons on their own. They are not required to finish learning the lesson within a certain time frame (one hour for example), but the goal is to master and understand the lesson, however long it takes.
A lot of people are still confused about how homeschoolers learn. Well, I just open my textbook and read! I then try to understand the chapters and do the written and practical exercises from the books. When I have trouble understanding my lessons, I proactively find and use other resources to help me. Some of my sources are my parents (they are not teachers), the internet, and books. We have to read and understand the lessons on our own, without a teacher to explain directly to us. We will be more independent problem solvers because we do not depend on just our teachers to help us, but we learn to find different methods to learn until we understand the lessons.
I learned to discipline myself through homeschooling. When I was at school, I did my school tasks mostly out of fear of my teacher. It’s not that my teachers are fierce, it’s just that they are capable of threatening us and are able to give out punishments. Until now, I still have problems with disciplining myself. Back home, there was no one to do those, so I sometimes still wait for my mom’s presence and reminders to study. My parents didn’t threaten and punish me because they want me to be able to control and discipline myself. I often hear comments about how homeschool students lack socialization. This is an ignorant comment. As much as I’d like to be respectful here and not judge other people’s questions, I really find that question annoying. It’s as if because I am a homeschool student, I’m scared of other people and I don’t socialize at all. Homeschool students have more flexibility in socializing than school students. We learn to socialize in different kind of situations and with people of all ages, not limited to just students our age.
I have learned to make friends with different type of people through my every day activities. I have friends from my homeschool club, workshops that I joined, courses, and events. I also get the chance to meet and talk with my neighbours when I am walking my 3 dogs. They range from as young as 6-7 years old to middle aged adults. I learned different ways to talk with different kinds of people. I’d like to tell you of one of my group of friends. Behind my neighbourhood there is a slum and they often roam around my neighbourhood. Most of them are afraid of dogs and would run off if they see them. Now one morning I was walking my dogs and a group of slum girls took interest in my dogs. They watched from afar and took photos of them, but they still didn’t dare come near us. I told them that my dogs are not fierce and won’t bite and encouraged the girls to pat them if they want to, which they did. They had fun interacting with my dogs and became attached to them. The girls and I also became friends.
School students usually have a more limited socialization environment. They usually make friends with classmates their age just because they spend nearly the whole week with them in their classrooms. Aside from that, they might make friends while they attend tuitions outside of school. School children also often suffer from peer pressure, where we have to change ourselves to be accepted by others. A lot of these students don’t know how to interact with people outside of this zone.
From my personal experience, usually homeschoolers are more open to people compared to school kids. When I first met my other homeschooler friends, I could feel that they were much more open and friendly. When I participated in homeschool events, the homeschoolers are usually quite happy to meet new friends. In comparison, when I had gymnastics class comprised of all school students, I discovered that the students there have groups, exclusively made out of their own don’t often mingle with students outside their group.
In my country, there is a mandatory national exam to be taken at the end of our primary level, junior high, and senior high. To be able to join the exam, I joined a government institution called a PKBM to have my student number registered. They will take care of student administrations for the exam to the government, and all I have to do are sign some papers. PKBM is a place where homeschoolers who have no resources to learn from can meet up to discuss about their lessons. There are mentors there too to help us out.
Homeschooling is not for everyone. However, for families who think that formal schooling gives negative impacts to their children, homeschooling can be considered as an alternative. There are many ways to learning and receiving education. We can choose the methods that suit us the best. The most important thing though, is that we learn and are happy.
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| Learning anywhere anytime. |
Have you ever seen this funny video about homeschooling? Check it out
here!
