Conversation

As yall probably know, I was homeschooled from birth to the end of 'high school', and cut off from most secular culture - except for 3 months, when I attended public school at the age of 14, and ran into a lot of public school norms that shocked and confused me (cont).

125

468

Aella

@Aella_Girl

1. The wasted time. SO much wasted time. The whole day felt so slow, with lots of waiting and a tiny amount of learning inside it. I remember thinking I could have done the work of the whole homeschool day inside of 1-2 hours at home.

2:17 AM · Jun 28, 2019

Replying to

2. The impersonalness of the teachers; it was disheartening when the teachers treated my work like it was just another thing on an assembly line of grades (which it was). It didn't feel like I was 'being taught by someone', but like I was pressing buttons in a teaching computer.

223

Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

3. The maturity level of the other kids. I'm not sure how 'legit' I'd view it today, but I remember distinctly thinking that the kids in public school felt approximately two years 'younger' - in jokes and mannerisms - than the other homeschooled kids I knew of the same age.

191

Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

4. The lack of community. Maybe this was partially me-specific because I was weird and religious, but it seemed true even beyond me - that you couldn't trust kids that weren't your friends. I was used to near-total trust in all the other kids I met in my life.

176

Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

Again, not sure how much my school experience was warped cause I was the weird religious kid - but overall it felt more fearful, more impersonal, and more useless than homeschooling did, by a significant margin. If I ever have kids I'm 100% keeping them away from public school.

279

Replying to

correction: the work of a whole *school* day inside 1-2 hours at home.

Replying to

I used to do my homework for the day, in the class while the teacher was giving the lesson. Never did ‘homework’.

Replying to

I was homeschooled all my life except 16-18. I was raised atheist, in a large city, around both leftists and libertarians. My experience in school was *identical* to what you’ve written here.

Replying to

Same. Tried school (6th form college) for few months when 16. A couple years before, I was experimenting with doing a maths GCSE (🙈) at home, and apparently was going through it like 4 times faster than how they cover it at school—and *that* felt slow.

Replying to

Yes, the inefficiency was *brutal* going from homeschool to regular school. I switched schools at least once a year in grade school- gave me direct insight into the failures of the system.

Replying to

Part of the hours being what they are has to be that public school is free child care for working parents.