Wednesday, November 28, 2007

was school necessary or conducive to my learning?

(from a post over at the frog pond)

not necessary.

one set of important things to me was languages, and i learned more by visiting friends in those countries and by being penpals between visits than I did in school. i finally have an understanding of grammar having taught myself Latin in adulthood (don't ask why. It was important to me as part of a creative project)

other important thing: maths. school maths sucked. I had private tuition with a friend of my parents, leading to a qualification beyond what school offered.

most important thing: music. school music was always a joke. I went to a private music centre on saturdays where i got both practical and theoretical training to a very high standard (i could have gone to a conservatoire at 18 if I'd chosen that route)

the sport i love(d) is/was swimming, and my school to 16 didn't even have a pool, so I had to flail around with hockey sticks rather than doing what i actually enjoyed. the closest i have got to a hockey stick since leaving school is playing ice hockey on frozen ponds using ice axes as sticks and a terry's chocolate orange as a puck. but i digress.

so... school was peripheral.

school friends - i am in good contact with two people from school. we have shared interests which have nothing to do with school. several of my closest childhood friends were not at school with me, including my very oldest friends who i have knwn since babyhood and was never at school with.

it was just such a waste of TIME, and the really exciting learning was happening elsewhere

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I concur.
I hated PE in school, but loved Karate and was rather good at football.

At the age of about 10 I told my parents that I learned far more talking at the dinner table than I did at school. They ridiculed this idea, but I stand by it to this day.

Willow.

Anonymous said...

My impression is that home educators make themselves poorer to be available to their children and they will have less opportunity to do these activities.

emma said...

my childhood situation was single income until age 12, and then 1 and a bit incomes from then till I became financially independent.

Had I been HEed, the financial situation would therefore have been identical

Anonymous said...

All that matters is to have a rich dad, then.