Tag Archives: alternatives to high school

Kudos to Community College

West LA Community College in Culver City, CA
In 1983 at the age of 25, working for essentially minimum wage as a community organizer, five years after graduating “cum laude” (with distinction) from the University of Michigan with a BA in Speech, I decided to take a mulligan of sorts and go to college again. Unlike the minimal planning I had done the first time, I had put much thought this time based on years of real-life experience into what I would study. I had met my life-partner Sally, and we were planning to be married in December, with the likelihood that we would raise a family down the road. My path forward took me to the humble community college, which I have grown to see as perhaps America’s most valuable educational institution. Continue reading →

Unschooling Instead of High Schooling

Lisa Stroyan commented on my “School Decision Makers… Revisited” post that she has a son who was in public school through fifth grade, but is now homeschooling, and moving toward the more unschooling end of the homeschooling spectrum. As an initial suggestion, I think she should check out www.unschooling.com, for some information and provocative thoughts on that educational path.

Lisa said she was also interested in my own experience with my kids’ homeschool/unschool journey during their teen (normally high school) years, maybe how or whether an unschooled kid learns traditional academic subjects like algebra. So here goes…

Eric’s Story

Our Son Eric, Age 17

We pulled our son Eric out of school in February 2000 at age 14 because it had become clear that he hated going to school, and had basically become allergic to the conventional instructional academic environment. (See my earlier post on “Thoughts on Emily & Middle School Issues”). We had been considering doing it for a while, and my partner Sally (Eric’s mom) had done some research on homeschooling on the Internet. Sally and I had an initial strategy to attempt to guide our son in a homeschooling strategy including the four conventional academic subjects – English, social studies, science and math. Eric, as it turns out, had other ideas. Continue reading →