My Encouraging Homeschooling Story

            As I get ready for graduation, many memories of the struggles that my parents went through to educate me come to mind.  One of these took place when I was only five years old in our little house in rural Kansas .  My father was taking a business calculus class, and he wanted to teach me how to compute the derivative.  He simply showed me how to move the exponent down in front of the variable and then subtract the exponent by one and so on.  At first, I did some wrong and got frustrated, but after a few tries I did one right.  My father praised me for this accomplishment.  I got really excited because I felt that I had just done something really good, whatever it was.  Of course, I did not actually know what a derivative was at the time, but I understood how to move numbers around and subtract them. 

Throughout my life, my father has continued to encourage me to do great things even if I did not think I could at first.  As I look back, I think of how I would had never made it to where I am today if it were not for my parent’s involvement in my education.  They decided to teach me at home when I was an average third grader in a private school.  Their decision was not for financial reasons, but for our well-being and our future.

 My parents have had to deal with a lot of criticism from people who have never heard of homeschooling.  They would ask questions like, “What about socialization?”, as if we would never come into contact with other human beings if we were homeschooled.  This was ridiculous of course: besides being part of a big family, we interacted with many other homeschoolers through chess clubs, sports activities, art days, church events, soccer teams, and neighborhood children.

Many people choose to home-educate their kids for various reasons.  My parents did it both because of religious reasons and because they could see the higher quality in the behavior and intellect of children who were homeschooled than those that were not.  People would ask if my parents had teaching credentials, to which I would respond, “no, and it is not necessary.” This is not to say that my parents were not educated, but that they did not major in education.  Since I already knew how to read and write, I simply read books about many subjects and did a lesson in math every day. My mother did most of my homeschooling, which consisted mainly of answering math questions if I could not find the answer in the solutions manual.  I found that this was the best method for me to learn.  After all, many famous mathematicians were self-taught, such as Blaise Pascal.

For English, I would write essays on many topics or I would write in my journal, and she would correct my spelling and grammar.  My dad was the one who encouraged me to start doing two lessons of math every day, because he believed that once I became proficient in mathematics that it was the doorway to success.  He was right.  By the age of twelve, my parents knew that I was more advanced in math than they were.  However, they did not view this as a problem, but merely an obstacle to overcome.  Therefore, my parents decided to let me take an online math class at a community college as a high school student.

            After that semester, I took the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE), which is the equivalent of a High School diploma.  In order to take this exam, a person has to be fifteen or in the second semester of their sophomore year.  My parents felt that I was doing sophomore-level work, so I took the test.   I had to show the test proctor my military I. D. (identification card), since I did not have a driver’s license.  My mother called this “getting in through the back door.”  No one knew how old I was, and I did not tell them.  I passed at the age of thirteen.  At first I cried from being overwhelmed by the thought of enrolling during the summer as a full-time student on a real college campus.  Then, my father and mother made me realize my new-found freedom: I felt that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.  That summer I took two classes and played soccer for college credit because I loved to play the game.  By the fall, I was accepted onto the womens’ collegiate soccer team and started in every game.

Another argument against my parents’ homeschooling was that they pushed me too hard, but I never felt that way.  On one occasion, my father found out the night before a test that I had not studied for it.  My reasoning was that because I did well on all of the homework throughout the course, I did not need to review it or practice.  Basically, though, I was lazy and I sometimes struggle with this today.   I felt guilty because that weekend before the test I had been playing soccer and spending time with some old friends who had come from out of town, and neglected to study.  After receiving a thorough lecture from my father, I started crying.  He rubbed my back and just explained how it didn’t matter and how he still loved me.  He told me that all he expected of me is that I do my best work, and that is all I could do.   At that moment, I realized that I was not really prepared for my test because I had not done my best work.  He said, “If being a full-time student and playing on the soccer team is too much, you can be a part-time student the next semester.”   “You are only fourteen and you are way ahead of your peers.  You have plenty of time.”  I was greatly encouraged and began to improve my study methods.  I got a B in that pre-calculus class and A’s in all the others.  The real lesson that I took away from this experience is how important it is that I always do my best work.  

I have continued as a full-time student every semester since then, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2005 and I  am graduating this Spring from California State University East Bay with my M.S. in Mathematics.  I write about myself not to brag, but to testify to the truth of my parents’ accomplishments. Their decision to teach me at home, without question, has had a profound impact on my life.  My parents were not discouraged by the criticisms of others and showed me my potential that I could not see on my own.  If it were not for their wise decision, I would be like every other high school kid.

Furthermore, I have made the decision that I will do the same for my children someday, regardless of opposition or persistent persuasion from others.  From my point of view, I have to look no further than my own siblings for encouraging success stories of homeschoolers.  My seventeen-year-old sister is in her fifth year of the architecture program at California College of the Arts, (g.p.a. 3.8 higher than mine).  She hopes to own a firm someday in San Francisco and wants to design residential buildings.  My other sister, now age sixteen, is majoring in Pre-Med Biology at Santa Clara University and desires to be a doctor.  My  eleven-year-old-brother has dreams of becoming an actor and is taking drama classes.  He is right on my tail, mathematically speaking, because he has completed intermediate algebra and is taking statistics.  

My other four siblings are still very young, but I know that they will accomplish much more than I did at their age, since they have been homeschooled from the beginning.  Even though I did not get accepted to Stanford University for graduate school, my parents have at least given me the opportunity to apply.  Now, as I look at my Diploma, I think of all the struggles that my parents went through to help me get here.  When I look back on my life and its humble beginnings, I begin to question why I am so blessed.  A verse in Jeremiah 29:11 comes to mind: “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”  I am sure that God’s derivation of His plan for my life is far better than anything that I could calculate or my parents could encourage.