Intro - possible teenage unschooler
J
Hi there,
My name's Jacqueline, I'm sixteen years old and I live in Ontario,
Canada. I'm about to start the second semester of grade 11, but I'm
interested in...well, dropping out and schooling myself. I've read
stories of other unschooled kids, lots of articles, and I just
finished reading the Teenage Liberation Handbook last night. I'm sort
of oscillating between giddy excitement at this whole new vista that's
opening up to me, and anxiety and fear. The regular school system is
all I've known for the past decade or so, and the prospect of just
leaving it all behind (especially when I only have a year and a half
left to go) is pretty scary. Plus, I would miss my friends, my music
extracurriculars, and the guaranteed way to get into university.
Thankfully, my parents are supportive of me and I think that once they
figure out what exactly unschooling is all about they will be okay
with my decision. I want to do this, but it's daunting. I read about
all these kids my age who bike around South America and work on farms
and do exchanges and find mentors, and it's rather intimidating. I'm a
shy, introverted, bookwormy girl who needs some beginning advice on
what to do with herself. Thank you very much. :)
- Jacqueline
My name's Jacqueline, I'm sixteen years old and I live in Ontario,
Canada. I'm about to start the second semester of grade 11, but I'm
interested in...well, dropping out and schooling myself. I've read
stories of other unschooled kids, lots of articles, and I just
finished reading the Teenage Liberation Handbook last night. I'm sort
of oscillating between giddy excitement at this whole new vista that's
opening up to me, and anxiety and fear. The regular school system is
all I've known for the past decade or so, and the prospect of just
leaving it all behind (especially when I only have a year and a half
left to go) is pretty scary. Plus, I would miss my friends, my music
extracurriculars, and the guaranteed way to get into university.
Thankfully, my parents are supportive of me and I think that once they
figure out what exactly unschooling is all about they will be okay
with my decision. I want to do this, but it's daunting. I read about
all these kids my age who bike around South America and work on farms
and do exchanges and find mentors, and it's rather intimidating. I'm a
shy, introverted, bookwormy girl who needs some beginning advice on
what to do with herself. Thank you very much. :)
- Jacqueline
Marieke Willis
--- J <ilovemuffins@...> wrote:
deciding to drop out and unschool yourself. What do you hope/think
you'll gain from it?
Btw, I'm pretty sure that they have the GED and the SAT and such in
Canada as well, which should be able to get you into university. I
don't know whether Canadian universities expect you to write a college
application letter, but if they do, you could use that opportunity to
explain to them why you decided to unschool yourself, despite having
had only 1.5 years left in normal school. They'd probably expect some
explanation, or at least a well-argued explanation might help you get
in. Basically, this is the same question as above... What do you expect
to gain from unschooling yourself, except that you'll end up writing it
in over a year from now, so that it'll be "what did you gain from it".
I'm not sure how university is in Canada, btw, but university here in
Texas is pretty similar to highschool (in The Netherlands)... I hate
it. Too many compulsory subjects, too much rote memorization, too much
repetition, too many classes in which attendance iss compulsory, and
then on top of that huge lectures with 200-300 people (which is the
only thing not like highschool). Don't get me wrong, I love learning,
but university is not really any better than highschool. I'm dropping
out and thinking about perhaps applying to grad school in a few years
(which will not be easy, if at all possible), if I happen to teach
myself the stuff I need to know, and if I don't teach myself the stuff
I need to know, apparently I didn't care enough to begin with.
This is not meant to tell you that you shouldn't go to university, just
that it might be easier if you stay in school and then go to
university, rather than tasting the freedom and then being locked up
again.
outside your home, so it definitely doesn't mean you have to go to
another continent on your own. In fact, if going to another
continent/country sounds interesting to you, you might very well be
happier with something a bit more structured like being an exchange
student. I was an exchange student in Thailand, and it was pretty much
like unschooling (even the English teachers didn't particularly speak
English, so I spent most of the first months teaching myself Thai and
drawing, dancing, etc), but it was structured in the sense that I had a
host family, and a school that gave me the drawing and dancing lessons
and such. Lots of freedom, but not too much. If you want to be an
exchange student, you should definitely start looking into that very
seriously right now, because it takes almost half a year for
organisations like AFS to deal with all the administrative stuff etc.
But anyway, if you just want to stay at home and go to your local
library and bookstore and teach yourself, that's just as good as going
abroad, and definitely a lot cheaper/safer/easier. What are your
interests? What do you want to major in at university, or do you not
know yet? In fact, depending on your goals, it wouldn't hurt to try the
GED and SAT now, and perhaps just go to university a year sooner than
intended (that's what my HB did). But if you don't know what you want
to do with your life yet, unschooling might help you find the answer
quicker than uni would.
Aka, it all depends, lots of stuff to think about, I'd imagine.
Marieke
____________________________________________________________________________________
Have a burning question?
Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know.
> My name's Jacqueline, I'm sixteen years old and I live in Ontario,Okay, so far you've pretty much only mentioned the disadvantages of
> Canada. I'm about to start the second semester of grade 11, but I'm
> interested in...well, dropping out and schooling myself. I've read
> stories of other unschooled kids, lots of articles, and I just
> finished reading the Teenage Liberation Handbook last night. I'm sort
> of oscillating between giddy excitement at this whole new vista
> that's
> opening up to me, and anxiety and fear. The regular school system is
> all I've known for the past decade or so, and the prospect of just
> leaving it all behind (especially when I only have a year and a half
> left to go) is pretty scary. Plus, I would miss my friends, my music
> extracurriculars, and the guaranteed way to get into university.
deciding to drop out and unschool yourself. What do you hope/think
you'll gain from it?
Btw, I'm pretty sure that they have the GED and the SAT and such in
Canada as well, which should be able to get you into university. I
don't know whether Canadian universities expect you to write a college
application letter, but if they do, you could use that opportunity to
explain to them why you decided to unschool yourself, despite having
had only 1.5 years left in normal school. They'd probably expect some
explanation, or at least a well-argued explanation might help you get
in. Basically, this is the same question as above... What do you expect
to gain from unschooling yourself, except that you'll end up writing it
in over a year from now, so that it'll be "what did you gain from it".
I'm not sure how university is in Canada, btw, but university here in
Texas is pretty similar to highschool (in The Netherlands)... I hate
it. Too many compulsory subjects, too much rote memorization, too much
repetition, too many classes in which attendance iss compulsory, and
then on top of that huge lectures with 200-300 people (which is the
only thing not like highschool). Don't get me wrong, I love learning,
but university is not really any better than highschool. I'm dropping
out and thinking about perhaps applying to grad school in a few years
(which will not be easy, if at all possible), if I happen to teach
myself the stuff I need to know, and if I don't teach myself the stuff
I need to know, apparently I didn't care enough to begin with.
This is not meant to tell you that you shouldn't go to university, just
that it might be easier if you stay in school and then go to
university, rather than tasting the freedom and then being locked up
again.
> Thankfully, my parents are supportive of me and I think that onceUnschooling doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go anywhere
> they
> figure out what exactly unschooling is all about they will be okay
> with my decision. I want to do this, but it's daunting. I read about
> all these kids my age who bike around South America and work on farms
> and do exchanges and find mentors, and it's rather intimidating. I'm
> a
> shy, introverted, bookwormy girl who needs some beginning advice on
> what to do with herself. Thank you very much. :)
outside your home, so it definitely doesn't mean you have to go to
another continent on your own. In fact, if going to another
continent/country sounds interesting to you, you might very well be
happier with something a bit more structured like being an exchange
student. I was an exchange student in Thailand, and it was pretty much
like unschooling (even the English teachers didn't particularly speak
English, so I spent most of the first months teaching myself Thai and
drawing, dancing, etc), but it was structured in the sense that I had a
host family, and a school that gave me the drawing and dancing lessons
and such. Lots of freedom, but not too much. If you want to be an
exchange student, you should definitely start looking into that very
seriously right now, because it takes almost half a year for
organisations like AFS to deal with all the administrative stuff etc.
But anyway, if you just want to stay at home and go to your local
library and bookstore and teach yourself, that's just as good as going
abroad, and definitely a lot cheaper/safer/easier. What are your
interests? What do you want to major in at university, or do you not
know yet? In fact, depending on your goals, it wouldn't hurt to try the
GED and SAT now, and perhaps just go to university a year sooner than
intended (that's what my HB did). But if you don't know what you want
to do with your life yet, unschooling might help you find the answer
quicker than uni would.
Aka, it all depends, lots of stuff to think about, I'd imagine.
Marieke
____________________________________________________________________________________
Have a burning question?
Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know.
gminthecountry
--- In [email protected], "J" <ilovemuffins@...> wrote:
must apply in Ontario. High School certainly not the only way.
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/wiki/
pmwiki.phpn=Main.HowToGetIntoUniversityWithoutAHighSchoolDiploma
*Have you heard about the upcoming Unschooling Conference in Toronto this May?
http://livingjoyfully.ca/conference/
There is a Yahoo list for people going to that conference that might find you a more local
unschooling network.
*Check out Grace's Not Back To School Camps.
http://nbtsc.org/index.htm
Have Fun,
Gillian in Victoria, BC
> My name's Jacqueline, I'm sixteen years old and I live in Ontario,*Ideas for ways to get into univ w/o diploma, written from a BC perspecitve, but some of it
> Canada. I'm about to start the second semester of grade 11, but I'm
> interested in...well, dropping out and schooling myself.
>...and the guaranteed way to get into university.
must apply in Ontario. High School certainly not the only way.
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/wiki/
pmwiki.phpn=Main.HowToGetIntoUniversityWithoutAHighSchoolDiploma
*Have you heard about the upcoming Unschooling Conference in Toronto this May?
http://livingjoyfully.ca/conference/
There is a Yahoo list for people going to that conference that might find you a more local
unschooling network.
*Check out Grace's Not Back To School Camps.
http://nbtsc.org/index.htm
Have Fun,
Gillian in Victoria, BC