I have been in and out of the public school system more times than I can count. I’ve lived all my life in the same small town, and both of my parents work at home. Why have I switched schools so many times? I’ve switched schools so many times, because I have the unique opportunity to choose my schooling, and I’ve taken full advantage of that. I was raised as a home-schooler, with my parents providing my education. I’ve always been curious, and I’ve always thought it would be fun to try going to public school. Public school and home schooling are distinctly different, and I’m grateful I’ve been able to experience both.

A lot of my friends in school think home schooling is for slackers, and that you don’t do anything when you’re home-schooled. But they’re wrong. In public school, there are a lot of people telling you what to do and when to do it. You have countless hours of homework every night, and most of it is pretty pointless. You get a brief overview of everything you need to know, but you rarely go in-depth and really learn about something. That’s where home schooling is different.

There are many benefits to home schooling, such as the flexible hours, or the more relaxed hours, but to me that isn’t the best part. Although I do love being able to sleep in late, and getting work done later in the day, my favorite part is choosing my education. As a home-schooler, I am in charge of my instruction, and I get to decide what I want to learn. I’m an avid reader, and reading is one of my favorite pastimes. But in school, you’re assigned so much reading that you have to do, it makes a lot of kids lose interest in reading, because it becomes a forced activity. I hate it when I’m assigned textbooks to read in school, because there’s so much good literature out there that’s just begging to be read. It seems almost insulting to read textbooks instead of some great piece of literature. Since I home school, I don’t have to worry about that. There’s no pointless assignments, no boring textbooks to read. Do you enjoy reading Shakespeare? Go ahead and do that for your English! Or maybe you prefer Jane Austen? That’s perfectly acceptable as well!

Not only can you choose what you want to learn as a home-schooler, but also instead of brushing the surface of a wide variety of topics, you get to go in depth. I’ve always been very interested in Ancient Greece culture, so that’s what I’ve chosen for this quarter as my history project. You still have to study all subjects, you can’t escape from doing math, or from writing essays, but at least you get to decide what sub-topics you want to study.

Home schooling is a unique opportunity, and an alternative education I wish more people had the option to choose. There are certainly benefits to school, but speaking as someone who’s done both, I think home schooling is the better choice. When you’re home schooled, you are in charge of your education, and it’s up to you what you study. And what’s to not love about that?