Comments on: Useful Learning for Teens

By: Barbara Frank

Barbara Frank — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:28:40 +0000

Susan, I’m not up on the finer points of truancy, but what you say rings true. Still, the trend is to play hooky….

Karen, my older kids each skipped a year for the same reason, and one did go to community college for a few years and loved it. Now #3 has had some cc classes as part of her homeschooling and will go full-time this fall. Definitely a better use of time than the traditional senior year in high school!

CW, I’m finding it interesting how many homeschool moms had non-traditional senior years….or wish they had!

Annie Kate, you were fortunate to have had such a good public school education. And yes, I think you will do as good a job as your teachers did, because you sound highly motivated

Thanks, everyone, for weighing in!

By: Annie Kate

Annie Kate — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:51:45 +0000

It is so true that much of traditional school is boring. I had several excellent public school teachers who were willing to help me learn as much as possible. They set up and rewarded all sorts of in depth learning. Most schools do not have such teachers, and not all students are willing to do the extra work it takes to make learning enthralling. I did not skip classes or have a part time job, but worked late into the evening most school days exploring literature, history, physics, chemistry, philosophy, and art.

As a homeschool mom I want to encourage my children to learn as much as possible. Because I know and love them, I think I’ll be able to do as good a job as my great highschool teachers did for me.

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:43:19 +0000

I got into trouble with the school my senior year for having too many absences. They were all “excused” absences- mostly college visits and a week spent attending the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship (as a spectator as unfortunately I was not a talented enough competitor to qualify). My parents didn’t care so long as I kept my grades up, which I did.

There’s a difference between cutting class to party and missing school in order to do something worthwhile.

By: Karen Lange

Karen Lange — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:20:34 +0000

When homeschooling, I accelerated my three kids, combining grades 11-12. Add to this some high school level units in junior high, and my kids graduated earlier than their traditionally schooled friends. Why did I do this? Not to push them, or to rush them into adulthood, but because we were able to complete all their high school work in a shorter period of time. For the year after they graduated (when “normally” they would have been seniors), they worked and took a handful of classes from the local community college. Like you, Barb, my senior year in high school was almost entirely a waste. I got on the work study program I was offered and left at noon, going to work at my Dad’s retail store each afternoon. I loved it, and felt like my time was better spent.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:33:15 +0000

Barbara, I hesitate to post about truancy because I don’t want to detract from the great things you said about teens learning useful things and being treated as though they might actually be able to handle the responsibility given to them.

But I do want to point out that those truancy figures are inflated. In high school a kid is considered truant for the day if he doesn’t get to class in time for the attendance to be taken. So for some of that 40%, they weren’t really missing a whole school day, but may have been 5-10 minutes late for ONE class that day. In other words, being in school for 6 hrs and 50 min of a 7-hour school day could still cause you to end up marked as truant for the day.

But yes, there are too many kids cutting school because they can see there’s nothing valuable actually going on there.