(Continued from "Getting Out of The Box", by Ortrun Gates.)

Now that you know my mother’s side of the story, it’s time for mine. My adventure into homeschooling was just as frustrating as rewarding. Like my mother, I had a rough time leaving the so-called “box.” I had become so accustomed to being spoon-fed everything that it was extremely difficult to start thinking for myself again. I hope that by the end of my story, you will see that the road of homeschooling is not as treacherous as it may seem at first.

When I was five years old, I discovered the computer. It was an Apple II that sat in the rear of my kindergarten classroom. From the first day I played with that computer, I wanted one. This was the beginning of my obsession with the electronic world. As I went through elementary school, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekly computer labs.

By the time I got to middle school, although computers and science still interested me, I had been labeled a troublemaker for asking too many questions and was therefore learning more about just sitting and listening. Teachers told me that it was more important for me to do what they wanted (which held little or no interest) than what I enjoyed. The practice of making just about everyone an honor student had the effect of dumbing down all my classes. Everything I did in school was for a letter grade rather than a measure of what I had actually learned.

The problem with school is that the system is so focused on students getting good grades; schools neglect to see whether the students are actually learning anything. Let me ask you, if someone tries to teach you something you don’t want to learn, are you really going to learn it? Just because you pass the class or get an A doesn’t mean you learned anything. All it means is that you told the instructor what he wanted to hear.

True learning requires a genuine interest in the subject. It’s tough if you don’t happen to be interested in what they are teaching. When I asked why I needed to learn something, the standard reply was, “Well, you want to go to college, don’t you?” What, for the rest of my life? Of course not! The goal of schools has turned from actually teaching life skills into “everyone must pass everything so you can do the same thing next year.”

This meant I had to do something to make some money. I worked at several jobs and tried a few things on my own to get the cash before I began messing around with Adobe Photoshop in my free time—experimenting with retouching pictures and making goofy valentines for my family. I discovered that I really enjoyed manipulating images on the computer! In a flash my brain connected the time I invested in Photoshop with the money I needed for a new computer.

I asked my parents to get me a couple Adobe books and worked through them in a few weeks. Next, I got the job as the “ID Guy” for The Learning Community. After two years of scraping and saving, I finally had enough money to buy the new computer. Those games that I had wanted so badly—the ones that made me focus on this goal—lost their novelty within a week. I discovered that I enjoyed the work I had done to get the computer and games more than the games themselves. You see, I had found my own path by doing exactly what I wanted to and that led me to learning and growing as a person.

I went from being completely disillusioned with learning to being invigorated by it.

School system personnel had repeatedly said, “You’ll need these skills in the real world.” But they couldn’t tell me why. Well, I found out for myself, no thanks to public schools. It was because I was allowed to explore and research things that were relevant to me. It wasn’t about spending all day listening to music or playing games. It was really about being motivated to learn because I understood why it mattered. In this way, I discovered my own uses for math.

Once I decided to make a calculator that determines the time a file will take to download. I had no idea how much math would be involved. It took two days to develop all the algorithms. This is a perfect example of how a valid reason to perform a task gives the incentive to carry it out.

The most reassuring part of homeschooling was when it came time to tally hours. I discovered that the things I had been interested in pursuing actually counted for a lot! On my first ever credit sheet in ninth grade I had so much information to record that even after I reduced the font size to the smallest legible, it still came to seven pages!

I’ve taught myself Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, taken college classes at our local community college, discovered new and exciting resources and assumed responsibility at several incredible internships and jobs:

• Teaching elementary school children about history in early America through a living history program
• Running a small graphic design business, which included creating and distributing TLCI student and parent ID cards and learning file management to keep 450 ID files organized.
• Working at a computer service and repair center.
• Restoring furniture at an antiques warehouse.
• Interning at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where I learned about graphic and web design from people who do it for a living!

The experience that sparked my interest in learning most was a summer science camp in Pennsylvania. Camp Watonka is dedicated to science and to having fun while doing it. The only people at the camp were people who wanted to be there. A far cry from school, where everyone wished they were somewhere else.

I’m not saying that what I did will work for everyone, but being able to follow my interests led me to a point in life where I am extremely happy, fulfilled and finding enjoyment in my work, my learning and my life. I truly believe that I am in a much better place now than I ever would have been had I stayed in public school. Thinking outside the box is what got me where I am. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world. At least nothing I’ve learned so far!

[Steffen graduated from Frostburg University in 2008 with a degree in computer science, with a math & business minor. He is planning on a Masters Degree in computer science and works in computer technical services.]

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