When homeschooling was still considered avant-garde by the general public, I was often asked if I missed being at school.  “No,” I would answer, simply. “You can’t miss something you’ve never had.”

Such a literal answer from a 10-year-old always got a laugh.  But now, at 21, a few weeks away from a college degree and several months into a marriage, I can look at that old question from a larger perspective -- and I know I didn’t miss out on anything by learning at home.  Instead, I gained so much more.

Sure, I didn’t go to the prom, but judging from friends’ experiences, that’s no loss.  And while I didn’t get to play for a school athletic team, I swam for a community league and figure skated competitively in rinks up and down the Eastern Seaboard. 

And, more importantly, I cannot remember a time when I hated to learn.  Learning was usually fun and always interesting.  I liked to read, I liked to write, I liked doing math -- all right, occasionally I was frustrated, but I also like a challenge -- and even science, my least favorite subject, was never a chore.  Homeschooling allowed me, with help from my parents, to design a curriculum that held my interest. 

In “elementary school” -- for lack of a better phrase -- learning was relatively formal.  Math was courtesy of Miquon, language arts came from a textbook, and history and science were a job for Mom, who read books to me as we sat under cozy blankets on the couch in our Columbia, Maryland, home. 

By middle school, I was more independent.  Dad and I decided on good biographies and overviews for history and science, and I read them on my own.  I worked on Saxon math, again alone -- usually hunched on the floor in my bedroom, even though I had a perfectly good table and chair.  For English, I picked out classics like Jane Eyre  and The Great Gatsby.             

High school was the same, only more so, and a year before I graduated, I took the sound advice of homeschool veterans and enrolled in several courses at the local community college to find out what the next educational step was going to be like.

           

Is There Life After Homeschooling?

The big questions the public and new homeschoolers alike seem to have now revolves around college -- specifically, will a homeschool graduate be accepted into one?  And if so, will he or she succeed academically?  And even if that happens, won’t the homeschooler be out of his or her social league? 

I’m no educational expert, but I do have a little experience in this area -- and none of the homeschoolers I know had any problem.  In fact, they all did extremely well.  One of my friends is going into her senior year of college with a 4.0 grade-point-average in the academically challenging field of biology.  Another graduated with distinction in both her two majors.  And these former homeschoolers have social lives, too.

But the college atmosphere is a change from the homeschool one, at least in some ways.  Grades, for instance.  When I started at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1995, I had a case of the nerves -- mostly because I was afraid the classes were too hard and I’d lose my full-tuition scholarship.  Getting a B- on my first paper didn’t help.  But grades haven’t turned out to be a problem, and by the end of that first semester, I felt much more comfortable.  (I later found out that almost every student, homeschooled or not, feels at least a little nervous at the beginning of his or her college career.) 

One thing that helped is that, academically, college is very similar to homeschooling -- in both arenas, students do a great deal of independent study.  In that way, and because I wasn’t tired of learning, like some of my schooled friends, being a homeschooler gave me an edge.  I was used to a high level of student-teacher interaction from the homeschooling experience, so in college, I wasn’t afraid to ask questions and I made a point to get to know my professors.  College students who file in and out of class as if they’re still in high school are often the ones who see their grades slip.

And what about socialization?  In the medium-sized research university I attend, I probably would have felt pretty lonely if I just came to class and went home.  As it happened, I didn’t -- I’ve spent most of my college time in the cramped offices of the school newspaper instead.  I joined to get experience, but it was also a great way to get to know others ... and a good education in working with people of completely different temperaments.  (Additionally, the newspaper was where I met my husband, but that’s another story.)  Involving yourself in a campus club or organization is one of the best ways to have a social life in college: It makes big universities seem small and turns the foreign into the familiar.

        

But Then What?

So homeschoolers can master college.  But what about the work force?  Again, I think those who learn at home in their formative years are ahead of the game -- or at least have a great opportunity to get there.             

It’s often hard to figure out exactly what your career goals are, and the average person waits until college to decide, which can be a waste of time and money.  You see, what you major in generally depends on what you want to do -- and if you’re not sure what you want to do, you may change majors several times, keeping you in college longer.

A little career dabbling before college is a means of avoiding all that.  And homeschoolers, with their flexible schedules, are in the best position to do it.  Visiting Dad or Mom’s workplace, shadowing an older friend on the job and internships (paid or unpaid) are just a few ways to find out what careers are interesting ... and which ones to cross off the list. 

It worked pretty well for me.  In the early years of high school, I was certain I’d be in the art field -- either as a graphic artist or an animator -- and I spent hours drawing and designing.  But after talking to an aunt who’s a graphic artist, reading up on the career possibilities and visiting art schools, I began to think it wasn’t for me.  And once I spent some time as a staff writer for my community college’s student newspaper, I switched gears.  Reporting seemed like the thing to do.  The summer before I started studying English and journalism at UMBC, I interned at a local weekly to test my theory out and decided I liked this career choice. 

If I had been really on the ball, I could have been interning throughout my high school years, as some of my homeschool friends did.  It’s a great time to intern, because you don’t need to wait until summer or winter vacations, as I feel pressured to do as a time-poor college student.     

If all goes well, I’ll graduate in December — which means by January, I’ll be flung out into the work force.  It’s a pretty scary thought, but I feel prepared by the foundations homeschooling gave me.  Ultimately, that’s how I know I didn’t miss out by learning in a two-story house instead of a 30-seat classroom.

[Jamie Smith Hopkins graduated from The Learning Community International in 1995 and is an award-winning journalist for a major Maryland newspaper. She was valedictorian and graduated Summa Cum Laude from UMBC. This article was featured in Independent Learner, TLCI’s newsletter, in 1998.]

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