There is a quote attributed to Mark Twain that I always thought was really interesting. It goes “I never let schooling interfere with my education”. Like many quotes, who actually said it is not as important as what it says. It implies that what you are taught in schools as not always the same as what you need to learn to live your life. I have experienced this phenomena and it seems others have as well. I have always tried to put my education before my schooling.
For me, the disconnect between schooling and education became apparent very early in life. By the early years of elementary school, I had been told that I was not allowed to read more advanced books during reading time. The reason I was given was that I had not learned how to read, but had merely “memorized all of the letters, sounds, and all the books in the classroom” or something to that effect. While I certainly wish that I had the capacity to do so, I most definitely had not memorized all of the books that Miller School offered. I did, however, love reading. I read almost anything I could get my hands on: science books, history books, junior atlases, Star Wars and LEGO junior novels, I loved it all.
Additionally, through my time in traditional schooling there were many times where the assignments we were given were practically useless, but highly valued by the system. I couldn’t make paper airplanes, which apparently made me bad at science. In the fifth grade, I was given a 2 (out of four) for reading comprehension because my novel study was incomplete in some of its colouring and other similar components. This is despite the fact that, at that time, I had already maxed out the reading level scale two years prior and was in the advanced reading group.
By the fifth grade, I was miserable. When I would get home from school, I would sometimes just go up to my room and space out for an hour before supper, just to decompress from the day of school. For a couple years, I had fought with my mother almost every day about going to school. I had heard from a friend about homeschooling and began to beg my mom to homeschool me. By Christmas break of the fifth grade, she agreed, on a trial basis. I was ecstatic.
That first semester, two of my younger siblings remained in elementary school, while I stayed home with my mom and my youngest brother who was still a toddler. In terms of the curriculum, it was probably the worst of all our years of homeschooling, but I was already happier and learning more than when I was in public school. Even though we were doing things like schools did them, except at home, we did have some advantages. We could go as fast or as slow as we needed, because it was just me. I was also especially motivated that first semester. I wanted to say “easy to teach”, but I’m sure my mother could tell you otherwise. I guess I wasn’t too difficult though, as my mom decided to homeschool my other two siblings too that next year.
Homeschooling was very rewarding for me and I’m glad I got to do it. It allowed me to explore my passions both in my official schoolwork and in my free time. I was given more freedom to learn the way that worked for me. This isn’t to say that it was all sunshine and happiness and that my mother and I never argued about things. As a matter of fact, I was (and still remain) pretty stubborn and often tried to argue my way out of things I didn’t think were useful or interesting. Sometimes I was right and we moved on to the next thing. Sometimes I was wrong and today I am glad that my mom pushed me through those topics. We prioritized learning above following strict schedules. If one unit of a course seemed to take too long relative to the concepts being taught, we might skip a few questions. If the subject was enjoyable, we’d go into more detail. Much of the sections on poetry were skipped in favour of more Shakespeare or grammar. My parents continued to support my love of reading. My mom bought a bunch of novel study booklets for books I wanted to read, which made working through an English program much more interesting.
By the time I was sixteen and would have been going into grade 12, my parents and I decided that I had learned as much as I could on a high school level and that it was time for me to move onto something else. We decided to finish up my grade twelve subjects before my seventeenth birthday and then I would take some university courses during the second half of the school year. The University of Saskatchewan offered an online Intro to Business course and Athabasca University has hundreds of accredited courses available online to anyone wanting to take and able to pay for them. By September, I will have completed 18 courses online, the one from the University of Saskatchewan and seventeen from Athabasca University.
The year and a half that I have been doing these courses at home has been an amazing experience for me. I got to learn how to study for university courses while living at home, which gave me more time to spend with friends and family. This is time that I will truly treasure for the rest of my life. I feel as if I have better and closer relationships with my family than I would have otherwise. It gave me time to mature and develop, not just academically, but in many other ways as well. I got to visit my uncle in Calgary by myself, which was the first time that I had ever flown by myself. Additionally, I have worked for my dad as a legal receptionist for about eleven months as of writing this. Working at the law office has been beneficial for both my personal life and for my financial situation. It certainly forced me to get more comfortable on the phone, as well as helping me develop other administrative skills and an interest in the legal profession. Finally, I have also had the blessing and responsibility of helping to lead Bible studies for my church’s youth group. This has strengthened my personal spiritual life as well as providing a chance to feel as if I am making an impact on someone else’s life, even in a small way. All of these experiences, plus countless other smaller ones make me feel that I have grown a lot as a person in that time. I am more sure of my interests and personal beliefs and I will always be thankful for this time that I had to figure myself out.
However, I also knew that this wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. I knew that I was going to have to leave Melville and experience other things. I applied to the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan with my Athabasca transcript. A couple months ago I found out I was accepted and that all of my university credits would transfer. I think that’s not bad for a guy without a high school diploma. My education hasn’t been “normal”, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.