Question for those who don't "do trad. highschool" at home

[Jean in Newcastle]

In another thread weeks ago, someone had made a comment about not duplicating the public school high school courses at home. My question is, if someone goes to the beat of their own drum, how do they assign credits? Or do they? What does someone who unschools high school do?

 

Does it matter if a college wants "4 credits of English" if a credit is for "Freshman English" or "The art of the Japanese novel" or someone writing their own poetry anthology? As long as the hours of work equal a credit and it has something to do with the subject is that good enough? Or does 4 credits of English need to encompass a certain body of knowledge? And would the answer to this question differ if I were referring to "3 credits of math" or "2 credits of lab science"?

[TippyCanoe]

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[Jean in Newcastle]

Thanks. I'll look at that.

[regentrude]

Does it matter if a college wants "4 credits of English" if a credit is for "Freshman English" or "The art of the Japanese novel" or someone writing their own poetry anthology? As long as the hours of work equal a credit and it has something to do with the subject is that good enough? Or does 4 credits of English need to encompass a certain body of knowledge?

And would the answer to this question differ if I were referring to "3 credits of math" or "2 credits of lab science"?

 

It depends on your goal. If the student goes on to college, there are certain reading and writing skills that he will have to have mastered, and not teaching them will set the student up for problems. If my student is a gifted poet but can not write an essay or a research paper or is using grammar incorrectly, he does not have the skills to succeed.

As far as details go, I do not think it matters at all what the focus of the English courses is (aside from the fact that I would aim to give my student some knowledge about the literary canon of his culture). Many colleges do not even require course descriptions and would have no knowledge of the contents of your course.

 

Now in math the situation is very different, because the topics build on each other and the student must master more specific knowledge in order to be able to advance - if you have not studied algebra and precalc, you can not study calculus, and you can not study rigorous sciences. Students who want to go off the beaten path in math and study topics that are typically not covered usually do so in addition to the canon: you can not just do number theory and fractal geometry and statistics because the missing stuff will have direct consequences.

 

In science, many schools specify what they count towards their requirement; how much leeway you have depends on the school and the student's major. But it is very possible to create an "alternative" science course that uses a variety of resources such as field research, original publications, discussions with scientists instead of working through a standard text. Again, the college may not ever know if the transcript does not have an unusual course title - unless you give them course descriptions.

Edited April 4, 2012 by regentrude

[Jane in NC]

While there are no national standards for a high school education in the US, I do think that state requirements might shape a high school career (or at least a transcript) if your student is applying to a state U. That said, the content of English I (or whatever you want to call it) is not going to be consistent. This is why I believe that it behooves a homeschooling parent to append to those college apps a list of books, Teaching Company courses, etc.

 

I'm not sure what is even meant by "traditional". For example, students reading selections from TWTM lists, books like The Aeneid, Divine Comedy, Moby Dick, are pursuing a "traditional" education in an old fashioned sense--but maybe not by modern standards.

 

That said, I have always thought that homeschooling is the perfect opportunity to allow our students to pursue passions. If your kiddo is applying to colleges that require certain hoops (AP, for example), then they will need to jump through them. But that does not mean that these same students cannot do interesting, non-traditional things.

[quark]

This book lists a few case studies and strategies for unschooling high school.

[elegantlion]

My ds will end up with a few quirky credits, I'm sure. I've looked at a lot of websites for private high schools and gleaned from their course listings. My goal is 4x4, 4 credits in English, science, history, and math. I'm working on a list of courses I'm willing to design for ds including a course on Star Trek and its influence. Our biology class will most likely be non-traditional, but on a transcript it will meet the criteria for bio w/lab.

 

Other options I'd consider, currently speculations based upon ds's interests, are Asian History, a semester study on WWII, a study on film vs. book, film studies, or special effects as a fine art.

 

My goal is to build skills, and if I can do that in a non-traditional way we will. Our family has a proverbial marching band way out in left field, so quirky is our norm.

 

I've broken our year into 3 terms. My plan is to allow some 12 week classes to use toward a full credit. For instance for 1 fine art credit he may end up with 12 weeks of drawing, 12 weeks of art history, and 12 weeks of film studies.

 

For math I have a year open for alternative courses like Discrete math, English may contain a semester of sci-fi lit or a study in mythology.

[Ellie]

In another thread weeks ago, someone had made a comment about not duplicating the public school high school courses at home. My question is, if someone goes to the beat of their own drum, how do they assign credits? Or do they? What does someone who unschools high school do?

 

Does it matter if a college wants "4 credits of English" if a credit is for "Freshman English" or "The art of the Japanese novel" or someone writing their own poetry anthology? As long as the hours of work equal a credit and it has something to do with the subject is that good enough? Or does 4 credits of English need to encompass a certain body of knowledge? And would the answer to this question differ if I were referring to "3 credits of math" or "2 credits of lab science"?

Unschoolers who want to go to college figure it out. :) An unschooling friend has sent three or four of her dc to college (one to University of Texas, and one to Texas A&M) and seminary, so apparently it can be done. One of her dc waited until the last minute to decide she wanted to go, and there was much scrambling and brain-beating trying to figure out the transcipt (my friend reminded her dd that it was the dd's job to keep track of that stuff), but whatever they did must have worked.

 

We did community college instead of high school. :)

[Jenny in Florida]

Does it matter if a college wants "4 credits of English" if a credit is for "Freshman English" or "The art of the Japanese novel" or someone writing their own poetry anthology? As long as the hours of work equal a credit and it has something to do with the subject is that good enough? Or does 4 credits of English need to encompass a certain body of knowledge? And would the answer to this question differ if I were referring to "3 credits of math" or "2 credits of lab science"?

 

Okay, keep in mind that the one student I sent to college already didn't go through the normal application process. So, it's not like I can promise we're doing it "right."

 

However, here's my current thinking, which informs the path we're taking with my son.

 

No, I don't think it matters if the actual content of a student's courses differs from the traditional. I think, as long as the amount of work is roughly equivalent and the student is developing an appropriate set of skills, it's fine.

 

So, for example, my son is focusing on Greek mythology for English this year. Every bit of literature he's read is related to that theme. Every paper he's written has been, too. But, on his transcript, it'll say "English I." Next year, we're going to read dystopian fiction, and the transcript will say "English II."

 

If a college asks for course descriptions, we'll provide them. And if anyone actually reads them, it will be clear that he took a non-traditional path for that subject. But, honestly, I doubt it will matter.

 

Similarly, his math and science for this year look a little different. And for those subjects, it'll be clear even in the course title: "Science in Popular Culture" and "Topics in Discrete Mathematics." To some degree, making those choices was a leap of faith. (I had folks on these very boards tell me I was making a mistake, especially when it came to the math.) But those were topics that interested my kid, got him enthusiastic about those subject areas for this year. So, we forged ahead, and we'll just have to see how it goes.

[Mama Lynx]

Those are great questions. My oldest has two classes of "Humanities," and two of "Great Books." Humanities covered history, some literature, philosophy, art appreciation, a little music appreciation, a little religious history. Great Books covered some history, literature, and some philosophy/government. They also read The Art of Argument and worked through half of Composition in the Classical Tradition.

 

The advice I've been given is to put "English 9," "English 10," "World History I" and "World History II" on the transcript.

 

I"m still not sure what I think about that.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Wow - so much to think about! Thank you so much. I hope that more of you share your thoughts.

[Ellie]

Those are great questions. My oldest has two classes of "Humanities," and two of "Great Books." Humanities covered history, some literature, philosophy, art appreciation, a little music appreciation, a little religious history. Great Books covered some history, literature, and some philosophy/government. They also read The Art of Argument and worked through half of Composition in the Classical Tradition.

 

The advice I've been given is to put "English 9," "English 10," "World History I" and "World History II" on the transcript.

 

I"m still not sure what I think about that.

That's the advice I would give, as well.

 

The transcript is what collleges see first (along with SAT/ACT scores, generally). It just needs to be quick and dirty, something that college counselors can make sense of right away. Imagine how many transcripts they look at, and then imagine what they might do if they get one that has courses they've never heard of, half credits for courses they've never heard of....It may depend on the college. Maybe some of them look for creativity, but you need to know that before you do the transcript.

[laughing lioness]

In another thread weeks ago, someone had made a comment about not duplicating the public school high school courses at home. My question is, if someone goes to the beat of their own drum, how do they assign credits? Or do they? What does someone who unschools high school do?

 

 

 

As always I think it depends on the goal. Where do you want to go to school and what do you want to study? Competitive program or not? Do you need scholarships or not?

 

Colleges and universities are looking at TEST scores first. If the transcript substantiates the test scores, great. If you have 4 h.s. credits of math and the kid scores 15 on the ACT in math- that would probably be a problem. For the most part, I don't think the actual "credit" is questioned.

 

My oldest dd traveled a lot in high school- going to Ecuador, Romania, Hungary and England. She did NOT have a traditional high school transcript at all (1 cr. science, 1 1/2 math, lots of English) but she had raised over $20K in support, traveled internationally alone several times, spent months in a foreign country, had done TONS of public speaking and was conversant in 3 languages. She also had skewed test scores- 99% in English, 45% in math (she scored almost 100% in Alg 1, lower in Geo and 15% in higher math- so it wasn't a lack of ability but a lack of familiarity).

 

Not every school wanted her- she was not accepted at Wheaton, but she did get a full scholarship to Augustana in SD (which she turned down) and a full ride at the school she is about to graduate from.

 

There were lots of family politics invovled in how that child did high school and I'm not necessarily advocating anything-- I'm just putting it out there as an example. Our take-away is that schools want students who know how to make things happen and can perform on some level (everyone loved her ability to raise money!). She also had verifiable linguistic ability.

 

I did make a traditional transcript for her. I did put the travel, languages, fund-raising down on the transcript (since she was actually out of country her senior year- her transcript was going to be awfully thin if I left it blank).