NOT planning for college?

[Bluegoat]

I think what would be really nice about this situation would be the lack of requirements that are to some extent arbitrary.  Mind you, here in Canada there is less pressure to have some specific and exciting transcript than in the US, even to get into a good school.  But getting rid of hoop jumpiing would be great.

 

For someone at 12, I would be still very inclined to keep options open - their views can change pretty radically, or new possibilities for the interests they have can present themselves.  Getting into the final three or four years of school though, I would start thinking more seriously about facilitating their direction.

 

I think the basic academic work I would start with is what do people need to have to be a good citizen?  I think they need to be literate, I think they should have some cultural awareness of our literary and artistic tradition, they need to know something about science and be able to evaluate it.  They especially need a good sense of history and understand how our government, and other forms of government, work.  So, all of that I would consider basic.

 

As for math, I might in high school be inclined to take a more practical approach.  I don't really mean less rigourous - in my experience people going into non-university work often need far more math than the average university arts student.  (I remember when my uncle decided on a late career change and became a carpenter - he had been at university but had to work to get his math up to snuff.  My grandfather, who has been an aircraft tech who also had never been to university, taught him.)But I would have no problems with it being done through more hands on work. The same with sciences - for a hands on learner, I would be quite willing to switch from a academic teaching approach to doing actual project work, or doing things like becoming a HAM radio operator, whatever.  I think there is a good chance it would actually be more effective.

 

I would encourage more time spent on other skills or work that will contribute to learning.  My oldest dd for example likes to sew - a high school student that really wanted to spend significant time on that would be fine by me.  I'd also encourage getting certifications if that was of interest and possible.

 

Even in the school system, I think it is really a shame that students who would like to go into vocational careers are not learning skills for those things - often they are really just biding there time for three years before they can start to get the training they need to work - if the system was different they could come out of hs ready to go right into an apprenticeship.

[HS Mom in NC]

I would not make any changes to my high school homeschooling plans based on what an 11 year old thinks she wants for her future.

I might consider changes after the first year or two of high school but not before.

I would actively seek out internships, rise alongs and their other field equivalents, involvement opportunities in their preferred field for every child all through their school years.

[Guest]

It isn't realistic for me to expect my 8yo to go to college. It wasn't realistic for me to expect my now-24yo to go to college either and I set him up for a lot of unnecessary bitterness and disappointment.

 

The bar isn't lower because ds will be spending his life working lower paying jobs that require lower intellectual skills, it is much, much higher because I need to fill him up with all the beauty and historical perspective and self-respect that I possibly can so that he does not believe a world that tells him he isn't good for anything except scrubbing toilets and pulling triggers and so that he can see beyond hunger, exhaustion, loss of innocence, and dreams that don't work out and still believe that life is worth living and passing along to the next generation.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Guest

[momto2Cs]

My ds is not planning on going the standard 4 year college route. He wants to be a mechanic. That is his dream, and his goal. Specifically, he wants to eventually specialize in restoring and modifying older cars, but he's willing to do general mechanic work until he gets to that level. He plans on getting his mechanic's certificate at the local junior (community) college.

 

How this affects high school is this -- he's already gotten one pre-req for the program out of the way through dual enrollment, and he'll hopefully get into the basic first-level auto shop class in the fall. At home, we focus on math, writing, and good literature, plus science/history rabbit trails. He also plans on taking the basic requirements for an associate's degree, which also act as transfer units should he decide to go the university route later. And this will help ensure he hits all the graduation "requirements" for our state. We'll do a semester of business math at some point, or he will take it through the JC.

 

My dd on the other hand, wants to be a wildlife biologist, which will require a four year degree, so I'm much more about prepping her for undergrad work at the JC.

 

Part of the reason we chose homeschooling was to give our kids space to explore passions. Both have known what they wanted to do since a very young age, and now it is my job to help facilitate that.

Edited March 17, 2016 by momto2Cs