AN UNSCHOOLER IN PUBLIC SCHOOL

I am a homeschooler. I have been for 13 years. More than that, I am an unschooler. Anyone who has read my previous posts on this blog know that I don't like modern notions about educating children. That said, I must confess that my middle child, Cheyenne, has gone back to public school for her senior year. She started last Thursday.

Cheyenne is a great kid. She is very bright and has done a reasonably good job of educating herself with the books and opportunities I have provided over the years. She went to public for 4th grade out of curiosity and then chose to come home again. She made good grades but not good friends. Meaning she made friends but they weren't very good friends. They didn't seem to know how to be. Since then, as she has gotten older Cheyenne has made some very good friends. She has never had lots of friends but she usually has good friends. She has friends who are Christian, Pagan, atheist, goth, preppy, cowboy, young, middle-aged and old. The only people she really doesn't have any time for are people with no personal integrity or morals.

Now, at 17, Cheyenne has decided that she wants to be a "high school student" before the opportunity to experience that phenomenon has passed her by. We are in a quiet rural area where the school has a pretty good reputation and she has such a good head on her shoulders and strength of character that I have no problem supporting her.

The school has been great about the whole thing. The Superintendant is a super nice guy and when they discovered that we weren't interested in a diploma, they were somewhat bemused but took it in stride and basically allowed us the freedom to sign up for the classes we felt would benefit Cheyenne the most. The counselor was very helpful and friendly. Didn't quite know what to make of us sometimes (like when I told her I never used a textbook for English, Spelling or Reading.)

She has always hated math and needs to do some catching up so she stoically signed up for Algebra. She signed up for Biology Lab cause she has never had an actual "lab" class, although we do tons of experiments. She is in English 4 - more about that class later. She is also taking AP Government I would like to be a mouse in the corner for some of the discussions in that class;o) Chey is pretty opinionated and well-spoken. It'll be interesting to see how the teacher takes that. Her other classes are Choir and Web Design. She is quite computer savvy and a professional singer so those are pretty much coasters for her.

I am sure she will make good grades and be a credit to her family and to the LDS community as well as the unschooling community. I can't guarantee she will get along with every teacher because, as I mentioned, she is not going to keep her mouth shut if the teacher says something she deeply believes is wrong. I was never any good at that myself and I raised her that way on purpose so that will be fine with me. Not that she will go looking for trouble - far from it. She is a peacable girl; just don't push her.

I am really curious to see how the whole social situation plays out. Yes, I am a shameless people watcher and I'm using my child as a guinea pig. Actually, that's not true. She chose this - I am just enjoying the show. I would think it would be interesting to anyone who has wondered about the big "socialization" question. She has been unschooled since birth with the exception of 6 weeks in Kindergarten and the aforementioned 4th grade experiment.

Now, she goes into this school knowing exactly one person. Her friend Jack, from church; the only other LDS kid in the entire school. He is apparently reasonably "popular", a very good student and starter on the football team. There are already rumors that they are "going out". Cheyenne was asked about it by a total stranger;o) Ah high school.

Cheyenne told me that she had an experience in choir the other day that kind of illustrated how different reality was from many people's perceptions about "popularity". The choir is basically made up of two distinct sets of girls. There are no boys in the choir. (It's a very small school.) The first group, Cheyenne says, is made up of girls who would be judged by most to be "social outcasts". They dress "goth" and are somewhat hygenically challenged. Cheyenne hasn't really gotten to know any of them; they may be perfectly nice girls. They are pretty quiet and don't give the teacher any trouble.

The interesting group was the other one. This second group is typical of any recent high school movie. Think "Mean Girls". They are cute, girly types with all the "right" clothes with the "right" labels. The teachers and other students act like these girls are what girls are supposed to be. Now, to look at her, you would probably assume Cheyenne would fit right in with this group but I'm betting that won't happen.

These girls sat by Cheyenne in choir yesterday so she was privy to their conversation. The teacher didn't have them do much that day for some reason so there was more conversation time than usual. These "perfect" specimens talked throughout the class about their sexual lives and birth control and male anatomy. They were obviously well-versed and comfortable with the topic. The idea that a girl might not want to be sexually active in high school was not even thought of. They also talked about ditching school, cheating on tests, drinking and lying to their parents.

Yup, I guess poor Cheyenne is going to be a regular social misfit;o) Darn it.

Actually, she has already found a few kids to hang out with that she likes fine and who don't seem to think it strange at all that she doesn't get drunk or hate her parents. I guess whether or not someone is a "social misfit" depends on the society they are trying to fit into.