The Experience of Homeschooling and Traditional Education: A High School Graduate Narrative

Abstract

Homeschooling has been an alternative to traditional school for 25 years and is increasingly attracting more and more supporters today. Most of those meeting the idea of homeschooling for the first time try to understand what it consists of and looks like in practice. Questions concerning different issues emerge: whether this form of education is legal, what child socialization looks like, how can a child be motivated to work, how to verify the effects and what about the parents’ professional life? However, the most interesting aspect is finding/examining how the experience of homeschooling is experienced/perceived/described by children and youth who acquire knowledge and shape their skills in this particular way. Using biographical data, an attempt was made to analyse a narrative presented by a contemporary secondary-school graduate who experienced education both in a traditional school method and homeschooling. The discussion was based on the content of a free interview, conducted in April 2017. The author of the statement is a young man – Marcin (aged 19). The interview became the basis for defining his education to date, which elements have been crucial for the respondent and influenced his current perception of his biography. An attempt was also made to determine whether the differences concerning experiences connected with traditional schools and homeschooling are discernible.