Oh boy.
The high school aged homeschoolers that I have heard of are self motivated and doing amazing work in areas that interest them. That's what I think of when I think of homeschooled teenagers. I think of "the other teenagers" being adrift, unmotivated, and aimless, mostly because the atmosphere of public high schools is oppressive to many kids that it drains their own self motivation. I thought that homeschooling was the answer! This girl, one of the very few homeschooled high school kids that I actually have met, showed me quite clearly that homeschool families are not immune to the yucky teenage years.
Dang!
She said that she is thinking of working on her GED and getting a driver's license.
GED?
GED!?
That made me pause again. Do homeschoolers have to get a GED to "officially" graduate? GED's are loaded. For a lot of people they carry the connotation of 'high school drop-out', and 'has enough gumption to go back and get a diploma of some sort'. While I have a lot of respect for people who have enough gumption to go back and get a GED, it makes me think what was going on that they didn't finish high school the regular way. General flakiness? Baby? Drugs? Run away? Family disintegration? Too much of a genius and needed to go straight to college?
None of those may be correct in an individual's case, but a GED makes people wonder.
I don't want people to wonder when looking at my daughter's future credentials. I want her to have a regular diploma.
Needless to say I trotted home to check out the legal situation.
Whew, I am glad I did. Homeschoolers have a huge amount of freedom in getting a high school diploma. They can meet their state's requirements if they like, but are not obligated to. Their parents or whoever has been homeschooling them can just up and write a diploma out whenever they think their child has met their own requirements, whatever they may be.
The transcript is the important piece, I think. While a parent can write a diploma whenever they want, it can likewise be rejected anywhere if it is useless. A transcript states, simply, what a graduate was required to do to receive his or her diploma.
This girl who admitted to doing diddly for the last year, will have to have her mother write out her diploma. She has also admitted to a horrible relationship with said mother, I am guessing related to the fact that she has done diddly for the last year. I am also guessing that her mother would love to come up with a plan of action with her daughter to accomplish certain goals and, when she meets those goals, to award her a diploma. I am further guessing that the daughter is looking for a way to bypass her mother because she is a rebellious teenager.
Nice little collection of stereotypes I've collected, isn't it? I'm showing my biases.
That is a ton of guesswork on my part and I just met the girl so I am most likely way off.
But if I am right, what are this girl's options? Her mother won't write her a diploma because she doesn't think she deserves one. So, this girl can:
1. prove to her mother that she deserves one by getting back to work.
2. get a GED.
3. go to high school, meet their requirements and get a diploma.
4. skip all that and start taking community college classes.
The last option is actually what a lot of homeschoolers do, I think. Our local community college allows high school students to take classes. Once you have taken a few classes and done well, you have proved your ability to do the work. Then you can get officially admitted to an academic program and just start on your college career. After you get a college diploma of any kind, a high school diploma is moot.
No comments:
Post a Comment