“A Life Learner’s Path to College” by Karen Hollis 

From Life Learning Magazine

“Your child’s interests can form the basis of a most excellent education.”

~Karen Hollis

“Following passions, no matter how unconventional or non-academic they seem at the time, can get young adults to exactly the same desirable places that other kids spend all of high school nose to grindstone trying to achieve, with all the attendant pressure and stress.

My daughter had a stress-free high school education in which she grew in confidence and self-knowledge due to following her passionate interests, and this is something I value much more highly than her string of acceptances.

I want to encourage all parents out there who are worried sick about college admissions to trust a bit more in the fact that their child’s keen interests can demonstrate, as much or more than APs or contests, the very qualities that colleges search for and value. It may not seem that way because colleges word what they are looking for after what schools do and teach, and homeschooled kids can do things very differently. But the underlying qualities – curiosity, the search for knowledge, immersion in a field of interest, seeking out or creating opportunities for further learning, questioning conventional wisdom – these are all qualities that can stand out no matter what your child’s particular interest is, and can form the basis of a most excellent education.

Karen Hollis used to be an academic teacher and writer, but while learning with her daughter she began writing very occasionally for home- schooling websites and magazines. She is working on a book about the way her daughter revolutionized the way she thinks about education, leaving no assumption untouched and no truism standing.”

To read the complete article please click here.

From The Alliance for Self-Directed Education website:

WHY SELF-DIRECTED EDUCATION WORKS

“OK, Self-Directed Education creates a happy childhood and adolescence, but does it lead to a happy, satisfying, productive adulthood? Can these people go on to higher education, if they wish, and do they get good jobs? The answer to all these questions is yes.

The most compelling evidence that Self-Directed Education works, in the sense of preparing people well for adult life, comes from follow-up studies of adults who were in charge of their own education, outside of traditional schools, during what would have been their K-12 school years.

A survey of graduates of the Sudbury Valley School (one of the most well known schools for Self-Directed Education), led to the following conclusion:

“Although these individuals educated themselves in ways that are enormously different from what occurs at traditional schools, they have had no apparent difficulty being admitted to or adjusting to the demands of traditional higher education and have been successful in a wide variety of careers. Graduates reported that for higher education and careers, the school benefitted them by allowing them to develop their own interests and by fostering such traits as personal responsibility, initiative, curiosity, ability to communicate well with people regardless of status, and continued appreciation and practice of democratic values.”