A day in the life of a home schooled High Schooler: Classes at the County College

As homeschoolers make their way up through the grade school, middle school, and eventually high school, they find themselves in a predicament. As high school continues, a higher caliber of learning is required, a problem which is rarely feasible for parents to remedy. There are several ways homeschoolers remedy this problem. As a homeschooler, you are part of a tight-knit community, reaching out to help, as others do the same for you. What has become the norm among homeschooled communities is the “Co-op.” Homeschool parents (and often others as well) that possess certain specialties or knowledge in different areas get together, and hold classes for kids that need a certain class. For example, a biology major could teach biology, an engineering or math major could teach algebra. However, towards 11th grade, Homeschooled students generally run out of teachers to teach them at a higher caliber (For example; calculus and physics are not offered by any parents at the Co-op I attend). This being the case, I take classes at Burlington County College. By doing this, I not only get my class requirements for high school out of the way, but I also receive college credit, allowing me an easier load at college after I graduate from high school.

The classes themselves range from easy to extremely challenging. BCC is a county college, and, while not at a very high level academically, my experiences there have been a challenge. Last semester I took a chemistry course, along with the lab. This course was an introductory course, but was still somewhat difficult for me, as it was my first chemistry course, and it was at an introductory college level. This course was a good learning experience for me, making me employ better study habits. Those study habits have proved invaluable this semester, as I am taking an "introductory" level Biology course. That was the course description. Only later did I learn that this was the jumping off course for students planning to major in biology. The REAL intro course was something completely different. Even though this was the case, I decided to muscle through it, and as a consequence, I find myself spending double the time that I had expected on studying and mastering the material in the textbook. Overall, the County College is a challenging environment that will get homeschoolers out of their comfort zone, expose them to beliefs that they have not had to defend against before (such as evolution in my biology class), and force them to develop good study habits that will come in handy when attending a more advanced college or university.