Diploma Consequences for Home Education: Choices (Part 13)
Categories: Choices, Léo’s Insights 2022-2023
Tags: high school diploma
Most likely the biggest, most fearful consequence associated with home education is the potential for sabotaging a child’s future possibilities. As I mentioned in a previous blog, “there will be consequences” for choosing home education, and again, you are probably hearing “that you will not like”. At least that is what the entire world seems to be saying – loud and clear!
Let’s begin by answering the question about whether or not a child’s future will be handicapped by home education.
NO, you are not potentially ruining your child’s future. Should they go to high school, and that is most definitely not recommended, they will have no problem integrating into their studies.
More to the point, do students need a high school diploma?
Once again the answer is NO! Students who complete their secondary (high school) education through home education are not restricted when transitioning to the post-secondary level, whether they go to work, start a business, register for a trade or go to college or university.
There are very few places that ask applicants if they have a diploma and even fewer that ask to see it. Students who complete their secondary studies at home not only have a grade twelve equivalence, but are most likely beyond most of their school-attending peers for two reasons: Firstly, home education programming is often much more stringent than school programming and secondly, when the program is tailored to the individual child, useless or irrelevant subjects and topics are not wasting the student’s time so they are generally finished their secondary studies by the time they get their driver’s licence at age sixteen.
On the question of accreditation and transcripts, one has to understand that accreditation simply means “government approved” and that the transcript is only a list of what has been studied and how well the student has done. If you are comfortable with that, then seek it. However, if you know what is actually going on in schools, you will have good reason not to. If one replaces the word “accreditation” with “proficiency”, the only requirement becomes showing a reasonable skill level in certain subjects. This is easily done, but a topic for another time.
A good transcript of what has been studied is all that is required. The difference between a government transcript and a personal transcript is accuracy. All government transcripts list the same subjects and applicable marks, forcing admissions personnel to compare marks. A personal transcript also lists subjects and grades, but it is further individualized so admissions personnel can compare individuals when searching for the best candidate for acceptance.
At Education Unlimited our slogan is, “A vision for home education and beyond”. Beyond home education lies unschooling, which really is the way to get beyond the classical, meaningless high school diploma.
Do I need a diploma, you may ask? No. Going beyond home education means going beyond the diploma. The world may say that is risky, but going beyond the diploma actually outsmarts an antiquated system no longer relevant in this modern and the child’s future world.
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