Homeschooling vs Eastern Christian
Sophomore Caleb Chae distinctly remembers the day he entered a school setting for the first time. “Right when I entered the community, I felt like they valued me,” he said.
Caleb Chae is one of many students who began their academic career as a homeschool student. From only seeing their family members to joining 300 students per day, homeschooled students have arguably the hardest transition into high school. Though these students have spent the entirety of their academic careers at home, they found comfort and something new in attending EC.
Homeschooling is a popular academic path that many parents, especially religious families, choose for their children to take a part of for many different reasons. “My parents believed the public school education system couldn’t be trusted and my parents wanted me to learn the right stuff. They didn’t want me to be influenced and wanted me to grow up and learn on a firm foundation and not be exposed to outside worldly nonsense,” said Caleb Chae.
Another student, junior Daniel Lim said, “I went to public school in New York and because my family was moving to New Jersey, I started to consider doing homeschooling. My friends in New Jersey did it and I thought it would be so much fun.” Though there may be many upsides, there are also many cons that come with homeschooling. “It was very antisocial because it was just me, my brother and mother and I couldn’t interact with people,” said senior Caleb Troast, another previously homeschooled student. “At first I really liked it because I had a lot of free time and it felt like we just skipped school, but over time it became really repetitive and I had no friends with no human interaction,” explained Caleb Chae. “At first it was good and I felt like I wasn’t learning more or less and I was on level and I had a lot more free time but most of the time I was by myself and I didn’t have interactions with people,” added Dan.
With almost too little social interaction with the other peers, how would these students transition back into a school setting with hundreds of students? “Right when I entered middle school everyone welcomed me and everyone treated me well and everyone wanted to be friends,” Caleb Chae explained. “I wished I started at EC from the beginning in elementary,” Chae added on. “It's been great, meeting all the different personalities and experiencing the world instead of being cooped up inside and adapting to all the change and having new teachers and classes that were a lot more challenging than home,” Caleb Troast remarked. “It brought out a new character in me because of the people I surrounded myself with and showed me a new love and community. It's been very loving and people are always caring and it's not like how most people expect and explain school. It's a different community and it's not about individualism like public schools might be but it's very community based and every teacher is willing to help.”
The students explained how thankful they were for EC and what it had to offer and add on to their lives. “I really like EC. I like it because of the people and because it's very close knit,” said Dan. Then Caleb Chae admitted, “I am grateful for the overall community and faculty and I know my parents work very hard to pay for me to come. I know not many kids have this opportunity to attend EC, so I am very thankful. I am thankful for all the teachers and staff that made me feel welcomed and all my friends as well.”