Traditional School

I Am Determined to Become the Best Educator I Can Be

School had a large impact on my life. Until I was eighteen, I did not experience education in the traditional sense. My homeroom was my bedroom; I had economics in the kitchen and science class was often held outside. I studied the usual subjects: math, reading, science, history, and English. I also studied some non-traditional subjects: Bible, canning, sewing, and cooking. My mother taught me to love reading. My father taught me how to find answers to my questions, and my siblings taught me how to explain concepts in a way they could understand. Being taught at home offered me experiences that I would not have received if I had attended a traditional school.

Unlike children who attended traditional schools, I was around my mother, siblings, and other adults all the time. While I did have friends my own age, I interacted mostly with adults. Because my school schedule was flexible, often I found

Steve Ong, pastor of Victory Baptist Church and home-schooled father, formed a one-room school where home-schooled kids could, for a small fee, take classes at church on Wednesdays. Usually computer, choir, art, and English were the classes offered. The instructors were homeschool parents with teaching degrees or expertise in art, science, English, music, computers, or Spanish. One of the teachers was Mrs. Carol Willis. She taught several English classes and two years of French classes. The two of us hit it off almost immediately. While my mother had given me the basics of writing, Mrs. Willis taught me how to write. She taught me to evaluate my own work and to recognize the weaknesses of my writing style. Mostly, she encouraged me to keep writing. Mrs. Willis graded every one of my papers from the time I was fourteen until I graduated at eighteen. After I graduated from high school, we kept in touch, exchanging topics, ideas, and things we had