To Keep or Delete....

Hello, poor little neglected blog.

Life is full. I am exhausted.

I have so much to write about, but honestly, I'm not sure if I should even keep this blog. It started out as a way for me to express myself when I was a teenager (I think I was fourteen or fifteen when I first started...?) and now I'm just embarrassed whenever I go back and read the old posts. I have tons to write about, but I don't know if it's even worthwhile to go to the time and effort to write clear and concise thoughts that nobody will ever read. Rambling to the quiet side of the internet isn't as appealing as it used to be.

But I know that I have a lot of information that could be useful to other unschoolers out there who might want to go to college. I learned a lot from this crazy experience of getting admitted, and I have a lot to say about what university actually entails. But is it worth it? I have almost no spare time. I'm a pre-med student double majoring in Humanities and Japanese. I'm working as a tutor and a teacher's assistant in the English as a Second Language program at school. I'm at school from early morning to late evening, and then when I get home, I have to start on the huge pile of homework. On the weekends I just sleep and do more homework. Blogging is not a priority. I could possibly make time for it, but would it even be worth it?

On one hand, I kind of have this overwhelming urge to "prove" to every anti-unschooling person that unschoolers can succeed in college. (Look at my 4.04 cumulative GPA. Yeah, 4.04. See that? Is your product of public school achieving that?)

On the other hand, yes, I have that GPA, but I still believe that grades are stupid. Why do we have this system of measuring success in academics? Shouldn't you be the one defining your success? Why should some letter/number be telling you what you learned? It's all a game to me. College is a game. "Succeeding" in college is a game. But, I know how to win.

Anyway, I have a lot to say. And not much time to say it.

Does anyone have strong feelings as to whether or not I keep blogging?
Let me know.

ATTN: UNSCHOOLERS -- Stanford is Offering Free Online Classes!

Stanford is offering free non-credit online classes starting January 2012!

This looks like an amazing resource for unschoolers! I unfortunately don't have time to take any of these classes myself, but please let me know if you end up trying it out- I'd love to hear about the experience. See links below for details. 

Entrepreneurship Courses:

Lean Launchpad

Technology Entrepreneurship


Medicine Courses:

Anatomy


Civil and Electrical Engineering Courses:

Making Green Buildings

Information Theory


Complex Systems Courses:

Model Thinking


Computer Science Courses:

Computer Science 101

Machine Learning

Software Engineering for Software as a Service

Human-Computer Interaction

Natural Language Processing

Game Theory

Probabilistic Graphical Models

Cryptography

Design and Analysis of Algorithms I

Computer Security

I got the job!

Well, I walked into the interview, and they offered me the job, right then and there.

So I am now officially an English Tutor at my University. I'll tutor one-on-one with international students, and I'll work in the classrooms too, as a teachers assistant. Also, on occasion, I'll get to act as a "chaperone" on special trips that the international students take (including skiing trips, rafting trips, etc).

I'm pretty excited about this!

Unschooling Hate

CNN just wrote an incredibly positive article about Unschooling. (Click HERE to read it.) I've seen so many negative articles and news segments about unschooling, so it's really nice to actually find a positive one for once. I felt satisfied, and happy for the unschooling community when I read it.

...But then I made the mistake of scrolling down, and reading the comments.

Here are a few, just to get a feeling of what I'm talking about. I don't even want to start to address them right now, they are so ridiculous. I might do a follow-up post later... but right now, just read these.

"These kids probably have wealthy parents who got suckered into this "new age" education bullbleep. If any of their resumes lands on my desk it's going straight to the paper shredder."

"And then they grow up and cannot deal with a world that requires a degree of organization. They cannot hold a job where they need to do specific tasks at specific times. We wonder why the U S falls further and further behind in math, science, etc. while we champion goofy ideas like this"

"Yeah? What happens when they enter the workforce?  Think the company will let them do whatever they want on their own time?"
"Any parent who deliberately does this to their children should be charged with child abuse"

Japanese Summer School

This summer I decided to take 15 credits of Japanese.

That's an entire year of Japanese (the second year, 201, 202 and 203) squished into nine weeks.

Lets repeat that.

15 credits in nine weeks.

So, this is what my life has looked like lately:

Wake up at 5:45
Shower, eat breakfast.
Briefly review.
Leave the house at 7:00 on the dot to catch the bus.
Study for test while on bus.
Sit in class for five hours.
Get home around 1:00.
Eat lunch.
Chill out and let my brain relax for a bit.
Homework.
Dinner
Study
Bed

Repeat.

That is what everyday, Monday to Friday ends up looking like. I also find time to practice violin and piano, go to music lessons, hang out with friends, and look for jobs, but it is safe to say that Japanese has pretty much taken over my life at this point. We have an average of three tests everyday, and your grades are never curved. If you don't pass, too bad, you'll have to repeat. No exceptions. Because of this, everyone studies like nuts. You have to, to survive.

This is probably the most intense academic experience I've ever had, but crazily enough, I sort of love it. Classes are taught only in Japanese, so my listening skills are really improving. Since everyone spends so much time together in class, we've all become friends. The professors are some of the greatest professors I've ever had in college, and they take their jobs seriously. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth, and I genuinely enjoy going to class most of the time. My Japanese is blossoming. I am happy.

Also, unrelated but worth mentioning, I've been looking for another job, ever since I quit the miserable soul-sucking one. I came across a really great opportunity, and applied, and amazingly enough I have an interview on Monday. I am SO excited, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, because this seems like a pretty select and competitive job. I'll share the details about it if they hire me, but it basically involves working with International Students at the University. I'm stoked. But still, trying not to get too excited. Keep your fingers crossed, everyone!

Getting a job as an unschooler? "Scandalous!"

Way back in November, I got a job. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, I'm not really sure how it happened, but somehow it did. I randomly saw that one place was hiring, submitted an application, cover letter and resume, and less than a week later, I was hired. Who has such luck? In this recession, I somehow ended up with the first job I randomly applied for?

Amazingly, that's exactly how it worked out.

So, I got a job, working in a supermarket. Bagging groceries, collecting stray carts from the parking lot, and basically doing all the extra things that needed to be done around the store. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into, but I was excited and interested to see what it would be like. Seventeen is a good age to have this kind of job, to test the waters and see what it's like.

Now, first of all, I was supposed to be part-time, but they made me work 35 hours in my first week. The first few months were really rough. I was working HARD, and for little money (minimum wage). My managers yelled at me a lot, for no apparent reason, we were over scheduled and I often ended up with nothing to do but "look busy" and people were rushing around madly buying things for the holidays. It was stressful. I was not pleased with my life.

In January, things got somewhat better. I started university classes again, and the company highly values going to school so they started scheduling me around my classes (which made it impossible for them to schedule me ridiculous 35 hour weeks, thank goodness for that).

But I hated it. Yes, I was making some money, paying for my "education" and saving the rest, but I honestly didn't care about the money. Maybe that's stupid and naive of me, but I still really don't care about money. That's not to say I spend frivolously, because I don't. Ask anyone I know -- they'll tell you that I save everything. All my paychecks went directly into my bank account and I still have not touched them for anything other than school.  

And if I didn't care about money, why was I still there? I dreaded the days I had to work. I dreaded being yelled at for things that were not my fault, for dealing with whiny customers who treated me like dirt, and for standing around trying to look busy when there was really no reason for me to be there. The whole situation was bringing me down.

So, yesterday, I gave my two weeks notice.

Maybe this was stupid, my parents certainly seem to think so. But I have enough money to pay my tuition through the summer (I'm going to Japanese summer school, more on that later) and I plan on finding another job at the end of the summer. January of 2012 is when I officially will become a full time university student, and I plan to be working again by then.

Of course the economy sucks, there's the recession, and I live in a place that has an awful unemployment rate. Everyone is looking for jobs. But, I have faith that something will work out. There has to be something better out there! Working eight months at a job I hated was a valuable experience if nothing else, but I am ready to move on.

I also want to say that being an unschooler didn't seem to hinder me in the job-market at all. I have my GED, and I'm currently a part-time university student. Maybe if I didn't have a GED and I wasn't "doing anything" this would be a different story, but as an unschooler, I had no trouble finding a job. Just wanted to put that out there since some people like to doubt unschoolers in any situation possible.

Getting a job? Without an education? Scandalous!

Hah!

That's all for now!

Unschooling Biology: the aftermath

The other day, at work, I ran into my biology professor from last term. (That's the funny thing about working at a grocery store -- you're always running into people you know.)

Anyway, I was outside, collecting the stray carts from the parking lot, and my professor was walking by. He stopped and looked at me.

"You look so familiar," he said, scratching his head.
"I was in your biology class last term!" I said, and then I told him my name.
"OH! I remember your name! You did really well!" He said.

I previously wrote about this biology course, about how I ended up constantly helping my lab partners who were absolutely clueless. Here's what ultimately happened: the exams were hard. Not many people got anything above a C. The final exam was intense.

But- I passed.

I got an A in that class.

That's right, me, the unschooler, that kid who never had formal science classes before, that kid who should still technically be in high school.

So when I ran into him, I told him, that I loved his class and I was going to technically become "pre-medical," and he smiled.

"Eight years ago, I had a student," he told me. "She loved my biology class so much that she became pre-med, and this June, she is graduating from medical school. And you know what? You're going to be next."