Dear HungarianGypsy,
Homeschool at the high school level: Well, many homeschoolers choose to go back to more traditional settings for high school. It is a greater challenge to adequately homeschool once one gets past the elementary years. Unlike the caricatures and stereotypes foisted by the homeschool haters here at FR, the vast majority of homeschoolers aren't anti-schools. It is that we are anti-being-forced into cookie cutter views of education that may not work best for our own children, and we are anti-being-evaluated by entities that have failed in their own educational missions.
From our perspective, it is more reasonable that homeschoolers perform oversight over public school authorities than vice versa, in that homeschoolers nearly always succeed in their educational mission, while children in public school succeed educationally often in spite of their teachers, administrators, and higher-up NEA-goon muckety-mucks.
Be that as it may, homeschoolers can successfully pick and choose between the options available to them, and often go back and forth between their options, depending on the current needs of their children.
I know of a family with three children that homeschooled the older daughter through 5th grade, and then sent her off to a local public school in Montgomery Co, MD (a so-called good public school system). In retrospect, it was a mistake, because the local middle school wasn't that good. However, the high school was pretty good, and she is doing well there, coming up on her senior year. The family learned from this, and when the mother fell seriously ill, and could not continue homeschooling the middle child (the youngest isn't yet school-aged), they chose a nearby private Christian school, and are happy with that choice.
I've known other families that would homeschool a few years, use public or private schoos for a year or two, and then go back to homeschooling. Based on the needs of the child, rather than the needs of some bloated, overgrown, self-serving public school bureaucracy.
Anyway, back to high school and homeschooling, when we started homeschooling five years ago, we knew almost no one who homeschooled through high school. However, in those five short years, in our area, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of families that decide to "go all the way." Available to us is a sort of "homeschool high school" where a number of families have pooled resources to provide for an informal schooling experience for their children. As well, the local community colleges and four year colleges are now welcoming of homeschoolers, especially once they're 16 years and older. Thus, homeschooling at the high school level becomes an issue of expanding resources and methodologies. And yes, it must be largely self-directed by the student. Thus, students who are unwilling to be self-starters may not be well-served by this approach. However, the proportion of self-starters among homeschooled students is high, so it is likely a worthwhile approach for most homeschooled students.
I notice this is already occuring in my own sixth grader's packaged curriculum (Calvert School). This year, it's his job to determine what are his assignments, and to work through them, rather than my wife, each day, spelling out his assignments in detail. My wife's job is more just to keep an eye on things to make sure he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, to teach the parts that need teaching, and to administer the tests, accept the assignments, and provide assistance where assistance is required. This year, our older son is much more on his own, much more responsible for his own education.
He was a little hesitant at first. But now, after a few weeks, he likes it a lot, especially in that he can set his own pace, and is now several days ahead of the curriculum schedule.
Our younger guy would like to homeschool through graduate school. ;-) I'm completing an advanced degree mostly on-line, and they view it that I'm homeschooling, too. Thus, the younger guy's question is, why can't I do that? Just stay home and go to college and grad school on-line? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Anyway, yeah, your thoughts about homeschooling and high school are dead on. A child who is educated properly through the elementary years, who learns self-discipline and self-motivation, is an excellent candidate for a largely self-guided high school career.
sitetest