We1 have been lucky!
It has been more than four and a half years since we relocated to India from California. Our friends and acquaintances in particular and the society at large have been very helpful and genial through our journey. Also, we have been steadfast about our decision to be a part of the independent learning project that we started in June 2018 in the Bay Area and carried it out through the intercontinental move.
Some acquaintances were interested in knowing more about our experience. I decided to write it down in the hope that it will help them. I have written in three parts:
- A Product Perspective (only results matter)
- A Process Perspective (process matters; results will follow)
- A Summary Perspective (what seems to have worked for us; is independent learning for you in this time and age?)
In this part, I shall cover the results (1) that can be objectively assessed. To a lot of people this matters the most. They want to focus more on the destination, not as much on the journey. Although I love processes and journeys that are fun, I have nothing against result-orientation, because I do think that goals and results are important. Obsession of anything, however, is fraught with issues.
We have also created a society that rewards good results and penalizes bad ones. We often say, “Nothing succeeds like success.” or (especially in the US,) “It’s either Yale or McDonald’s.” When there is a tremendous apparent competition, such polarization is understandable, but is it necessary?
The definitions of good and bad [results] are not clearly specified, but an invisible majority decides them. My definition is rather easily stated: good results are the ones that help us make progress (which is, although subjective, perhaps easier to understand objectively.) For example, a lot of us believe that graduating from high school and going to a college is progress. A regular college admission is therefore a good result.
Here are the results of the journey so far:
- We all navigated our way through an extremely challenging pandemic. As a result, we are better prepared.
- We learned to embrace the change and thrive while experiencing it amid difficulties. This is a life lesson learned well. Our kids’ social lives were expectedly different from that of a typical student going to a traditional school, but they were not adversely affected. They made good friends at both the gymnastics club and our housing complex.
- Rujuta (14 years old) graduated from the middle school with some very good progress on Gymnastics, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Problem-solving, Hindustani Classical Music, and English. She continues to learn from excellent books such as Euclid’s and Callahan’s Elements Redux, Gelfand and Chen’s Algebra, and PSSC Physics. For a lack of standard exams, she was assessed independently. She has spontaneously and enthusiastically documented her work (see here, here, and here). Rujuta will be relocating to the Bay Area because she wants to pursue gymnastics more seriously. She has seriously considered going to a traditional high school, but wants to continue homeschooling because of the clear flexibility it offers.
- Apoorv (18 years old) graduated from high school. I prefer to say that he is a self-taught student who preferred to homeschool. He made excellent progress on Computer Science, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Sanskrit, and Gymnastics. He documented his work with great interest (see here, here, here, and here). He learned from the OpenStax textbooks, Inquiry Based Learning, Khan Academy, and numerous other resources. He also carried out a calculus co-learning project for younger students. All the participants were very happy with the sessions. He wrote several standard examinations (1580/1600 on SAT, 5/5 on 5 out of the 6 AP exams) and applied to US colleges through the College Board. Many colleges rejected him (more on that in the next article), but quite a few showed interest. He won a scholarship admission (CS) to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. But finally he committed to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (UMich). He will be majoring in either Computer Engineering or Data Science.
- Deepa and I (the full-time steachers at our homeschool) documented the experience not only in the text format (see the links above) but also in audio (there are literally dozens of recordings) and video formats. Personally this is a treasure simply for its nostalgic value. I have frequently listened to our discussions and, as a result, I am a better facilitator and steacher. In doing so, I have experienced what Russell has said about teaching: As an educator, being kind [especially to students] is what really matters.
In my view, these results speak for themselves. We all grew in one way or the other.
Given the amount of uncertainty, nobody could have asked for more. I may write about applying to US science, engineering, or arts colleges in a separate article, but Apoorv’s success at securing an admission to a reputed college is remarkable. It has not come at the cost of lost enthusiasm of learning something (unlike it usually happens for several students in some high-pressure school districts of America and India). Rujuta’s interest in mathematics (a subject she dreaded in her elementary school) and problem-solving was born and cultivated.
I am not going to boast about or endorse homeschooling, but frankly admit that it worked for us. Not because it resulted in a thriving high school student and a budding undergrad, but because the interest and flexibility in learning was preserved. It rarely felt like a drudgery even when things were challenging.
We wanted ourselves to experience the cultural and social medley that India is. In 2023, India is also doing exceedingly well on the economic front. In 2018 we were not so sure of it. While India has always positively amazed me (except, of course, the road traffic), moving to India was far from easy. Kids experienced familial values and traditional setup firsthand. They found meaning and discrepancies in it. They appreciated how such a big country was effectively vaccinated through a pandemic. They became a part of the mix that added unforgettable colors to their childhood fabric.
Apoorv and Rujuta were of course strangers when they came. They had an American accent. Their English sounded different. Road traffic and pollution were unbearable. The crowd was maddening. An utter lack of professionalism couldn’t often be ignored.
But the strangers slowly became acquaintances and then friends. The acceptance was mutual. Apoorv and Rujuta embraced an ever-changing India and their slice of India embraced them. They taught their parents (who were brought up in the India of the 80s and 90s) the Marathi slang of the gen-Z. They loved the food, restaurants, and grocery shops that sold pepsi colas and Cadbury eclairs and whatnot.
Above all, in a society that has its very evident classes, they liked its apparent practicality, frugality, simplicity, affordability, and security. Admittedly, a few things were just weird at times, but they didn’t get too much in their way. Though the two represent a financially stable middle class family which is typically a family of knowledge workers, they developed a deep respect for the working class members (the housekeeping staff and security guards at the apartment complex, the Zomato, Dunzo, Amazon couriers, the auto rickshaw drivers, and so on) that they ran into every now and then.
In short, we all experienced that Shift Happens!
The likelihood of having such an enriching experience in the Bay Area is rather low. Knowing your native language and being able to fluently express yourself in that language makes you feel good. It also makes your grandparents feel good for they can at least communicate (in their native language) well with their grandchildren (without a need for parental interpreters). I am not suggesting that every immigrant family must somehow make their children learn their native tongue, but the experience is pleasant when such learning happens organically. There is no better place to experience the beginning Marathi than the streets and houses of Maharashtra.
Of course, some of this could have still happened had they been to traditional schools. But homeschooling gave us the required flexibility. I still believe that not having to go through a traditional school where compliance2 is held in high regard was a boon in disguise. Homeschooling was a lot of work, but it was liberating. Quite understandably, Apoorv’s and Rujuta’s friends were curious about what they had been “learning”, what this homeschool thing was all about, and whether they were going to go back to the US.
Acceptance of homeschooling by universities is still low. Their documentation about homeschooling is sparse, hidden, and changing. US Colleges want all applying students to complete their admission requirements, especially English. Understandably, they want homeschooling applicants to showcase their abilities as demonstrated at external agencies (internship, projects, exams). But there are no avenues for this that we could find. Other than the SAT (which has been made optional or even needless by several US colleges) and the AP exams, there are very few (almost no) standard exams that are accredited by US universities (Please comment below if you know any accredited options for exams, but note that as of this writing, the SAT subject tests are a thing of the past.). Of course, if you are, say, a gold-medalist at an Olympiad, none of this matters, because then you are already an outlier. But a lack of clear documentation hurts people who have embarked on a sincere and serious, although uncommon, educational experiment.
I find it odd that US colleges are SAT-blind or SAT-optional for homeschooled students. Colleges of course have their reasons to go test-blind or test-optional, but homeschooled students are negatively affected as a result. Perhaps not many colleges care because homeschooled students are such a tiny minority that you don’t even consider their existence!
Even so, I thank US universities for the fact that perhaps at least a few of them paid attention to Apoorv’s college application. I suppose at least some of them acknowledged the unusual nature of his journey so far and UMich offered the highly competitive admission to Computer Engineering or Data Science. I don’t think a homeschooler could have secured an admission to a decent college (e.g. an IIT) in India (in spite of the alternatives like NIOS3).
In spite of the unknowns, we just kept feeling that we are doing the right thing because the time was being spent in peace and joy and we were all actively learning something new. I know that there is an unspoken precedent against homeschooling (on Reddit, you can read sad first-hand experiences of homeschoolers) and its acceptance is low perhaps for a reason, but, for us it just worked. That is, if you were to look at it from a Product Perspective.
I consider these results deeply satisfying.
(Part 2 and Part 3 are coming soon.)
Footnotes:
Free Learner's School 
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