When COVID-19 cases rose, students were forced to learn at home. Education turned into working on computers from next to your bed. When most students returned to physical school, some chose to permanently start learning at home instead of going back to public school.
Freshman Sofia Rahimi realized through the pandemic that learning from home brought her more academic freedom.
“Learning from home made things a lot more flexible for me to learn at my own pace,” Rahimi said.
This freedom brought Rahimi to change from public school to learning at New Directions.
However, homeschooling isn’t for everyone. Extroverts prefer to verbalize their questions and to have face-to-face conversations. Introverts usually prefer less face-to-face interactions and tend to keep toward more enclosed environments compared to heavily populated classes.
Homeschooling is sometimes favored by introverts because it has less face to face interactions and more one on one work, which provides a more comfortable learning environment.
Diahann Mathis, president of San Diego Virtual runs a program where students can learn online from home instead of in-person school. Her program allows students to learn anywhere in San Diego and helps students get college ready.
But she knows home-school is not for everyone. “Some students have regretted their decision because they are social beings and wanted to hang out with friends,” Mathis said.
Some students choose the program because they do not have the capacity to interact with others in person from social anxiety and at-home learning provides more comfortable environments for some students.
Socialization is a key aspect that is lost when starting homeschool. Going to school, you have different types of social experiences like dances, football games, or interactions with different types of people. Rahimi said that after starting homeschooling, she missed social experiences like homecoming.
Homeschooling allows more flexibility in students’ schedules and often lets them choose their daily schedules.
“Many of the students in my program were much more set for college,” Mathis said.
