Photo taken during Yaman ng Lahi 2015: Yaman Para Sa Mundo
I am homeschooled. But due to the recently implemented K-12 program, I need to go back to a regular school that offers Senior High School to pursue the academic track that I want. Hence, I thought of extending my gratitude to my The Master’s Academy (TMA) family for contributing a lot to my teenage years, in emotional growth and development. This was a new setup for me, but I managed to get through it with the assistance and support from the people around me, in particular, my family who became my barkada and friends who became part of my family.
Homeschooling has done great things not only to me but to a lot of people, who benefited financially, emotionally, and mentally, from this program as well. Let’s hear it from a number of individuals who were homeschooled or who are still homeschooling.
Photo from louisemabulo.com
“I was homeschooled since I was 10. I’m in college now. Homeschooling gave me time and the opportunity to socialize with people I can actually learn from. Because of homeschooling, I’m free to be myself.”
—Louise Mabulo, Junior Masterchef Pinoy Edition finalist
“I was homeschooled for four years (the entire period of high school.) Basically, homeschooling was a totally new experience for me, since before, I was studying using the orthodox method of going to school. As for how it shaped me to be who I am today, I can say that homeschool taught me how to be independent and to a certain extent, self-sufficient and adaptable…that’s basically it.”
—River, The New Builder (official student publication of Mapúa Institute of Technology) writer
Photo from VJ Flandez Parreño
“The good thing is, in homeschooling, we get to study at our own pace and time. We’re allowed to learn stuff ahead of others. For four years, since we’ve got more free time compared to those who go to regular schools, we were able to know ourselves more.”
—Elisha, scholar at the Kids Acts Philippines, TheCampArt Actors and voice actor
“I’ve been homeschooled for seven years now. Homeschooling became a way for me to continue my studies when the circumstances I was placed in would have made it hard. It helped me to become more independent in my studies and more responsible as a student as I needed to manage my studies and works by myself with only some guidance and help from my parents when it was needed. It taught me how to stand on my own and not to rely so much on others. I think, in some ways, it helped me to mature faster as a student and as a person.”
—Rain, 9th-grade homeschooler, fiction writer
Photo from Noel C. Comia
“We were given the chance to explore and hone our skills, talents, and other things. And since we don’t get as much homework and projects as the others, we’re almost usually stress-free. We get to spend more time with our family too. We don’t just learn things through textbooks, occasionally we go to educational field trips with the family and consider them as our bonding moments.”
—Noel Jr., voice actor, scholar at the Kids Acts Philippines, TheCampArt Actors, commercial model and a TV/events host
“I think homeschooling is really good because you will learn many things. In a regular school, many of my friends always invite me to play outside and distract me while I’m listening to the teacher. Thus, homeschooling taught me how to focus more on my studies.”
—Maurin, 3rd-grade homeschooler
In point of fact, homeschooling opened my eyes to the hues and tragedies of living. It taught me lessons I know I can never learn in a regular school such as independence, confidence, and determination. I study most of my lessons on my own with guidance from my parents, of course. Not like before when I solely depended on my teachers to lecture everything I was supposed to know. Having a passing grade was not my goal anymore; learning was.
