{"id":3743,"date":"2016-06-22T23:12:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T17:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3743"},"modified":"2016-06-22T23:12:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T17:42:17","slug":"too-cool-for-school-what-i-learned-from-being-homeschooled-in-mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3743","title":{"rendered":"Too Cool for School: What I Learned from Being Homeschooled in Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\u00a0\n

I<\/span>t\u2019s a routine Monday morning in <\/p>suburban<\/span><\/a> Mumbai: All the schoolchildren have been dropped off for the day, and people are grudgingly crawling to work through hellish traffic. Then a 10-year-old girl and her mother appear on the footpath. The girl isn\u2019t late for school; in fact, she isn\u2019t even wearing a <\/span>uniform<\/span><\/a>. She fumbles with a large map in front of her, periodically making notes on it, while the mother talks about which eminence that particular road was named for and what he or she did. <\/span>\n\nYou might think this scene odd, but this was an average Monday <\/span>morning<\/span><\/a> geography lesson for me.<\/span>\n\nYup, my childhood was a little odd. Most kids complain about their grades, their history <\/span>homework<\/span><\/a>, their annoying PT sir. I complained about being taught embroidery and having to draw the entire history of ancient Rome in charcoal (in my defence, the nasty stuff was impossible to control and got everywhere). But most annoying of all was the question posed by countless annoying aunties: \u201cWhich school do you go to?\u201d <\/span>\n\nI was homeschooled by my mother since the age of seven, when she pulled me out of a school system with which she had grown disillusioned. It was an unconventional choice that caused great consternation to well-meaning adults and busybody <\/span>relatives<\/span><\/a> alike. Their questions were endless. \u201cWhat about exams?\u201d \u201cHow do you know that you\u2019ve passed?\u201d \u201cWho even teaches you?\u201d \u201cWhere are your friends?\u201d<\/span>\n\nChildren, on the other hand, were more forgiving. They bounced up and down with glee at the idea and told me I was so lucky \u2013 I could wake up whenever I wanted! I could watch TV whenever I wanted! No <\/span>tuition<\/span><\/a>! This was not entirely true. <\/span>\n

Having never dealt with exams before, there was a steep learning curve with long hours of soul-crushing tuition that made absolutely no sense to me.<\/blockquote>\nMy mother followed a system that encouraged integrated and holistic learning through <\/span>music<\/span><\/a>, painting, drawing, as well as practical skills. On an average school day at my desk, we built igloos out of sugar cubes (I ate them all and got sick) when studying world geography. We <\/span>travelled<\/span><\/a> to obscure places in India such as the source of the Godavari river in Nashik and the Goecha La pass in Sikkim. I learnt basic math through knitting as I saw the rows of stitches increasing in a way similar to multiplication. <\/span>\n\nThis was all fine and dandy, but I still had to \u201cstudy\u201d like other school kids \u2013 and of course, I hated it. I wasn\u2019t allowed computers and <\/span>mobile phones<\/span><\/a> for the longest time, and movies were reserved only for Sundays. I did not like the copious numbers of essay and creative writing I had to do, and hated multiplication tables on principle. <\/span>\n\nUnfortunately, I only realised how easy I had it when the infamous board exams were upon me. I was registered at the National Institute of Open Schooling, one of the largest distance-learning programmes in the world. Once again, I was just a <\/span>puppet<\/span><\/a> of the system.<\/span>\n\nNow having bland government-issue textbooks and very little time, all the fun and play was sucked out of learning, leaving me spending hours hunched over at my desk \u2013 the very thing my <\/span>parents<\/span><\/a> were trying to avoid in the beginning. Having never dealt with exams before, there was a steep learning curve with long hours of soul-crushing tuition that made absolutely no sense to me. I had to learn exactly how to write papers only so I could ace them \u2013 not because there was any <\/span>learning<\/span><\/a> to do there \u2013 undoing my parents\u2019 efforts to free me from the scourge of \u201cmugging\u201d. To those who deal with this from the very beginning of their schooling… mad respect, yo.<\/span>\n
Now having bland government-issue textbooks and very little time, all the fun and play was sucked out of learning, leaving me spending hours hunched over at my desk \u2013 the very thing my parents were trying to avoid in the beginning.<\/blockquote>\nToday, the legitimate information available in India about <\/span>homeschooling<\/span><\/a> has increased, and people no longer react with disbelief when you tell them you don\u2019t attend a regular school. As a child, I never actually used the word \u201chomeschool\u201d when trying to explain things, because nobody knew what it meant. Today, I\u2019m often pleasantly surprised by an understanding reaction. <\/span>\n\nAt 18, I\u2019ve just managed to clear my 12th boards through the NIOS, but was it worth it? Am I better off for not having attended school like so many of my <\/span>peers<\/span><\/a>? It\u2019s hard to say.<\/span>\n\nSpending 10 years of my life studying in solitude has made me naturally reclusive and most comfortable in my own company. When I was younger, there were the building kids with whom I had grown up, and the kids that let me play <\/span>cricket<\/span><\/a> with them in the evenings, but the gulf in our day-to-day experiences meant I couldn\u2019t relate to anyone a great deal. I didn\u2019t leave the house if I could help it, I made excuses, and stopped meeting people, which was a pretty great recipe for <\/span>social anxiety<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nBut I also like to think that homeschooling has given me gifts I might not have received, had I been a product of the rote-learning factory that is the Indian <\/span>education<\/span><\/a> system. Under my mother\u2019s tutelage, I learned to be oriented, introspective, empathetic, and creative. I can be very passionate if I want to be. Perhaps cramming for unit tests every month and breaking down with exam anxiety three times a year wouldn\u2019t have permitted this degree of personal growth. <\/span>\n\nI know most people graduate the 12th grade with just one question on their minds \u2013 Science, Commerce, or Arts? I\u2019m lucky to have had a different experience. My <\/span>exams<\/span><\/a> being over now, I can honestly say I\u2019m exhausted. It was intense and sudden, and I\u2019m relieved it\u2019s over. But I\u2019m certain I\u2019m not even half as relieved as people who have been in school all their lives.<\/span>\n\nUltimately, we all have had different experiences that shape us, and eventually, each one of us will get to decide how we move forward.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most kids complain about their grades, their history homework, their annoying PT sir. Being homeschooled, I complained about being taught embroidery and having to draw the entire history of ancient Rome in charcoal. But most annoying were the aunties who asked the question, \u201cDo you have any friends?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":3744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[7015,4219,360,1712,7016,19,1912,80,7017,7018,1739,6720],"class_list":["post-3743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-classmates","tag-education","tag-exams","tag-friends","tag-homeschool","tag-india","tag-millennial","tag-mumbai","tag-national-institute-of-open-schooling","tag-peers","tag-school","tag-social-anxiety"],"yoast_head":"\nToo Cool for School: What I Learned from Being Homeschooled in Mumbai<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most kids complain about their grades, their history homework, their annoying PT sir. 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