Mock Profile

News Elements:

Who: Mayeesa Mitchell

What: Homeschooling

When: 4th through 12th grade

Where: NY/NJ

News Values:

Surprise

Oddity
Magnitude

Type of Lede:

Multiple Element

HPU SOPHOMORE SHARES HER UNIQUE EDUCATION

Mayeesa Mitchell

Photo: Dwayne Love
Mayeesa Mitchell at her high school graduation in June 2012.

There are over one million children being home-schooled in the United States this year, but they are all answering the same question: So how does home schooling work?

Mayeesa Mitchell, an HPU sophomore majoring in communications, is still answering that question as a home schooling alumna.

"A lot of people here at HPU don't know that I was home-schooled," Mitchell said Wednesday. "When they find out, I always get the same reaction. People want to know everything about my home schooling experience."

Mitchell began her home schooling career in 4th grade, when her parents felt it would be best to  take their children's education into their own hands. They began by using unit studies during her middle school years. 

"The unit study we used was called 'Five In A Row'. It focused on one book per week and drew all major subjects from it," Mitchell said. "Even to this day I remember 'The Story about Ping,' which was the first book we did."

But Mitchell's love for being home-schooled wasn't always so strong.

"I literally cried the first day of school and a couple of days after that," Mitchell said with a laugh. "I  honestly hated my parents for having taken me out of school. It took me a while to  accept it but once I did, I loved it."

Once she accepted her unique education, Mitchell became a true advocate for home-schooling.

"I actually enjoy answering people's questions about home schooling," Mitchell said. "I'd rather people be informed about what it's really like then to have them believing what's in movies and on the news."

So how does it work? According to Mitchell, everyone's home schooling experience is different.

"My family used unit studies and then became more eclectic using a mix of workbooks, DVDs, online classes and unit studies as I went into high school," Mitchell explained.

According to her mother, Karen Mitchell, home schooling regulation varies by state so that experience can also be very different.

"I used to live in New York and my mom had to submit 8 pieces of paper per year to the board of education concerning our home school. But when we moved to New Jersey, she didn't have to submit anything," Mitchell said

"Each state has it's own laws," the senior Mitchell said. Some states you have to report [to the Board of Education] like in New York and other states like New Jersey, you don't have to report at all.

Many believe that home-schoolers miss out on proper socialization or monumental events like proms and graduations.

"That most certainly isn't the case," Mitchell said emphatically. "Just like any school would come together to plan a prom or graduation, home-schoolers do too. And we get plenty of socialization too.

She continued: "When people ask me about socialization, I always say that I've learned to socialize better than most teenagers. Home schooling taught me how to socialize with a 6-year-old and a 60-year old because I wasn't surrounded by just my peers for eight hours a day."

Now that she's in college, Mitchell has learned that being a home-schooler will forever be a part of who she is and that she won't stop getting asked about that part of her life.

"I love that moment of awe when people find out," Mitchell said with a smile."But it's the questions they ask they really allows them to see what the world of home schooling is really like."