The College Admissions Talk

I revisited my past this last week and spoke to a group of homeschooling moms (and a few students) about preparing for college. I was excited to do it; I enjoyed the work of admissions and I wanted to give something to my homeschooling community.

It was an interesting experience and I don't know if I will do it again. I left wondering why I still don't feel like I fit with "homeschooling moms." Some of them were my age and possibly younger. I wonder sometimes if second-generation homeschoolers are homeschooling for vastly different reasons than most first-time homeschooling parents. But I have a couple of friends who are first-generation and I feel like we are all on the same wave-length. So I'm not sure why I feel a disconnect.

That never bothered me before. I always saw life from the student side and I didn't have a problem with that. But I am a mother now. And I felt like a 25-year old with them all wondering if I wasn't a little suspect.

There were different responses and not everyone reacted the same. But as I have thought of it, I've come away with a pretty certain feeling that a lot of those moms think of college as suspect. They aren't sure they trust the whole thing. I'm sure some of that is their particular views of religion and higher education. But some of it may just be unfamiliarity. I had hoped to make it seem less scary.

I also realized that it can get very unhealthy when mom can't separate being the teacher from being the parent. Students need very different things from these two roles at this stage and certainly variant counsel on colleges from the two. Having a parent (or parents) wear both hats can really put a lot of pressure on a student, as well as the parent. I'm filing that away in my mental file so that if I continue to home school through high school that I will be prepared to find a healthy separation.