If you're wondering what cyber school is, if you are looking into cyber school next year, or if you are a parent interested in cyber-school for your child this article is for you. Without further ado, here is my story:
Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away... Or a public school in Pennsylvania, lived a Sophomore girl who knew there had to be something better. haha. Ok, maybe that's a bit over-dramatic.
I grew up in the public school system. Same school and same kids every year. I did pretty well each year grade wise.I almost always had straight 'A's'. For me getting a 'B' was like what a survivor contestant felt get voted off the island.
Even though I was successful I still didn't care for school. I don't mean to be negative because I believe there are some positives to public school, but I believe public schools can be more harmful than beneficial to students.
The first reason I didn't like school was the basic structure of how it was set up. Often you will find classes in school where teachers get nothing done in class, and then assign homework afterward. This can be the outcome of a noisy and disrespectful class or even a lazy teacher that gets sidetracked in class and goes off subject. It was very frustrating to me because now I had to spend 7 hours at school and spend even more time working at home!
I am also very involved with sports, my youth group and a christian club at my school giving me hardly any time to relax or do other things like writing a blog. I am a person who likes to get their work done first and then play later. Putting things off gives me a lot of stress and anxiety hindering me from doing other things. I would always work throughout lunch, study halls, bus rides and homeroom to try to get work done, which leads me to my next point.
The social aspect comes in a close second to wasted time. I've always been a quiet person. This probably can be traced back to some deep psychological meaning since I am an only child, but that's a different post for a different day. haha.
I think a lot of people can relate to me in I become a leader when a leader is needed, but I won't fight for a leadership role if I don't see any problems with following the current leader. I've always looked at school as a place to learn instead of a place to gossip about the current 'hottie' in school or how ugly that one girl's shoes were. If you think those examples were just funny and random, then think again because I've heard them both.
In the middle of my Freshman year at high school I began going to a youth group where I found people that had values and opinions I agreed with. I decided to live the Christian lifestyle of upholding high, but not undo-able, standards for myself like no sex, drugs, drinking, swearing, etc.
I quickly realized after making that promise to myself it wasn't going to be easy to keep it. I'd like someone to do an experiment, and write down how many times they hear anything about sex, drugs, drinking or hear swearing in school. Just from experience I'll let you know there are going to be a lot of tallies in your notebook.
The end of Freshman and all of Sophomore year became grueling. Trying to be a good kid would get you weird looks, mean-spirited comments and insulted regularly. It always reminded me of that 'Status-quo' song from 'High school Musical.' haha. Somehow I got through.
Towards the end of my Freshman year I got myself away from a friend group that wasn't good for me, you can imagine how that went, and surrounded myself with a couple of kids who had the same or at least similar values I had. Without them It would have been 10 times worse.
I finally half way through school decided that this wasn't how I wanted to spend the next two years of my life. Just getting through school each day and then being shipped off to college without knowing what I really want to do because that's just how it is.
I secretly began to look into the idea of doing cyber school. I have very close friends who are cyber schooled who turned out well. What I did was drop little comments about it to them and ask them a couple questions about what they do, how long do they do it and if they enjoy it.
I will let you know I was extremely sneaky about this as not to alert anyone about my thoughts before I had a chance to process them, and come up with a proposal. Then one day I mentioned it to my parents, and they had really mixed feelings about it. They didn't hate the idea, but they weren't about to jump into anything quickly...
So I made them a power point presentation.
I suppose you could say it worked since I am now in cyber school, but that wasn't the end of it! My next step was to talk to my counselor about how it would affect how colleges look at me, and if it would be a right choice for myself. After months of decision making and family talks we decided I would be doing cyber school the next year.
I was so excited! I had about three or four months of school left which, not going to lie, could have been some of the hardest months of my life! The last week of school came, and it was odd to think I wouldn't come back there next year for anything other than tennis and a christian club. I felt like I should get up on a table, and give a speech like the end of an inspirational movie. I didn't luckily. haha.
So now here I am. Very content and happy with my decision to do cyber school. I'm excited to answer some of your questions, and bring you along for the journey with me. If you have any questions or you would like to learn the pros and cons of cyber school you can check out my blog at www.cyber-school.org
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