We are in similar boats, but you make life work for you, and I’m still struggling. You seem to be on a cruise ship, and I’m in a lifeboat. I just need one more piece to complete my life puzzle. I thought my day job was that last piece I needed, but it turns out that piece didn’t fit.

By the way, SoulRiser, what role do you play in School-Survival.net? I recently discovered that site and I must say, your archive of school-related information is compelling.

Thanks :) I’m the site founder/owner/admin/person type thing. Started that site when I was 16, which was almost 11 years ago.

i say here only what i once said to a friend who worried about his high-flying son, asking what would he do should he fall? bounce!

Awesome, e! :)

I can’t stand working on other people’s sites unless I feel like what I’m doing really matters and is making some kind of a difference to the world. That rarely happens with other people’s sites though.

SoulRiser, I really enjoy making things better. But where that used to be enough, now I have a more directed long-term goal, and that means I have to start being more selective about what and where I spend my time.

I’m not certain what that means; I might spend more time on my own sites (I know I’ll certainly be prioritizing my writing for those sites), or I might start helping other people with their technical issues. We’ll see.

By the way, SoulRiser, what role do you play in School-Survival.net? I recently discovered that site and I must say, your archive of school-related information is compelling. Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the Web. :)

You are a leader and you are succeeding in realizing your dreams with passion.

:) Thanks, Admonit. Here’s to calm seas and the wind in my sails.

I love working on my own sites… I can’t stand working on other people’s sites unless I feel like what I’m doing really matters and is making some kind of a difference to the world. That rarely happens with other people’s sites though.

as for the rest of your post, i say here only what i once said to a friend who worried about his high-flying son, asking what would he do should he fall? bounce!

Dad, thanks for your support. I want to address what you said here:

[The current school system] does provide the most important ingredient of the experience of learning, effectively enough to mitigate all its shortcomings: exposure to the diversity of human experiences in the western society.

which I disagree with. Whether or not the educational system currently in place provides a necessary function for “the way things are” right now is not something I debate. The fact of the matter is that it does, and it does so “well enough.” But not only do I see the fact that there is “mitigation” evidence of the very value-corruption I reprimand “the system” for creating, I also no longer believe that a zero-sum valuation scheme in which “making up for” anything is an optimal system for very many things, and certainly not where human happiness is concerned.

In other words, the system works just as well as it needs to in order to support itself, but I dream of a world wherein creating happiness and value for people is the goal, not the byproduct of a bigoted business model of institutionalized education.

As for school being the place that provides diverse social interactions for young people “more than any other social arrangement”: A) if that is true, then you have a partial chicken-and-egg problem because the lack of any other social arrangement ensures the monopoly of the current one, and B) some people, myself included, don’t even agree that it’s true in the first place:

Socialization is not the same as having a social life. Remember this when you hear the dreaded “S” word from others. Your homeschooled kids will have as many friends and activities as they want and you allow (and likely more time than their PS peers to enjoy them).

Which, to clarify, is not to say that homeschooling is a solution. It might just be “less bad” than school-prison.