NB: More information is available on the Web about homeschooling in general. In particular, check out

A more exhaustive and general set of homeschooling FAQ's

Information and resources of all sorts at http://198.83.19.39/School_is_dead/Learn_in_freedom.html.

Were you homeschooled for religious reasons?

No, not really. I was homeschooled for practical reasons.

Were you allowed to do whatever you wanted to do?

No -- that is, not exclusively. My parents exerted a fairly significant degree of control over what I studied, especially during the first two or three years. Later, when I had more experience and more discipline, I was allowed not only to choose subjects but also to design curricula and make suggestions about appropriate assignments. My senior year was as close to being self-directed as possible: having covered most of the subjects required for college, I had the freedom to choose a subject to study in more depth. While I continued to do other subjects -- I studied some Greek, for instance, and Art History, Calculus, and Astronomy -- most of my time went to literature. Dad kept a list of the books that I had read, discussed them with me, read my papers, and made suggestions, but I was allowed to select the material. As I read one thing, I became interested in another; the thread I eventually wound up following included both primary material and critical reading, and explored the development of the novel form -- particularly in Britain -- from Pamela (intensely boring book, BTW) to Austen to Mill on the Floss, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, etc, with particular attention to the Gothic novel. For months I lived in the mirror-and-shadow world of Walpole, Radcliffe, Mary Shelley and the Brontes. There was also time for a brief unit on Russian novelists, for the peculiar fantasies of Calvino and Borges, and for Manzoni's delightful The Betrothed. But always the underlying ideology was that I could pursue these things freely because I had already developed some of the tools of the discipline.

Isn't that illegal?

Not in the State of Washington.

What did you have to do to satisfy legal requirements?

Nothing more than take the occasional standardized test. Even that was only intended to make it possible for the local school system to place me if I wanted to return to public school.

Did you have a daily schedule?

Not really. Classes were held informally; the rest of the time the point was just for me to finish my work. I spent a lot of time on academics, but it was not terribly structured time.

Who taught you, your father or your mother?

Both. They divided up subjects, teaching what they were most comfortable with. For the most part, though not universally, my father did literature, history, and languages, while my mother taught math and science.

How did they manage that?

My mother worked full time; she left us with lesson assignments each morning and went over them in the evening when she got home. My father stayed at home. Things that he teaches tend to be require more discussion or "class time" anyway. In math and the sciences, I was able to do problems and check them myself, and then discuss any outstanding issues with my mother when she was home. That kind of approach would not have worked as well where history and literature are concerned.

How did you get into college, with no grades?

That wasn't quite the headache it might have been. I found people to write recommendations; we sent in a very exact curriculum description; I took six rather than the usual three College Board achievement tests to guarantee that I had actually learned what I claimed to have learned. I assume that the Powers that Be also went over my essays with a finer comb than they might have otherwise. All in all, though, the process of applying to a college is pretty much guaranteed to be stressful, and I don't know that it was very much more so because of my particular situation.

What did you study?

Literature; math through calculus; biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy; history, art history, government, and the history of philosophy; French, Latin, and Greek.

Did you have labs?

Inasmuch as we could arrange them at home. It's true that we had fewer resources than a public school, and certainly fewer than a good private one; on the other hand, there was a certain educational element in designing my own.

What about extracurricular activities?

Theoretically, I could have done drama and band and so on through the local public school system. In fact I didn't choose to do that very much.

Do you feel that you missed out by not going to "regular" school?

No. Prior to my years of homeschooling, I attended a couple of different public schools as well as a private school for girls. I also took a couple of classes from a local public high school to supplement my homeschooling curriculum. So I think I had a pretty good look at what it was I was missing. Obviously, all opportunities come with a price attached -- but I wouldn't have traded away the freedom, personal attention, and intensity of focus that homeschooling gave me for the privilege of going to high school proms and eating bad cafeteria food.

Don't you think that it's important to widen your horizons?

Obviously -- a balanced education requires a variety of perspectives. That's part of the reason I came to college, and one that is thousands of miles from home. But there's something to be said for starting with a thorough and consistent grounding, and that's what homeschooling gave me. I think I actually had less trouble adjusting to college than do some students with more traditional backgrounds.