From Unschooling to University and Work (Part 1)

Ten Minutes on Thursday

“I can do that interview for you this afternoon,” said my son Callum. “I just need to get my hair cut first.” He ran his fingers through his floppy locks and grinned. “I have to look respectable for the video, make a good impression, otherwise what will everyone think?”

“It doesn’t matter what everyone thinks, Callum. Your hair’s not important.” And although my words are true, I was still glad he went to get his hair cut. His appointment with the barber was long overdue.

So Callum drove to town and when he returned, he looked very handsome. He was ready to be interviewed. I found the page of questions I was going to ask him:

Do you think unschooling prepared you for life as an adult?

What skills did it give you?

Tell me about your university experience.

Did you have any trouble getting onto the course of your choice?

How did your interests and passions help you with your application?

How did you cope with uni work?

What were the positives and negatives of attending university?

When we change our minds about what we want to study, should we persevere anyway, finish what we started?

Tell me about your work.

Can we talk about your current passions? And what about the future? What are your dreams?

Is family still important to you?

Having been homeschooled, do you feel different from everyone else? Is this a problem?

If you could, would you change anything about the way you were homeschooled?

Then we began the interview.

I must say I really enjoyed chatting with Callum. The time flew by as we discussed the above questions which led onto other things. Later, when I came to edit the video, I realised it lasted for much longer than ten minutes. What should I cut out? After thinking about it for a while, I decided to make Callum’s interview into a two parter, and keep it all. I hope that’s okay.

Callum relaxed more and more as we talked. He ended up bellowing with laughter a few times, and he said a few things that touched my heart. But that’s in Part 2, which I’ll post next Thursday.

Today is Part 1 of …

From Unschooling to University and Work: an Interview: