I really should tell you why I haven’t been writing on this blog so much. After Christmas we decided to pull our boys out of the school they were attending and homeschool them. We’ve been talking about it for a few months, and we finally decided now was the right time for it.
Homeschooling was really not our first option, in fact, we didn’t even consider it until several months ago. However, this move has proven to a very challenging one for our boys, especially our teenager. He had a hard time fitting in with the established cliques and groups that make up the high school world. He wasn’t happy and it was affecting his school work. To make matters worse, we just couldn’t work with a couple of his teachers. As a former school teacher with many years of teaching experience in Utah, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Samoa, I have a pretty good grasp of what goes on in a school setting and the ins and outs of this profession so I was pretty disgusted with the attitude we encountered.
Anyway, we decided that the best course of action right now is to homeschool our boys. It’s been going really well and we are enjoying it. I do miss having the day to myself to complete errands, housework, and write. However, the additional time with my boys is definitely a wonderful thing. The laundry may pile up faster, the writing on my blogs may be sporadic for now, and my third grader says that I’m too strict as a teacher because I make him go over all his mistakes to figure out why he got them wrong, but other than that it’s going really well.
I’ve always been a huge supporter of traditional schooling but this experience is opening my eyes to other alternatives for education. Today, with technology and the tools that are available to us, there really are a lot of options. This is actually an exciting possibility for those who live in Samoa and many other places in the world who are looking to enhance the education they’re receiving there. A number of accredited online high schools are available today and anyone in the world with internet access can enroll in those schools. Keystone High School http://www.keystonehighschool.com/ appears to be an excellent one, at least from everything that I’ve read about it.
I still prefer traditional schooling, in fact, we plan on our boys going back to “regular” school next year when we move back. However, there is definitely a place for homeschooling in this country. People homeschool for a variety of reasons, in our case, it’s because the schools in our area wasn’t a good fit for our boys. What makes this whole situation really ironic, is the fact that we chose to live where we’re living because it’s supposed to be the best school district in the county. That meant higher property values, taxes and all that. We could have lived even closer to hubby’s work and paid a lot less for a home in that area. Oh well, live and learn!
Filed under: Education | Tagged: curriculum, homeschooling, public schools, samoa students, samoan education, schools in samoa
I often see that people are amazed at how many choices that they have available. Keystone is one good, solid choice. There are many others, though. You can see some of them on my website here:
http://www.BestOnlineHighSchools.com
Congrats on doing what is best for your situation.
Tom
Thanks for the referral Tom. This will definitely be helpful for many parents and students out there who are searching for this information. Online schooling is a wonderful option for military families like us who move a lot and for many others who live in parts of the world where the education may not be as good as somewhere else.
kia ora
i love your blog!!! def not jst a day to day account of life on island!! great stuff!!
i was interested to read your posting re homeschooling – myself and husband are looking to move to samoa next year. We have to boys under 10yrs old, I would be grateful if you could give me your thoughts on the private schools & quality of education in Apia. I understand there are 3 p/schoolos on island (i only know of RLSS), however have found it impossible to locate websites giving any details regarding these.
Cheers
Kim
Hi Kim,
Sorry, it’s took me so long to get back. We’ve been on Spring Break and decided to take the boys out of town for some fun and quality family time and I tried really hard not to touch the laptop the whole time we were gone.
You are right about the sparse information on private schools in Apia, actually on any schools in Samoa. Hosting a website isn’t a priority for schools there at this time, probably due to funding or staff expertise, maybe a combination of both. In fact, not too many schools on the island have access to a computer lab or anything that the kids in the US, New Zealand and other places are used to. RLSS is one that came to mind also for me, I’ll try and do a little digging and let you know what I find. Good luck with your upcoming move. Just remember, there’ll be some things that you’ll like and some things that you’ll hate about Samoa (just like anywhere else).
Kia ora,
I just stumbled across your blog by chance, but hoped you may be able to give me some advice. I am considering looking for teaching opportunities in Samoa next year. I know little about high schools within Samoa. Do you have any recommendations? (Sorry, I know your boys are home schooled!) Ia manuia. Kat
Hi Kat,
Thanks for stopping by. Samoa has a mixture of public schools and private schools. Most private schools are run by religious groups (Catholic, LDS, Protestant, etc). There is one private school that doesn’t seem to be affiliated a Church – Robert Louis Stevenson School (primary and secondary). Unfortunately, most schools in Samoa do not have a website that you can browse for information. You might want to start with this website http://www.teachinsamoa.com/int_sta1.hmt. It’s geared towards those you want to do a teaching internship in Samoa but they may be able to help you with contact information for a number of schools in Samoa.
I can give you the names of schools but I don’t have any contact information for you. When I was a student in Samoa many many years ago, these were some of the schools that had a pretty good reputation for academics (in random order).
Church College of Samoa
Samoa College
St. Mary’s
St. Joseph’s
Leulumoega College
Good Luck!
This story reminded me of back in high school where at times I felt like an outcast among my own people. The High School was cultural diverse, but you know how certain races only hang out with people of their own kinds, well too me that was just boring. So I ended going to the basketball courts rather than hanging out with the other polys during lunch, cuz’ I didn’t like sitting down the whole day doing nothing. In part, I grew more distant from the other polys and ended up becoming the subject of their jokes. Since I was the lone Samoan boy, who ventured out to meet other people of all nationalities rather than crack silly jokes on them all day long. When I look back on those days, it just makes me laugh and wonder if they are still like that.
I believe if you felt that Homeschooling was the best thing to do at the time, then you should follow your gut.
Also, I don’t mean to ramble on, but Education I believe is the most fundamental of things that our islanders should be focusing on. I’m a HUGE sports fanatic (american football and basketball), but I noticed that throughout the years more and more Pacific Islanders are being given scholarships to play for various colleges in America. Which is not at all a bad thing, in fact its great! For many islanders, boys who been playing football on the rock, for many scholarships may be the only means off the island and to get a form a education paid for. But the fact that a majority of these players can’t get a high enough SAT or ACT score to get accepted to these colleges, is something I find really disappointing. We often neglect other peoples problems, but in actuality I believe this is a problem that could be fixed with the right help and support. I’m pretty sure now they got some kind of SAT help program avaliable for the boys in Am.Samoa. But still more can be done.
Just my 10cents, lol.
joda