Personal K-12 Educational Experience Paper

My personal K-12 educational experience was distinctly unique from most students’ in one key way: I was homeschooled. This meant that, in order to socialize with other youth my age, I had to actively seek out alternative opportunities. This led to me joining the Rock County 4-H youth development program. Over the thirteen years I was a 4-H member, this program made a huge impact on me in so many ways. However, for this paper, I would like to focus on a specific memory of my time as a 4-H member and how it relates to my overall educational background. During my sophomore year of high school, I didn’t have many close friends. Sure, I had other people my age that I hung out with at 4-H meetings and events, and some people I met through my local homeschooling group, but no real group of friends. I also didn’t have many adults that I specifically looked up to as role models, despite having numerous adult leaders in my life. This all changed when I threw caution into the wind and applied to be a member of the Wisconsin 4-H Drama Company. Drama Company is a group of high school-aged 4-H members from across Wisconsin. The company spends a week creating

4-H is highly focused on the learning of life skills through the philosophy of “learning through doing”. Of course, I am currently on track to become a history secondary education teacher and it is rather hard to literally learn by doing in that situation, but I feel as though this can translate into a differentiated classroom environment. As a homeschooler, I was able to learn material in the way that was best for all parties involved, and was often able to delve deeper into certain topics that interested me. As a result, I believe that promoting a thirst for knowledge and the ability to effectively attain that knowledge is the key to success in