Free Period
True or False: The Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, were homeschooled and revealed they received a lot of disapproval from relatives, who thought homeschooling would make them social outcasts. The Duffers decided to lampoon this false impression in Stranger Things, making the character Eleven into what they think people's idea of a homeschooler is - a child who never leaves their home, can barely speak or write, and has no friends.
False - as far as I know, The Duffer Brothers were not homeschooled and Eleven was not a statement against antihomeschoolers :D
L.M. Montgomery was the Canadian author who invented the beloved Anne Shirley, heroine of a long series beginning with Anne of Green Gables. Anne becomes a teacher at the age of 16, a profession she shares with her beau Gilbert Blythe. This seems fitting, as Gilbert and Anne met at school. In fact, Anne Shirley hit him over the head with a slate board in response to him calling her
A) Airhead
B) Knotty braids
C) Carrots
C - Carrots!
Which years did homeschooling become legal in America and the United Kingdom?
A) It became legal in the US in 1992 and the UK in 1996
B) It became legal in the US in 1980 and the UK in 1976
C) It became legal in the US in 1880 and the UK in 1921
The answer is A - it did not become legal in all 50 states in America or in the UK until the 1990s!
In 2021, what 18-year-old actress dropped her chart-topping debut album depicting the emotional rollercoaster of her first heartbreak? (Coincidentally, this same singer would go on to release a controversial song called "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" in her 2023 sophomore album.)
Olivia Rodrigo
Edith Wharton (nee Jones), an American writer in the early 20th century, was exclusively home-educated and spent her youth traveling Europe and reading every book in her father's library. Edith published a tremendous amount of work and went on to become the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. Which book did Edith Wharton not write?
A) The House of Mirth
B) Vanity Fair
C) Ethan Frome
The answer is B - Vanity Fairy was written by the English author William Makepeace Thackery
Ryan Gosling is an academy-award-nominated actor forever immortalized as Ken in the Barbie Movie, although he has an impressive repertoire besides that. He began his career as a child actor, and was even in an Anne-of-Green-Gables-inspired TV show. Was Ryan Gosling homeschooled?
Yes! Ryan Gosling's mother pulled him out of school at the age of 10 and began homeschooling him.
Stephen King went to college to earn an English Major and become an English teacher, as a backup career in case writing didn't work out. He taught for a few years, but turned to writing full time after the success of his first book. Even if he didn't have a lifelong career teaching teenagers, he did write a pretty iconic teenage "heroine" in which novel:
A) Christine
B) The Shining
C) Carrie
C - Carrie. Maybe Carrie would have been even scarier if Stephen had taught for longer...
True or False: Deschooling is a process where children, for a series of days, leave off reading, writing, and other "academic" pursuits. Deschooling can be practiced by both homeschoolers and schoolers. It was invented based off the theory that when children are asked to write, read, solve math problems, etc., they focus more on worrying about how other people (such as parents or teachers) will judge the way they completed said tasks, than they do on actually absorbing the content. The idea of Deschooling is to give children the time to absorb what they've been taught and reflect on their own thoughts without fear of judgement.
This is false! The definition of Deschooling, as far as I have found, is that it is the transition period between school and homeschool - usually a month or so without a curriculum or "school work" so kids can focus on play and their own pursuits. It seems similar to unschooling.
21-year-old Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmentalist and activist. At the age of 16, she was on Time Magazine's cover as Person of the Year. She has received awards and recognition for her powerful push against climate change. Has Greta Thunberg ever won the Nobel Peace Prize?
No - but apparently she has been nominated for the prize every year between 2019 and 2023!
Singer Billie Eilish and her singer/songwriter brother FINNEAS were lifelong homeschoolers! In fact, it was because of homeschooling that they could pursue their passions and, subsequently, garner success at young ages. "Ocean Eyes" was Billie's debut single. What age was she when it was released?
A) 11
B) 13
C) 15
The answer is B - Billie was only 13
True or False: Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker (authors of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula, respectively) met at school in their shared hometown of Dublin, Ireland.
True! They really did meet in school, and were friends for the rest of their lives.
English novelist and poet Charlotte Bronte, Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery, and American author Louisa May Alcott all worked as teachers, and offer us glimpses of their experiences in their novels - Charlotte's Jane Eyre and L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley both become teachers, and Louisa May Alcott's Jo March opens a school for boys at the end of Little Women. Which of these writers penned the novel Villette, a brooding work about a young woman teaching at a girls' boarding school in Brussels?
A) Louisa May Alcott
B) Charlotte Bronte
C) L.M. Montgomery
The answer is B - Charlotte Bronte wrote Villette, which reflects on her time as a teacher Brussels in her 20s.
True or False: Recently, in response to a survey which showed that an alarmingly high percentage of high schoolers site homework as their biggest source of stress, the California state legislature proposed a bill to reduce the amount of homework assigned to schoolchildren.
True! The California state legislature did propose such a bill in hopes less homework will improve the mental health of schoolchildren.
What 20-year-old Netflix actress, who rocketed into stardom as one of the leads in a popular Sci-Fi TV show while still in middle school, has launched a coffee brand and a makeup line, both of which are called "Florence by Mills?"
The answer is Millie Bobby Brown
In Jerry Spinelli's novel Stargirl, the unconventional eponymous heroine "Stargirl" Caraway is starting her sophomore year of high school after a long career of homeschooling. Equipped with a ukulele and her rat, Cinnamon, Stargirl braves the ridicule of her fellow classmates, who attribute her strange behavior to one of the following:
A) homeschooling gone wrong
B) some mutation of rabies from proximity to rats
3) the theory she was sent to Earth from Neptune
The answer is A - "homeschooling gone wrong" was one of their explanations for Stargirls nonconformity
Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte - also known as the Bronte sisters - each worked for a spell as governesses or teachers before making money off their writing. They even once attempted to open a school of their own down the road from their home in Yorkshire. In what town did the Brontes live?
A) Haworth
B) Kaleigh
C) Chawton
A - the Brontes lived in Haworth
True or False: Actress, model, singer, and activist Zendaya has stated that as both her parents worked as teachers (her mother taught English and her father was a gym coach), she would have become a teacher, too, had she not become an actor.
True! Zendaya really did say this. Imagine being in a class taught by her!
In the 1800s, Massachusetts abolitionist and activist Horace Mann believed in universal education - meaning that a person ought to be educated regardless of class, background, etc. He was part of the "Common School Movement," and is known as the father of the modern school system. Was Massachusetts the first state to make Public Schools compulsory?
Yes - in 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass the law that it was mandatory for children to attend public school.
At the age of 17, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize (the Nobel Peace Prize, to be exact). True or False: Malala was not at the award ceremony, but instead in her high school chemistry class, on the day the result was announced. In the middle of class, a teacher called her out of the room and informed her she had just been awarded this prestigious prize.
True! She was, in fact, in high school at the time the award was announced, and a teacher did have to come get her.
True or False: Taylor Swift began homeschooling at the age of 10 in response to the bullying she faced at school. She homeschooled for 4 years before turning back to institutionalized education for high school. While being homeschooled in middle school, Taylor contributed to a homeschooling newsletter called "The Reading Readers" (she lived in Reading, PA) and submitted three poems to said publication.
False - unfortunately! She did eventually switch to homeschooling when she was 15 or 16 in order to focus on her career, but she was in school the rest of the time (and there is no publication, as far as I'm aware, called "The Reading Readers").
Shirley Jackson was a horror writer who penned her work from her home in Vermont in the mid 1900s. Her husband taught at a nearby college campus, and it is alleged that the eponymous haunted house in Shirley's novel The Haunting of Hill House was based on a building on the campus of which Vermont university:
A) The University of Vermont
B) Bennington College
C) Champlain College
B - Bennington
True or False: There is a children's book depicting a young boy's experience on his first day of school. Upon entering his classroom, he finds his teacher is a giant alligator-dragon-monster who breaths flames and wears a cardigan.
True! The Teacher from The Black Lagoon is the name of said book, and it does, indeed, depict a monstrous teacher.
Horace Mann's passion for educational reform was inspired, in part, by the beliefs of his sister-in-law Eliza Peabody, who strongly believed in fair education. She and her sisters, along with Horace Mann, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and many others were part of an elite group of thinkers in the Boston area. What was the name adopted by this scholarly force of nature?
A) The Alchemists
B) The Transcendentalists
C) The Intuitionists
The Transcendentalists
At the age of 13, Anne Frank began her famous "Diary of a Young Girl" and journaled faithfully for the next two years. Her diary has been adapted into a variety of films and plays since its publication. What was Anne Frank's full first name?
A) Anne
B) Annika
C) Annelies
C) Annelies was Anne's full first name (her full name was Annelies Marie Frank)
A) Lady Susan
B) Pride and Prejudice
C) Mansfield Park
D) Northanger Abbey
The answer is A - these events take place in Lady Susan.