With training and tournaments demanding more and more time from junior tennis players, is homeschooling a viable way forward?
Rio Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig is an alumnus of an NCAA-accredited online school and credits the flexibility of online or what is traditionally called “Homeschooling” with her being able to continue to train and travel, while still achieving well enough to gain entry to a US college. And she is not the only one!
For a long time, homeschooling has had the reputation for only being for children whose parents lived in communes or who struggle with the traditional schooling environment. This is no longer the case. For young athletes whose training and travel schedules are brutal and require constant attention, traditional schooling often doesn’t work.
Being away for tournaments or competitions twice a month means huge amounts of time lost in the traditional classroom, and the killer is often that it requires a massive time commitment to catch up what was missed on returning home!
The obvious advantage of homeschooling- especially with an established network – is that the school moves with the athlete. Ideally, an iPad means that the student-athlete could remain as such, and not be forced to make a choice, or allow the student part become a secondary consideration!
With more and more tennis players going to college before considering turning pro, homeschooling may well be the way forward – especially through online schools which feed directly into the US college system!
|
|
WHAT BLAKE THINKS ABOUT HOME SCHOOLING
|
