They were flexible times and enjoyable times; frustrating times and enlightening times; bonding times and arguing times. They were times at a particular locality but with a pertinent universality. They were “the home-schooling years,” and I am that creature, the home-schooled student.

How can one describe the transition from a world of three classmates, academic accountability to no one but your own parents, and shelter from the dreaded “real world” to a world of over 60,000 students, several different teachers and classes, and a whole host of social, moral, and practical issues competing for your attention? Many are the days that I reflect and am amazed at how seamless the transition has actually been.

Academically, I have had no problems here at university. My parents instilled a love of reading in me and my siblings pretty much from the get-go, so I’ve found the high level of reading required in university to be more a joy than anything else. I had already studied many of the books I read last year (The Odyssey, The Confessions of St. Augustine), and knew enough about the others (Dante’s Inferno, Hamlet) to be able to engage the texts with a fair degree of understanding. My dad taught me how to write proper essays, so when professors made comments like, “You guys probably learned the ‘five-paragraph’ essay style in high school, but that’s not how we do things at university,” I realized that I already had the tools I needed.

I’m not trying to showcase my knowledge. After all, for each of these areas about which I already knew a considerable amount, there are others of which I am ignorant. For instance, I know more about 14th-century Italian literature than I do about the computer I’m typing at right now.

But more importantly than academics, the “school of the family” I attended helped me develop character and values that will be invaluable to me throughout university and for the rest of my life.

For instance, university granted me incredibly heightened independence, that double-edged sword that offers great benefit and great danger. How easy it can be to let one’s studies, one’s genuine friendships, and one’s core values slide when first faced with a taste of exalted independence! The ability to stay focused on what is really important doesn’t arrive overnight: it needs to be instilled in us in our early years, or else learned later through great hardship. Thanks to my parents’ decision to home-school us, I was granted this gift young, and thus have been able to make the most out of my university experience so far.

Some may argue that home-schooling shelters children from the “real world.” Yes, I was sheltered from the bullying, drugs, immorality, and petty policy that mar so much of school life. But just as a plant needs to develop strong roots before it can grow, a child needs to be well-formed before he or she can weather the squalls of the outside world. I really do believe that the strong foundation in virtue, work ethic, and genuine friendship my parents sought to instill in me has been a major factor in making my transition to that “real world” so easy.

Am I suggesting that home-schooling is some kind of silver bullet that will solve all society’s problems? Absolutely not: it is not the option for everyone, and you will never find me arguing against public education. However, in my own case, home-schooling provided all the means I needed to make the jump from home to university.

As much as U of T has to offer, I have to agree with Dorothy: There really is no place like home.

After many years enjoying the shortest commute possible, Peter O’Hagan now lives at Ernescliff College.