LAKE CITY — Everyone has his or her own learning style and for today’s children, known by some as the technology generation, learning options are growing. South Carolina students now have the option to earn their high school diploma online.
Shontay Graham attended public high school and was homeschooled by her father, but neither worked well for her.
“I was wanting to be around the wrong people, trying to join the in crowd, just losing focus of what was important and that was my education,” she said.
Her cousin, Quaneshia Washington, also struggled at a public high school.
“I am just not a people person. I am not a people person and being around children, it just irks my nerves,” Washington said.
Washington’s mother, Alice Peterson, said she knew her daughter was headed down the wrong path.
“I might have been in jail and she might have been in the funeral home somewhere,” Peterson said.
Instead, the cousins heard about Provost Academy, a free public online high school for South Carolina residents. They meet at Refuge Outreach Ministry in Lake City to take their lessons.
“It’s all around the kids’ needs and maybe schools should have been doing that for a long time,” Provost Academy Executive Director Darrell Johnson said. “Our school is very student-centered. It’s all about the kids and success. We don’t allow them to fail, either.”
Students spend an average of six hours a day working on their classes.
Graham said her online classes are harder than classes she was taking at public school.
“You’re by yourself and there is no one beside you; it’s basically you’re on your own,” she said.
“She know that she has her tutor online, she knows that she has her teacher there and she knows that everything is right there for her,” her father, Edward Graham, said. “... all she has to do is take the responsibility and go in and get it.”
Peterson said her daughter’s character and attitude have changed since taking her education into her own hands.
“She’s a very smart and intelligent young lady. She just had an attitude that didn’t match her intelligence, but now both of them are beginning to combine together,” Peterson said.
Graham and Washington are both going into their senior year of high school and will be a part of the second graduating class of Provost Academy.
After high school Graham said, she would like to join the military while Washington said she wants to go to medical school.
Other schools like South Carolina Virtual Charter School and Olympus High School, which is is academically affiliated with University of Phoenix, also offer online classes for high school students.
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