School choice gets the nod from Billie Eilish

American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish swept the Grammy Awards on Sunday, becoming the first woman and second artist in Grammy history to take home the Big Four awards: best album, best record, best song of the year and best new artist. At 18 years old, Eilish is the youngest album of the year winner.

Most know Eilish’s name as the teen who won big at the 2020 Grammys. But there is more to Eilish’s background that is worth noting. Last summer, Eilish talked about her schooling background in a video interview with Pitchfork, crediting homeschooling with teaching her all she needed to learn.

“I’ve never been to school. I grew up homeschooled, stayed homeschooled, never was not homeschooled. The thing is like, I still learned everything, you know? But I learned it in life, you know, I learned like… how to do math by cooking with my mom, and seeing how many halves are gonna make this amount. … If we double this recipe, how many more do we have to put in this batch right here? So, that’s how I learned math.

Eilish continued by comparing traditional K-12 education to being forced to eat vegetables, noting that when choice is involved, a better outcome results.

Her older brother and main collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, was also homeschooled and has praised the alternative learning environment in the past. The Reason Foundation recently quoted the high marks he gave homeschooling during a 2014 interview:

“Being homeschooled is all about self-discovery. It’s something that I’ve really enjoyed and thrived under. I’m not at a high school where I have to base my self-worth off what other people think of me. I have to think, ‘What would I like to be doing? How would I like to be as a person?’ I think that’s an enormously positive thing.”

…

“Everybody’s always out doing things, traveling, going places, meeting for classes, and organizing field trips. It’s like going to college. You take what you want, where you want it, and you find what you need…Homeschooling allows us to let them do the things that they really love to do and not have a giant academic schedule on top of it.”

Here’s to continuing to celebrate National School Choice Week and the different learning environments that best meet the needs of students.