E leven years in the system and this year becomes something completely new. Many years of the same routine and this year is time for a change. Years of being taught from those with superiority and this year he is doing it himself.
Marley Cardona, age 16, had always been a student in public schools, and was even involved in high school activities. He has gone to several different schools in Minnesota and in Colorado. Cardona has been engaged in high school plays, along with One Act Play.
Lilia Aas, the One Act Play coach, said, “I enjoy working with Marley and I really hope he is able to work with us this year.”
One act auditions for the 2009-10 school year were in December and Cardona made the cut. Although Cardona was on the team he had to fill out paper work to be elligable to compete. The team found out Cardona may be unable to compete for the year because the paper work was never completed, and sub-sections are right around the corner.
As his junior year of high school approached Cardona decided he wanted to be home schooled so he took charge. Cardona’s mother, Theresa Pratt, supported his decision fully.
“Marley was struggling with teachers in school, so I was more then happy to get him into a better atmosphere for him to learn,” Pratt said. “He does very well working on his own schedule at home.”
Cardona had always had a struggle with teachers. His sophomore year it became too much for him to handle, through-out the year he was having issues with teachers which caused him to care less about his school work. This resulted in lower grades, and a bad attitude toward school; therefore, his year he decided to grab the bull by the horns and teach himself.
“I teach myself on an online class,” Cardona said, “It is the same as a regular high school in a lot of ways.”
Although he is homeschooled he takes the same classes as any other eleventh grader would. Cardona has homework, just as he would if he attended a public school; he also has to hand it in by a deadline for full credit. Cardona said that some of his school work seems easier, but it goes both ways.
Cardona told how he enjoys being homeschooled, and gets a lot of extra time to do other things. He works 9 a.m. to 2p.m. at Hy-Vee during the week, and has time to do some of is hobbies.
One of his hobbies is politics. Cardona’s step father Lanier Pratt ran for representative, this gave Cardona a great opportunity to get involved in local politics. Cardona also uses some of his free time to engage in politics .
“I haven’t done much with politics, but I enjoy following it,” said Cardona. “I got to help my step dad run for city council by putting up signs, and walking in the parade. I also like to get into debates with family and friends; we like to do it for fun.”
Even though Cardona enjoys politics his favorite activity is acting. He has been acting for 8 years. Cardona started in acting when he was in Third grade, and went to school in Colorado. Every year a different grade would perform a play for the school, and this was his grade’s year. Cardona was picked to be the lead role in “Daniel and the Lion Stem”.
“From this point on I knew this was something I wanted to do forever, I love being able to play the role of another person on stage, and the feeling I get in front of an audience,” Cardona said.