Homeschooling
At David W. Boles' Urban Semiotic, he asks if there are parents who homeschool for reasons other than religion. Yes, there are. There are quite a few of us doing (or having done) that very thing.
I started homeschooling because I saw my younger three kids running into some of the same patterns and problems that their older brother experienced; at the beginning the homeschooling was a social/educational kind of thing. But what it turned into was a great adventure, one I wish I could have shared with all my kids.
Of course it wasn't all warm & fuzzy schmooze -- we had our ups and downs, just like any other people, but we were able to work them out with each other without the Potteresque 'Dementor-sucking' effect of mass-culture that alienates family members from each other. (I just watched 'Azkaban' last night for some light entertainment, so the image is fresh in my mind)
When our oldest son was in the Gulf War and I was glued to CNN's live feed to the overseas Armed Forces Network system, one of my thoughts was where my son's childhood had gone. Naturally we'd spent time together, but there were 13 years where, for nine months out of each 12-month perios, I sent him out the door and didn't really know what his day consisted of. He grew up, and away, and became Someone Else just as I had grown up, and away, and became A Foreigner in My Own Home, and for both of us the generation gap between ourselves and our parents was a social chasm.
Where did my _son_ go? Where did the child I was, who felt so much connection to her family, go? We went where all socially-raised people go: to Society, but a Society that was indifferent, and to a Society that can always say, 'you need to go someplace else because right now this isn't your place.'
What homeschooling provided to us and our younger three children was a deep sense of family -- a place where we all belonged and were comfortable. We weren't five individuals who only lived together but had appointed places that were anywhere but at home and with each other, we were family. It was a different way of relating to each other than when we were all going in separate directions with people other than each other.
We all had our separate interests and pursued them, but we had each other as daily companions rather than time-rivals. (it's interesting to me that my kids all took their college majors from what they 'unschooled' themselves in rather than any schoolish stuff I provided)
I've begun blogging what we did which isn't yet any great shakes, but that's the thing about it -- it doesn't have to be. We were able to just be rather than worrying about which part of the educational scale we were on, where we stood in the social pecking order, or having an inordinate amount of concern about what others thought about us.
What we got from homeschooling was the time to be Ourselves.
I started homeschooling because I saw my younger three kids running into some of the same patterns and problems that their older brother experienced; at the beginning the homeschooling was a social/educational kind of thing. But what it turned into was a great adventure, one I wish I could have shared with all my kids.
Of course it wasn't all warm & fuzzy schmooze -- we had our ups and downs, just like any other people, but we were able to work them out with each other without the Potteresque 'Dementor-sucking' effect of mass-culture that alienates family members from each other. (I just watched 'Azkaban' last night for some light entertainment, so the image is fresh in my mind)
When our oldest son was in the Gulf War and I was glued to CNN's live feed to the overseas Armed Forces Network system, one of my thoughts was where my son's childhood had gone. Naturally we'd spent time together, but there were 13 years where, for nine months out of each 12-month perios, I sent him out the door and didn't really know what his day consisted of. He grew up, and away, and became Someone Else just as I had grown up, and away, and became A Foreigner in My Own Home, and for both of us the generation gap between ourselves and our parents was a social chasm.
Where did my _son_ go? Where did the child I was, who felt so much connection to her family, go? We went where all socially-raised people go: to Society, but a Society that was indifferent, and to a Society that can always say, 'you need to go someplace else because right now this isn't your place.'
What homeschooling provided to us and our younger three children was a deep sense of family -- a place where we all belonged and were comfortable. We weren't five individuals who only lived together but had appointed places that were anywhere but at home and with each other, we were family. It was a different way of relating to each other than when we were all going in separate directions with people other than each other.
We all had our separate interests and pursued them, but we had each other as daily companions rather than time-rivals. (it's interesting to me that my kids all took their college majors from what they 'unschooled' themselves in rather than any schoolish stuff I provided)
I've begun blogging what we did which isn't yet any great shakes, but that's the thing about it -- it doesn't have to be. We were able to just be rather than worrying about which part of the educational scale we were on, where we stood in the social pecking order, or having an inordinate amount of concern about what others thought about us.
What we got from homeschooling was the time to be Ourselves.
posted by Valerie at 9:05 PM
2 Comments:
This is an absolutely beautiful post. My mother was homeschooled (for high school), I was homeschooled, and our children are currently homeschooling. What you said about family and having a time and place to be yourself is so true. I know even homeschooled children often grow up and move away, but I'm hopeful that we'll always be able to have a deep bond with our children, one in which we all know and accept each other as ourselves, instead of as generaltional caricatures constructed by society.
Thank you for this beautiful post. This is the aspect of our lives that was not planned, but the most amazing. Our family is so strong, and everyone around us sees it, and wants part of it. The kids testing off the chart is just a bonus!
I think that we are just inately more threatening to educators, after all, we are claiming their chosen profession is flawed.
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