Homeschool: An ideological minefield

As we stumbled into the homeschool thing thanks to exigence, rather than a carefully thought-out philosophy, I've since stumbled onto the ideology that accompanies homeschooling. Admitting this will probably cast me as a visually impaired fool, but I didn't even stop to think that we'd encounter quite so much hard-core ideological blather as we already have in the three short weeks we've been doing this.

And that's only by email. I'm scared--especially by the quantity of Birkenstocks I witnessed yesterday at a science lecture--to even explore what may be out there in real life. Antivaxers? Unwashed hair? Hairy armpits? With Bibles tucked into them? Coated in patchouli? The mind reels.

I posted a couple of days ago about how TH and I did a drive-by of homeschool soccer. Some kind commenters had some suggestions about how we could get involved more easily. The thing is, we know about pretty much every homeschool opportunity there is in our area, and the sheer volume of these opportunities overwhelms almost as much as that soccer game. A brief sampling: If we wanted to, every week, we could bowl, play chess, swim, do dance, yoga, karate, soccer, or track, play some more chess, participate in performing arts in several different places, attend a claymation class (yes, really), attend scientific lectures, get involved in a geography group, so some more yoga, take guitar/piano/drums/voice, meet for weekly playground groups at parks all over town, enter math team contests, and enter into about six different talent show competitions.

In other words, we've got a really active homeschool community here. And that's great, but we're not doing one single thing of the activities I listed above except the science meetings.

I find out about these opportunities thanks to a local "secular" homeschool listserv. About 20 emails a day come through from the list, each one with a new chance to learn, interact, and drive all over the greater metropolitan area. Occasionally, there's a couch or other item of furniture on offer. And one email offered an "Apologia" biology book for sale. Intrigued by that name--I mean, what else could that mean--I looked it up. Learn, live, and defend the faith, indeed.

That such an ideology exists in the homeschool community comes as no surprise to me. But what did surprise me--and still does--is another kind of ideology, a better-than-thou vibe that's come through some of the things I've read. There seems to be a river of righteousness, not of the religious kind, running through our far-flung group of homebound scholar families. It appears that homeschooling is, for some, an ideological stance against the monster that is public school. And that even when you're secular, you can still have a religion, intolerances and all.

Oh, you'd like an example, you say? Well, someone on this particular listserv posted some information about an orientation coming up at a local public school. I assumed, upon seeing it, that it would be useful information for homeschool families in that area who might be considering sending their children to public school. That was the sum total of my thought expended.

Others were a little more energetic. I just about died when another person posted to the listserv that posting information about public school was "like joining a vegetarian list and posting your favorite roast beef recipe. It may done with good intend (sic) and in an effort to share, but it is not appreciated." The email went on to state that things like this should be nipped in the bud before anyone else sees fit to post about "institutional schools" and then asks--yea, verily, orders--all posters to "take this and stuff like this off the list."

Whoa.

And then another little kerfuffle when someone had the temerity to post about online public school curriculum being "free" in our state. Another poster felt compelled to point out that as taxpayers pay for it, it's not really free. Really? Thanks for the civics lesson.

Why does everything have to be ideological? Why can't we be homeschooling in the secular community because it's just what's best for our kids? I had no idea that there was this minefield of righteousness about homeschooling out there. And what a self righteousness it is. I consider myself and my family to be so lucky to be able to do this for our son. Not everyone has a decent work-at-home job or a single sufficient income that would allow the flexibility we need here. Not everyone has the luxury of driving their kids all over town for creative arts, sports, claymation filmmaking, or martial arts, all of which cost money. Not everyone can afford to pay for the curriculum materials, which for us, at any rate, are not cheap. Where is the righteousness in having the good luck and good fortune to do what's best for your child? Where do these people get off acting like anyone who's doing otherwise has made a pact with the devil?

I'll go way out on a limb here and say that it's just like everything else in our society--nothing can exist without being politicized in some way or another. Nothing can just be what it is. It's no different out here in the adult world than it was on the public school playground from which I plucked our son midyear. It's all about sides, no middle ground allowed. I'm thinking we need to walk around with signs on that identify us right off the bat. "Holy roller." "Truly secular." "I think public school is fine, it's just not for us." "I homeschool, and I don't respect you if you don't."

Makes me really glad that we drove right on by that soccer game. I obviously need time to formulate my homeschool philosophy and choose a side before I venture out. And I guess I'll need to keep the fact that I've still got a child in public school on the down-low. Wouldn't want to be told to take that off-list.