Yes, I know the stereotype. Say, "Homeschooler" and this is what you think of :
The Blue Jumper of Oppression.
I do not own a blue jumper. I didn't teach my kids that Jesus rode dinosaurs and didn't teach them that America was a Christian country. I homeschooled my son for all but 2 years (k-1st grade) and my daughter all 13 years of her primary and high school experience.
But to get a sense of what it must have felt like to be a leper in the 13th century, try coming out as a homeschooler in a progressive community.
This, according to popular myth, is a homeschooler: (well, minus the law enforcement guy):
So let's debunk some myths first:
1. we are not all fundamentalists dominionist full quiver Christians yearning for a theocracy
2. we don't all teach the "providential" history of America (I used Howard Zinn's text for history).
3. many of us support public education; just didn't find that it was suitable in our particular cases
4. and this is the most important: Our kids are not dumb as a result of being homeschooled.
I worked really hard to make sure my children had a quality education, despite the learning disabilities that left the public school utterly unable to cope with my son. He was diagnosed with a potpourri of ailments, most notably "mild mental retardation". I knew he had problems but knew that they were wrong in labeling them. He graduated cum laude from Columbia last year. So I was right on that one.
Here's some of the things we did as homeschoolers:
1. For biology we didn't just dissect frogs. We went to the local Chiropractic college and watched as they dissected cadavers. I knew homeschoolers who, daily, gathered roadkill for their kids to dissect. We are not a squeamish bunch.
2. We took our kids to cultural events that didn't include Toby Keith concerts or the latest passion play. We went to operas, plays, concerts, art shows, poetry readings, and films. My son got his degree in film. We read Shakespeare and Fitzgerald, Aristotle and Marx.
3. We used the community and all its wonderful resources. We learned some WWII history from WWII vets, we brought in those who were persecuted under the McCarthy witchhunts to help us teach "The Crucible". I used "Soylent Green" to spark discussions of ethics and as I mentioned Howard Zinn's "A People's History" as a high school text.
4. We participated in the community. We did food drives, we went to the annual Chicago Pride Parade, we went to anti-war protests, honk for peace events, health care forums, and raised money for animal shelters.
And there are a LOT of us, I'm not an anomaly. I chose to homeschool because I had a special needs child, but my daughter chose to be homeschooled because she loved it - the freedom, the autonomy and the limitlessness of it appealed to her.
And yes, they have friends. They made friends pretty much the way adults do, they found people who they either connected to on a personal level or shared common interests with.
My daughter is a sophomore at college now and intends to be a criminal defense attorney. She is interested in the Innocence project but also the Alliance against Racism and Political repression and is well aware of the atrocities that go on with regards to minorities at the hands of the criminal justice system.
And none of us has ever worn a denim jumper. We never visited the Creation Museum but we've gone to the Haymarket Memorial several times.
So please, before you assign the label "Homeschooler" to the next Cletus - sounding wingnut you read about, remember that right here, amongst you, fellow members of the Great Orange Satan - we dwell!
My daughter....