So anyway today I got some real giggles. I was cited and quoted, briefly, in an article on Salon (“Home-schooled and illiterate”, by Kristin Rawls). And in the article I look like a real dick. Like picture me in a Camaro racing down the highway and airily tossing plastic litter out the window directly into a woodland creature’s eye. So anyhoo, this afternoon – for clarity especially as any home-ed’ers might want to know more about my involvement with this article – I posted the entirety of my exchange with the author on Underbellie.
It was kinda weird because only an hour before I was alerted to this piece, I was sitting on the bleachers at the Y and knitting while listening to kids play and parents talk. Today the kids and I began revisiting Homeschool Sports which we hadn’t been a part of for almost two years (OK, this is my funniest post about our previous tenure). And I was instantly re-reminded of how curriculum-oriented religious home educators are. No, I wasn’t annoyed, or judging – just noticing. And of course I was noticing how wonderfully and exuberantly these homeschooled children play together (none of my readers will be surprised Phoenix was instantly the leader of the gang, and on her first day!). It was really odd to come home and find myself implicated in this sorta sinister plot of religious home educators doing things that, well, were the exact opposite things of what I see religious home educators doing. P.S. I was also giggling to myself because there was this really cute be-flannel’d hipster-looking dad (looking a lot younger than I, sad times, I’m getting to be an olde harpy) and I was all ready to sidle up just for idle chat with him but he got talking about a Bible class in this way I remember from my old church days and I thought I’d give it a miss.
I’m not going to comment further on the Salon article at this time and in this space, although of course I have a handful of opinions. “lt’s boring, but it’s part of my life.” My opinions.
***
Last night I went to bed with a headache and this morning I woke with that sort of spiky ear-to-throat feeling on the left side. Today I opted to sleep in a bit while an electrician banged around in my upstairs. Uh, that’s not a euphemism. Anyway my children took care of me for a couple hours and they handled the electrician business as well; during my attempts to rest my mother had the kids over to her place and fed them steak and yogurt smoothie for breakfast (yeah – I know!). After I rose I cleaned up, then spent the rest of the day consuming tea and spicy food, running a few errands, playing with the children, and buying up some t-shirts to cut into great kiddo-wear.
Speaking of: tomorrow Gray’s General Store opens only three blocks from my locale. Um, people, we are talking about a place with fabric and zippers and heavy-duty thread and old sewing machines! Those of you who know me and my little wee town know I am peeing-my-pants-levels-excited. This store and I are gonna be like PEAS AND CARROTS, do you even know how long I’ve waited for some crafty goodness such as this? * dances a wee jig *
And, I’ve been asked to teach there. I am pondering what to teach. No tote bags, pillow cases. Nuh-uh. Will have to keep thinking about it.
Tomorrow: homeschool skate. Last time I went I think I still had my green hair. I’m going to get up on some wheels too. And a big giant-ass coat because that skating rink is like a meat locker.
Thank you for posting the email conversation. I appreciate getting the broader view of your position. I can appreciate and respect it more fully, having all the information.
With that out of the way, I am really happy to have opportunity to come across these spaces (underbellie also) as I am very much enjoying this content.
🙂
I admit I didn’t read the full Salon article. I just covered my ears and “lalala”-ed it down to the part that concerned your interaction. I didn’t want to know that something called “Quiverfull” really existed.
I wish this writer would have taken a little more time to engage you further in your experiences regarding “un-schooling.” I think that the questions she asked were quite personal, and answers could be easily misconstrued. It’s obvious that they would have been given the response to your refusal to answer the said questionnaire. I think her article would have greatly benefited from a follow-up dialogue to confirm her impression of what you were saying, and/or gain more understanding of your experience.
Sadly, my experiences with this type of opinion based articles always end up with something incorrect.
@kahuku
“It’s obvious that they would have been given the response to your refusal to answer the said questionnaire.”
Right!
“Sadly, my experiences with this type of opinion based articles always end up with something incorrect.”
Yes… I know what you mean.
I finally had time to check out the Salon article and then reread the Underbellie background of your portion. Am I wrong in thinking that this was a fishing expedition to prove a pre-assumed point? Her questions weren’t about homeschooling in general, nor was it about presenting a multi-faceted view of homeschooling. It was, to all appearances, an attempt to justify her position on homeschooling – a position which she has taken based not on personal experience but solely on the negative experiences of others whose stories she’s heard. Funnily enough, these are also friends, which makes them, imho, more subjective than if they were people she’d met through her research. I love that she was unable to get you to support her position.
I’ve known a couple of homeschoolers who chose homeschooling for religious reasons – mostly because they wanted to send their kids to a Christian school but either couldn’t afford it or maybe there wasn’t one in their area. I had a neighbor in WV who did a mix of curriculum-based stuff and unschooling and she was a former 2nd grade teacher. They weren’t particularly religious at all and, because they all slept in the same room and were present for the home births of their siblings, they had a good idea of reproduction and body parts, hee hee. They were also very literate and big on nature and bugs in particular. Another woman in the same neighborhood did homeschooling with other people from her church, but they weren’t a Quiverfull type of family. The mom and dad both had piercings and tattoos and were pretty liberal in their ideas. They couldn’t afford a Christian school. A girl who babysat for me did her high school via a homeschool program online, with the exception of a few things that she did with a group of homeschoolers in the area. Her older sister did, too. They were great kids and Gwyn loved to have Laura babysit. In fact, being homeschooled meant that she was free to babysit during the day (a huge bonus for me) and able to make money that way. She always brought her laptop with her when she sat and when Gwyn took her nap, Laura would go online and do her schoolwork.
Boy, that was verbose! But yeah, Kristin Rawls seems to be painting with a mighty broad brush. Not once does she even admit there are homeschool ‘success’ stories (for lack of a better term) like Christopher Paolini, who wrote the wildly popular Inheritance series.