Morning all!
Another mostly sleepless night last night for me. I don't know whats up with that. Think I might get some sleeping pills today so I can get a bit more relaxed tonight. Funny thing is, I already am relaxed. I lay there, tierd as can be, but at the same time I feel like I could run 100 miles. I know, I'm wierd! Maybe the pills will help. I don't use them often, maybe once or twice a year, but this might just be one of those times. Oh well, you all don't want to hear about that. I'm rambling........
The wife is doing better! She continues to improve daily. She's having a new friend from church over to spend the day today. Seems this lady is interested in homeschooling and since we've been doing it for years she thought she'd ask my wife about it.
And that brings up a hot topic these days, doesn't it? Homeschooling is under attack in the United States today. The basic schooling that our forefathers had before they went to institutes of higher learning is deemed as insufficiant by some of our policy makers, and thats just a shame. It was always my impression that people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Leonardo Di Vinci, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, Plato, Socrates, and countless others, were concidered to be fairily smart people. Who knew they were idiots all along!
As homeschoolers we find ourselves under constant scrutiny, but thats OK in a way. It keeps us on our toes. But at the same time, we homeschoolers don't do that to the non-homeschoolers, so it's like a kind of subtle discrimination. And I'm not alone in this feeling either. I recieved this rant a while back from a homeschooling parent who needed to vent. They made some excellent points, so I thought I'd share it now since the topic is in the news. I toned down the language some, but it's still pretty "in your face", so I appologize in advance if I upset anyone, but frankly, I'm a little tierd of the condesending looks given by some, the overly critical eye, and so on. Anyways, here it is......(sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade!)
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is - and it is - it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Please stop interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. We are not those people.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education - and many of us prefer a more organic approach - we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I might not bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 And one last thing; remember the words of your mother. If you can't say something nice, don’t say anything at all. (Oh wait, I learned that at home, not school!)
/rant
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!
I'll go back to my corner now..........
