Speaking of Homeschooled Geeks

Here's mine. Looks pretty darned geeky and socially awkward, huh? Stereotype crushed.

A couple more pictures of my socially inept child at the Winter Ball. There were more pictures taken at the dance, but she was usually in the middle of a crowd of other homeschoolers, dancing. Almost all the socially inept homeschoolers were dancing. And smiling. And it was kind of a blur of silvers and blues and glitter. And noise. Exactly what a dance is supposed to be.

<----right before we left

with her best friend----->

Re-Addressing The Case Against Homeschooling

Because life is clearly not exciting enough right now, I’m re-writing this post. Because the author of the post in question accused me of copyright infringement. Since I do not want to be accused of infringing on anything that I wouldn’t claim to have written myself, I’m revising my response (and, believe me, I do not want to claim that piece. Jesse Scaccia should get full credit. Without question.).


*****


The Revised Post (originally posted here: http://caffeinatedjive.blogspot.com/2009/06/addressing-case-against-homeschooling.html) :

Every few weeks, an op-ed piece or blog post spouting anti-homeschooling rhetoric gets the attention of homeschool groups across the country and, predictably, we jam up email lists and send out letters to the editor and descend in large numbers on blogs.

And every once in a while, I'll stick a small comment about it on my blog, but I seldom do my own spouting about it just because by the time I can sit down and spout, whatever I would say has been said.

But Jesse Scaccia's The Case Against Homeschooling (http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/) had enough ignorance and arrogance crammed into one small blog post that I'm going to go ahead and spout. Possibly at length. Everyone catch that? Jesse Scaccia wrote The Case Against Homeschooling. Found at Teacher, Revised. Link (again): http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/

First, though, I want to address some of the ignorance that homeschoolers at the other end of the homeschooling spectrum chose to leave in their comments on Jesse's blog. Because I hate it when other homeschoolers perpetuate the stereotypes that lead to mindless diatribes like Jesse's.

There were several comments that caught my attention, but the exerpt below pretty much sums them up...


"And, gee, we know public schools have no problems at all with racism or intolerance or, for that matter, anti-Christian attitudes, liberalism, socialism, communism, homosexuality, “free love”, drug use, anti-Americanism, reverse racism, affirmative action, waste, fraud, low standards, stupidity, and ignorance, right?"

Seriously, homeschooling person, did you have to go there? Couldn't you just have addressed Jesse's points or at least his pitiful grammar without sinking to his level and seeming to confirm that, yes, homeschoolers are, in fact, intolerant paranoid bigots?

Next time, if you want to advocate for homeschoolers? Don't. Please.

Now, since most of the homeschoolers I know are not sterotypes, I'm moving on. To Jesse.

Jesse, are you really a teacher? Because I was. For years. My husband still is. And most teachers I know don't sit around sharing Deep Thoughts about homeschooling. They don't sit around the teachers' lounge trashing homeschoolers. They have other things to worry about. If they did have Deep Thoughts about homeschooling and for some reason felt like sharing, most of the teachers I know would learn something about it before making a very public statement seeped in ignorance. Because it's damned embarrassing to get publically humiliated. Which you have been.

At least spend fifteen minutes of your time googling homeschool blogs before making dumbass assumptions.

On to your points (some edited for space):

10. “You were totally home schooled” is an insult...

Um, yeah. So...? That says a lot more about the kids using the insult than the geek.

9. Call me old-fashioned…students’ classroom shouldn’t also be where they eat Fruit Loops ….

You're old-fashioned. Okay. Not really. You are, however, narrow-minded. My kids don't eat Fruit Loops, but they do eat in the same room where they learn. They play wii in the same room where they learn. They sleep in the same room where they learn. Because they learn everywhere. Sometimes we sit at the table and do what you probably view as work. Sometimes we even use a textbook. Sometimes they cover the living room floor with cardboard and tape and marbles, because that's learning, too. Sometimes they spend hours curled up on their beds, or my bed, reading. Sometimes we learn in the woods by the river and sometimes we learn in DC. Or at the beach. Or in the van. You remember how schools used to take field trips? We get to do that. A lot.

8. Homeschooling is selfish.

My first responsibility is to my children. I'm not sacrificing them to a system that is not working. I can work on reform on the outside while my husband works on it on the inside, but, in the meantime, I guess I'll be a little selfish. For my kids. But, to be clear, we're not even close to wealthy. We barely hit middle class.

7. God hates homeschooling.

We're secular homeschoolers, as are most families we know. So your argument in that regard is a FAIL. From the viewpoint of a Christian homeschooler, I would bet that your argument would fare no better because the Bible also instructs you to pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin.

6. Homeschooling parent/teachers are arrogant…

Given the arrogance in your entire post, I think I'll just leave this alone. Your own lunacy (as well as bad grammar, especially in the part I did not quote--are you really an English teacher? With a degree in English?) speaks for itself.

5. As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off.

Just for the purpose of clarity, being a teacher does not automatically mean that homeschooling is going to piss you off. That's your own personal issue.

4. Homeschooling could breed intolerance…racism.

Homeschooling could breed intolerance and maybe even racism. It could. I've seen it. But the worst intolerance and racism we've witnessed has been in public school. The racism my daughter and the handful of other black students in her class faced in second grade from their teacher, unchecked by the school, is a large part of why we finally decided to homeschool. Our homeschool group is more diverse than her school was. Homeschooling alone doesn't lead to racism and intolerance. People do. And if parents are going to teach their children bigotry, they're going to do it regardless of where their child is educated.

3. …Homeschooling… leaves the child unprepared socially.
This shows an astounding ignorance. You need to learn more about homeschool communities and the opportunties we have available to us. My kids are disturbingly well-socialized.

2. Homeschooling parents are arrogant...

Hmm. Risks and actual learning vs. a curriculum shaped around a poorly designed standardized test.

1. ….they…tend to be pretty geeky***.

Really? That's an argument against homeschooling? Because what? Geeks don't exist in public school? And uh...you haven't met my kids.

To be completely clear, just in case there are any questions about it, the italicized comments I was responding to are excerpts from this piece:http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/ written by Jesse Scaccia. He alone should get credit for those words.

In an unexpected turn of events...

We ended up with these------------------------>for him.

Last summer, Langston stopped eating bananas because they made his lips itchy and his mouth feel funny. Same thing happened with cantaloupe. Didn't think much about it. Probably should have.

In December, he had a little avocado and, within a few minutes, his lips were about doubled in size and he had a mouthful of hives. So we went to the allergist.

He's anaphylactic to walnuts, almonds, cantaloupe, bananas and avocado. With a few milder allergies we're watching. Like corn. Which is always a fun one.

Sterling tried really hard to feel sad for him.

It snowed.

Not long ago...

My children thought this was snow.

They now know better.

Adria tried to make a snow angel. And got stuck.

After The Swine Flew.

(get it?)

Thanksgiving...

Adria attempted to teach her father about Facebook. He still doesn't really get it.

In early December, we had the opportunity to tour the Pentagon with Adria. The podium was the only thing we were really allowed to take pictures of, but that was still pretty cool. How many times have we seen that image during press conferences? The rest of the building, the little bit we had time to see, was massive. It's like a small, self-sufficient city. Adria was probably most impressed with the Best Buy and the jewelry store (not with the jewelry itself, just with the idea that it was there), but the halls were filled with exhibits, showing the hugely diverse domestic and global roles of our military--including humanitarian efforts--dating back to the Revolution. We're not a military family; I have personal issues with what much of it represents, especially in recent years, but it would be hard to tour the Pentagon and not feel some sense of awe and respect. The history alone was fascinating. Plus, it had a Starbucks. Maybe two.

Hello, blog.

It's 2010. Happy New Year. Since I have last been here, we have fully recovered from swine flu, survived both the holiday season and the biggest snowstorm in recent history (pictures coming) , discovered new books, and found out that Sterling isn't the only kid with severe multiple food allergies (we think either the swine flu or impending puberty or some combination thereof did a number on Langston's immune system. He now has his own epipens and both boys have cute little backpacks to carry them in.). Adria had her first semi-formal. This week? we saw a fox walking on the river. Our life in pictures up soon...

November, Part 2--leaving the house

Yes, we're trying that again.

Anyone who has ever seen Lang has noticed his hair. So you might notice that some of it is gone. With good reason. He recovered from being sick, but his hair never quite did.

This...led to that--->

We left Adria at home, out of the damp air (she didn't exactly protest. Empty house. Television. Food.), and went to Fountainhead Regional Park. This area is saturated with parks, but this one is particularly cool because part of it is directly across the river from our house, in the next county, and yet we've never made it over there.

There's a cemetery at the beginning of the trail we were on; the oldest legible stone dated to the mid-1800's. You might see some orbs in the pics. That's rain.

November, Part 1

I realized yesterday that my post about October was written on November 20th. That's pretty bad. And says volumes about October.

November hasn't been a heck of lot better. Yet.

But, here's a tip for the month:

This book... ...is awesome.

It arrived yesterday and we read about half of it today and I'm starting to regret not paying the extra to get it in hardcover. It's not unbiased, but it's much more accurate than most historical portrayals, especially those for children, and it's a great balance to the overwhelming cultural bias that you really can't escape.

It's an easy read, all of my kids were actively involved with it, and the pictures are beautiful. Adria was completely crushed to learn that the Pilgrims not only didn't called themselves "Pilgrims", but neither did the men wear tall black hats with buckles. It kind of ruined the lingering mental images she'd been carrying around since kindergarten, when they had the traditional Pilgrim and Indian feast with popcorn and feathers and buckles and paper bag vests.

October--(mostly) minus the swine flu...

When the kids weren't miserable, this was our entire month, the whole thing. Not wildly impressive. It was not a month of great discoveries or amazing projects or super-clever realizations, but we survived and that was enough.

Langston and Legos


My sister sent up a keyboard that kept Sterling busy when he was bored with being sick but felt too crappy to really do anything about it (crappy germs + boredom = whiny child. The keyboard was awesome.).


By October 22, Sterling was better and it was Langston's birthday so we took off to the pumpkin patch for our first (and apparently last) day back out in public.
This was one of the shorter slides...

Adria posing by the porta-potties. Which were not actually called the "Sweet Shack". That was the snack shop on the other side of the potties. Appetizing.

After the pumpkin patch, we went home to a late birthday dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs and cake...

And Langston was exhausted. Completely worn out. I thought it was because he had such a full, wonderful birthday, but nooooo. The next day, he got hit with the flu.



We kept busy. Largely due to the aforementioned combination of crappy germs + boredom. I tried to head off the boredom before it started. Because a bored, whiny 10-year-old? Yeah.

We had pumpkins and paint,and pipe cleaners and glue and feathers.

The kids cleaned out the pumpkin and I carved my first jack-o-lantern. Yes, there were more intricate, impressive jack-o-lanterns pretty much everywhere, but ours was classic, dammitall, and the children were appropriately impressed.

And it was fun.

Everyone was officially healthy enough (per doctor's clearance; I was not trying to infect the rest of the world) to go Trick or Treating. Adria was a flapper (she made her costume; there was also a boa that didn't make it into this pic), Langston was Charlie Brown (I made his costume, all by myself), and Sterling was a Professional Dancer (not that kind).