I Didn't Learn That in High School

Remember that time you were talking with your friends at work about the Boston Tea Party? You know that time, your one friend was saying how much she sympathized with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Your other friend said she admired their ideals, but felt the Tea Partiers had a better grasp on practical ideas that could help our country. And then you said, "Yeah and speaking of the Tea Party, I didn't get the importance of the Boston Tea Party in High School, but gosh, it seems so relevant now…."

You don't remember saying that? Oh, you don't actually know anything about the Boston Tea Party? How is that possible; American History is required in school?! Oh wait… yeah, no. I don't remember either. I had to Google it just now to see what year it took place and my guess wasn't even in the right century.
 
Well probably we were sick that day. Let's talk instead about how Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy. How this "hero of liberty" turned into a despised despot.  How is that champions of "hope and change" can become so reviled for their attempts to bring reform?

That doesn't ring a bell either? Missed that day too? What's my point? I am not trying to make anyone feel bad. I am trying to make people feel mad. I didn't know who Oliver Cromwell was either until some vague reference made me Google him the other day. Dude was so hated, he was dug up after he was buried and strung-up for all to see because he wasn't executed properly the first time.

I used to be embarrassed by what I didn't know. I guess I still am. But at least I can feel better by comparing myself to modern kids. They don't just suck at history, most American 18 year olds today can't find Japan, France, or the UK on a map! A third can't even find the Pacific Ocean!! I am sure you all know by know that we barely rank in the middle and sometimes even at the bottom in international surveys, but here's the government report just in case you want to see it in writing.

Why is this bad? We are an ignorant people and only getting more so. We can't engage in meaningful discussions. We certainly can't engage in a rational debate that doesn't deteriorate into name-calling and mud-slinging. What's the saying? If we forget our history then we are doomed to repeat it? We can't keep taking away liberties and spending out of control and expect it won't lead to our downfall.

If 90% of children can't find Iran on a map, how are they going to form an opinion on whether or not Iran is a threat to Israel? Okay maybe you think it's about time we got out of the middle of that conflict anyway. Fine. If we don't care if the middle east blows itself off the map (solving a part of that whole geography ignorance problem BTW), then should we care that Iran and Venezuela are building a joint base that will allow Tehran to deal with "Iran's enemies"? Care to guess who Iran considers its enemies?

So do I think my homeschooled kids going to retain historical facts because they are reading about them at the kitchen table instead of at a school desk? No, actually, I don't. My point is that none of us remembers those things because we didn't care. Nobody bothered talking to us about these concepts. They made us read dry textbooks then lectured at us.

My sons and I talk about these issues. We don't use textbooks. I don't lecture. Why waste time on textbooks and lectures when we know kids won't retain the information or learn to do anything with it beyond test day? We aren't even testing well!! 

I don't mean to harp, so here's my suggestion. Lets just sit the kids down into small groups, give them a short lesson to read on Oliver Cromwell, the Boston Tea Party, or whatever, and have them discuss how the events relate to what's going on today. Whatever they get from that will stick with them much longer than those notes copied off the overheads.

One Year Ago Today

So I was trying to find a phone number in my Gmail, and came across this "conversation" I had with my sister about whether or not to homeschooling. It's funny to see my how my ideas then are matching up to the reality of now.

These are really good questions to think about if you are considering homeschooling. If you don't have a sister to put you through the ringer, you can borrow mine.   ;)

Here's the conversation (her questions/concerns are in blue):

• "us vs. them" mentality can form

agreed. I think I would like to treat this as if we were going to private school. I am not going to tell everyone that asks that I made this choice because schools suck so bad and good parents would never do that to their kids. I am not exactly sure what I WILL say yet....

• avoiding whack-job, fear-mongering christians...it seems like that used to be the bulk of homeschooling parents, but maybe that's changed.

yeah, a good chunk of the homeschool blogs are christian moms, but there is a trend towards secular homeschooling. a lot of the people on the Meetup group I just joined stress in the profile that they want to participate in "secular" meetups and outings. I bet they are tired of being preached at. I will probably fall in with them. I DO want to start addressing the spiritual void that is in my family, but I am not trying to jump right into the deep end and be crazy.

• finding social activities may become challenging and you're driving for 3-4 different kids.

True... but I think I would face that either way. If they are in school and one has chess club on wed/Fri and another has soccer on Tues/Thurs, and yet another has a band recital Wed. night.... I think this is just a logistics issue I am going to face no matter what and I will just have to be proactive and try and sign them up for groups that span ages. Like karate at the rec center has classes based on level and they are on the same day just at different times. Also, the plus to homeschooling is that we can have things going on in the evenings without turning into a disconnected madhouse. We will have all day to get stuff done and be together and can plan stuff in the evenings without rushing from here to there.

• your house tends to be a little distracting in the video game department, changing that might make you feel like a nazi...especially because it would possibly involve trying to change your husband.

Jeff continues to surprise me... he is now okay with giving up cable and he has decided to sell all his Joes so he can focus on toys the boys are interested in. The video games don't get turned on until after dinner. I am more lax when we have company and on weekends, but that is pretty standard on weekdays.

• that said, it might become tempting to let the computer be their teacher (nathan particularly) since it engages them so well, but that isn't balanced.

The biggest problem is definitely the computer. They only play educational games during the day and they all learn alot from them, but that can't be what they do alllll day of course. I will have to work on that, but I think as I work on planning our schedule and educational goals, that stuff will into line. I have also noticed that if I get into something, they jump on board. This will be important in the science/art department. I plan on figuring out ways to include them in my projects like woodworking, gardening, and cooking. Also the science kits like I mentioned before. 

• you will lose your mind if you don't figure out a way to get yourself out of the house and have your own social life...one MAJOR component of why parents send kids to school, and i don't think that's wrong. please don't underestimate this one...i am only just beginning to see how my happiness profoundly effects my husband. if i'm not happy, our marriage isn't happy.

This is true. I have a few things up my sleeve. School being one of them. Some small business ideas I have are another. I think the biggest key is that I love to work. I am at a crossroads... I thoroughly researched becoming a lawyer and am disillusioned. The market is so supersaturated and it is getting worse even as schools are becoming more expensive. Plus so many of them get jaded so fast because the system is so corrupt. All my life I have wanted to start a business. I need to stop being so afraid of failure and do something. That is a another discussion altogether though!

• if you give up your GI money for school because homeschooling consumes all of your time, i will personally kill you. how does this idea effect your current plan?

Doesn't change much either way. Jeff's application was denied and he doesn't want to go anyway, so I am thinking I should just do what he was going to do... get my MBA. Goes along with wanting to run my own business in any case and gets me some start-up capital.

• public school sports programs...particularly if one of your boys has the potential to play at a college level. they need the high school prep for that. i've heard that some school districts allow homeschool kids to participate...i suppose you can find out what your school district's policy is on that.

I have no problem sending them to high school if they are that interested in sports. I think the critical years for molding and shaping them will be the grade school/jr high years anyway. Or at least the critical years for keeping them from the molding and shaping that happens in school!

One of the things I am really excited about is the freedom to pursue an interest from beginning to end, exhaustively, until we are satisfied or lose interest. Not for an hour a day, stopping when the bell rings no matter where we are at. For example, I think I want to include learning Chinese as our foreign language. Those people are gonna own us in the next few decades, so how great would that be to unleash my boys upon the world speaking that language. Plus, I can learn it right along with them. Or at least try. So I don't have to just surrender myself to this role of teacher... I can instead also be a learner and just take the boys with me on my journey. They want to do anything I am doing anyway, so how cool is that if we are really learning together.

Has it really been only a year since I even started considering this?!

Homeschool Domination

Created by: College At Home

This is fresh off the press from my homeschooling mentor. I think it is well worth the re-post. I find it very telling that graduation rates have been stagnant since the 70s despite the lowering of standards.

John Taylor Gatto - A Review

I just finished another book by John Taylor Gatto. After I turned the last page, I closed it , turned to my husband and said, "That might have been the best book I've ever read and that makes me so very sad."

He asked why (as any good husband would know to do when a wife asks such a question). Actually he asked if it was better than Les Mis, but then he asked why. (FYI it's probably not better than Les Mis, but is it really fair to compare a treatise on modern schooling with  the greatest French novel of the 19th century?)

Anyway, it's a profoundly great book because his ideas strike at the heart of the problems that disease this nation. For example, by separating out the young and the old and locking them away from the rest of society in various institutions we are perpetuating a society with no past and no future.

The reason this book makes me sad is because I will probably never actually meet one other person in the flesh who has read this book. It makes me sad that a powerful book written to open our eyes to the absolute decay of the system we trust to raise our children, will never be read by the parents who need it most.

So there's my backward book recommendation. I want to buy this book and send it to everyone I know. But I don't think they would read it. Like clean eating, a person has to be ready for this kind of information. They have to already intuit that we have a problem and be hungry for a change. And once you are ready for it, reading the book is like preaching to the choir. Although if you only vaguely sense that something is seriously wrong, this book will help clarify those feelings and put them into words. Maybe it will make you into an activist. I want to become an activist?

BTW, A Different Kind of Teacher is not about homeschooling. Whilst it would seem that Gatto is impressed by homeschooling, he does not present it as the solution for our society's ills.

The Moment That Started It All

In case my kids ever wonder about the moment that so profoundly changed the course of their lives… here it is documented for posterity.

This RSA speech by Ken Robinson blew me away. I knew we had a problem in this country with public schools. I didn't have any kids in school at the time, but I didn't live under a rock. But for the first time I had an inkling of why schools are failing. They were designed to meet the needs of a different way of life.

Now if you have read any of my other homeschooling posts, you will know I give a lot of credit for my decision to homeschool to CNut over at Marginalizing Morons. His blog isn't really about homeschooling, however. I found his blog because he makes scathing & witty observations about government and society. The title says it all... how can I not like such a site?

I do remember having been impressed with his son's amazing progress, and curious if I could emulate it. I was thinking I would work with our kids on our own time, however, and just supplement their educations (some other time I would like to talk about why this was a bad idea).

I remember all this so clearly because I had read enough of CNut's blog to know he would appreciate the video. I sent it to him, he posted it, and after taking a moment to savor seeing my name in print, I clicked the "homeschooling" label off to the right and checked out what else he had to say on the topic.

Shortly thereafter I was reading John Gatto, and from there it's all history.

I am always interested to hear how other's came to the decision to homeschool. It wasn't a hard one for me. Once I saw other homeschooled kids and read the statistics I was ready to jump on board. But I am weird like that. I have made some pretty major life decisions on the spot. Convincing my husband was the hardest part.

I love homeschooling so much, nothing would make me happier than to be a part of introducing the joy to someone else. Please e-mail me and I would be happy to answer any questions. Or comment and share your story! I would love to hear it.

My Son's First Rejection

Socialization.

I don't know why I keep coming back to this issue. Maybe because when I was deciding to homeschool, that was the biggest objection that came up. I now know that I was mistaken in my belief that the main purpose of school is to educate. I mostly dismissed the "socialization" caveat as misplaced priorities. But I think if it's going to be a priority for parents and educators, then we should at least make an attempt to do it right.

Last Thursday I attended a music recital at our local Elementary School. Our district allows homeschooled children to take part in extra-curricular activities and "special" classes like Art, Computers, & Gym. Nathan takes Art & Music with the other 1st graders 3 times a week.

During this event, my middle son, Brandon, was rejected by a group of boys who were all bent over a brand new Kindle Fire. At first they mostly ignored his inquiries and friendly gestures. But as he persisted in talking to them, they started to say mean things to him. I watched his attempts to befriend these boys and their rejection of him warily. I was curious to see how Brandon would react. Brandon doesn't see new children as outsiders, he sees them as potential playmates. But he also gets that electronic "toys" are way cool and other kids don't usually give them up or share them readily. I don't think Brandon was traumatized, but it made me sad to see him pushed aside.

As I told this story later, most people dismissed my concern. "Boys will be boys" or "They didn't know him, so why would they accept him?" But I want to question those assumptions. We actually are not used to this behavior at all. Parents of toddlers and pre-K children will often sit at the park and marvel over how their kids will just buddy up and play together without ever having been introduced. We assume they grow out of this, but I think they are schooled out of this.

I am part of a rather large homeschooling group and those kids don't seem to lose this ability. Because of these classes at the school, we can only fit in homeschool Meetups about once a month. Every time we go, I feel like we are the new people. I have yet to notice my boys playing with the same kids twice. What I have not noticed is any of my boys ever being rejected. Nathan loves to play with older boys. I have seen 11, 12, and 13yr old boys assimilate him into their woodland adventures without a second thought. Brandon will play with anybody and tends to bounce from group to group. It wasn't until he tried to play with a group of boys from the public school that he faced his first rejection.

For some reason I haven't been able to shake the unpleasant "taste" this experience has left with me. Naturally, whenever something lingers in the subconscious, the topic seems to pop up everywhere thereafter. My mentor posted an article on his blog today that discourages liberals from homeschooling because it doesn't embody good, liberal "social values" (social on a societal scale, not necessarily childhood friendships). The comments led me to some interesting links, and I came across the following research:

• The Myth of the Teenage Brain
• Socialization Skills in Home Schooled Children Versus Conventionally Schooled Children
• Canadian Study Confirms Advantages of Homeschooling

I hope to elaborate more on these articles in future posts, but the bottom line is that I just don't think schools are doing this "socialization" thing right. We don't have to tolerate bratty kids, pre-teen angst, and teenage rebellion. We are teaching these things to our children. We can do better.

School Reform Part I

Well here's my answer to school reform that allows us to use the current infrastructure, employees, and materials. This plan could be  launched immediately or implemented gradually. Let's bring back the Little Red School House to every classroom.

First you take 2-3 kids from every current grade level (1st - 12th) and put them together in one classroom. Then you abolish those grade levels, grades, and homework. From that point on, children will not be assigned labels based on age or test scores. The teacher's job will now be to assist the students at the highest level of instruction and to maintain order. Learning will be largely self-directed so children cannot join this classroom until they can read.

Children will no longer sit through lectures or lessons. They will be presented with a syllabus for each subject and all coursework and instructional materials in written or digital form. Young children will be presented their expected tasks everyday; older children by week or month, and teens and pre-teens will receive more and more autonomy until they are in complete control of their schedule. Core subjects, or the 3 R's, will be the focus of the first part of the day (and the rest of this post).

Let's use one subject, math, to demonstrate how this concept will work. Depending on how a child best learns, a basic curriculum will be chosen by the parent and teacher. For example, my son uses a computer based program called IXL with much success. I know another child who is working independently through the Kumon books. Other homeschoolers swear by Saxon.

With all methods, the child starts with basic skills and moves on only once they are mastered. Occasionally my oldest child, Nathan, struggles with a problem or new concept in IXL. He does not hesitate to ask me for assistance. But I have noticed my younger child, Brandon, always asks his older brother for help first. Nathan is only 6, but 4 year old Brandon looks up to him as the source of all knowledge. Not only does that make Nathan feel smart, it makes him feel needed and useful. So in the Ultra Retro Reformed Classroom (URRC), a child needing help will first ask his peers. If they are unable to assist, then the child will then ask a student who has mastered that level.

Students will be carefully instructed that teaching is just as much a part of their day as learning. Children new to this style of learning will need to be coached on how to intereact this way, but veteran homeschoolers with large families can tell you that this happens naturally if the children know no other way.

The power in this program lies in the idea that no child moves forward until they have mastered their current level. Since they are not assigned grade levels, they will have no reason to feel bad if they are "held back." They will not waste time repeating a grade because they failed only certain subjects. It would actually be impossible to fail a subject because a child will not move forward until they have achieved an "A" level understanding at the task at hand.

Back to math, specifically IXL, each subject is be broken into a number of skills. Each skill is presented through a series of problems. A child must achieve 100 points to complete the skill. If a question is missed, they lose points. They must correctly answer a similar question eventually to get to 100 points. Several skills can be completed in one sitting if a child is proficient in that subject, or one skill can be worked on each day if the child needs to work at a slower place.

Using Kumon or Saxon, a child will complete a lesson and set of problems each day. Each problem gets progressively harder, so if a child is able to finish, they have demonstrated mastery. no test is needed. They cannot skip problems and they can and should ask for help when they are struggling, so they can never be left behind.

My 4 year is happily working his way through the Pre-K IXL lessons one each day. I don't require him to do this work since he is only 4, but he wants to because he sees his older brother doing it. My first grade aged son is about half way through second grade level math. If he were in public school, he would not be able to work at his own pace as he does now. Why in the world do we separate kids from each other by age and expect it to be a useful indicator as to what level of work they should be completing! 

Each child is unique. A "gifted" reader may struggle to master long division. Let him fly through his reading lessons and take his time working out his math! Free him from bells and jostling down hallways, bouncing from one subject to another. Let him work in peace until he has mastered his lesson!

If you think it is somehow unfair to make children teach each other, or that it will take away from the time they need to learn themselves, then please take a look at some large homeschooling families with an open mind. Or talk to a teacher. Ask her how much she learned about geography in her college courses? Or if she just remembered it from high school? Ask her when she learned her subject? I'll bet you it was on the job. She learned it by teaching it. I got A's in Algebra in school, but mastered the subject once I began to tutor others. My son has no problem pausing his own lesson to look over and answer his brother's questions. I watch a 6 year old and a 4 year old do this happily every day. Just imagine for a second what it would feel like to go to school and be part of something. Imagine feeling needed. Imagine what it would do for a child's self-esteem to be able to impart their knowledge to another? And we aren't just turning one or two kids into teacher's pets. Every child can offer something to someone if they are not always behind. That would be a gift we are giving our children, not an imposition.


This method will easily work just as well for reading and writing as math. We don't need to invent a whole new curriculum. The workbooks and textbooks in use now are probably fine. Again, the key is to disregard the child's age or grade and empower her to work through the material at her own pace.

If the experience of about a million homeschoolers is any indication, most children will progress much faster than they are currently working in school. Tests indicate that homeschooled children are one grade level above their peers in elementary school, and by the end of 8th grade are four years ahead of public-schooled kids. It's because we are free. Free to let them grow. Let's give that freedom to all kids.

A Pitch for School Reform

I have been reading (and watching) speeches, articles, and documentaries critiquing the current educational and political system. I can't help but agree. With everybody… liberals, conservatives, activists, non-partisan think tanks.... Pretty much anyone with a brain can give some very compelling reasons for why everything we know is wrong.

And even if I don't agree with the logic motivating our most popular protesters, I am glad they are taking to the streets and questioning this nightmare. But what I am not hearing are solutions. No one is even trying to present ideas we can all agree on. They are only trying to drum up enough support to topple their opponents. Those in power do not want to preserve and promote our freedoms. They want to squash exactly one-half of us. Because that is how divided we are right now. Are we really satisfied to live in a country that wants to marginalize exactly half of its constituents?

This is one of the reasons I have decided to champion the causes of clean-eating and homeschooling. These are probably the two most non-partisan topics on the agenda. In the U.S. Ultra-liberal hippies have been eating raw, organic, and free-range for years and Christian conservatives are snatching up small farms and starting CSAs. Let's not forget that article we discussed a couple weeks ago about the growing appeal of homeschooling. Not to mention these lifestyles were practiced by human beings for millenia... before we had political agendas.

So now I am going to try throwing out some solutions. I would love feedback. Usually I sit in my home depressed that I can't do anything to help the growing crises our country faces. But one of the speeches I heard yesterday said that big change never comes from a big movement. It comes from a small determined group. I want to be in that group. So what the heck... let's put a workable idea on the table and maybe we can run with it.

So here it is (or will be in the next two days):

Ultra Retro School Reform:

• Part I: The fundamentals 
• Part II: A love of learning

Fascinating Animated Speech on Schooling

This is the first thing I ever saw that made me stop in my tracks and rethink the status quo concerning education.

For some reason it ends rather abruptly. If anyone has a link to the rest of the speech (with or without animation, I would love to add it.

Why Do You Homeschool?

Yesterday my dad asked me to answer the following question in one sentence or less:

"Why do you home school?"

Why is it the only person in my life that asks me serious
questions is in no position to listen to my answers?

He was asked this question while under the ministrations of our longtime dental hygienist. She is actually pretty good at holding a conversation while jabbing you with a dental pick. Even still, Dad wasn't prepared to answer her in the time allotted.

I can see why he would like to have a ready reply for just such occurrences. Heck, even if someone isn't sticking you with metal implements while asking a question, her eyes will glaze over if your reply takes more than 45 seconds. So a good sound bite is always nice to have locked and loaded.

Problem is, I haven't been able to figure out how to sum up my reasons into one or two catchy phrases. I don't know if I want to.

So I tend to go back and forth between two answers:

1. I'm so glad you asked! But my reasons are so many and varied that it's hard to quickly answer that question. If you'd like to go and grab some lunch or a cup of coffee with me, I would love to discuss them with you.
2. My son entered Kindergarten able to read, but terribly inept at fine motor skills. He could never finish a craft, but would be bored during "sight word" lessons. I think learning should happen at an individual's own pace. Students should be able to sit down to a project and complete it uninterrupted, and they should not be required to sit through a subject that they've already mastered. 

And while that last reason is pretty compelling, it actually barely scratches the surface of why I choose to homeschool.

Here's some more reasons (in no particular order)

• Kids can learn the 3 R's in just 2 or 3 hours of study per day. They should not be herded from room to room and lesson to lesson for 6 hours a day.
• Kids need more time to play. The importance of free, unstructured play is being demonstrated in study after study.
• Kids should not have homework. They have plenty of time to finish their lesson during the day if they were allowed to manage their time wisely. That precious and dwindling family time should not be infringed upon.
• Children are being poorly socialized. If school is supposed to prepare them for life, then why are they confined to a room with 30 other children of the exact same age? They should be around not only children of all ages, but adults of all ages as well.
• Children should not be assigned grades and racked and stacked against their peers.
• Children should be allowed to perform meaningful work that matters. Not busy work that keeps them out of the way.
• Children should be required to give back. They could easily perform valuable community service that would build up their own self esteem while strengthening community.
• Children should be exposed to amazing things while they actually interested in them. Billy should be allowed to pursue his fascination with bugs and Sally her interest in firefighting as it develops. Not as it is arbitrarily introduced in a lesson plan.
• Children should learn useful life skills in the appropriate settings. They should be learning to cook, garden, and perform basic household or automotive repairs. If one day they can afford to hire someone to do these things, they will at least appreciate the efforts involved and understand enough not to be taken advantage of.

Many of these things can be dismissed as hobbies or the responsibilty of the parent. But it's not happening. When are they supposed to fit that in? After soccer practice and before piano lessons?

Even if a parent wants to get more involved, she might find herself under scrutiny. Last week a friend posted on Facebook that her school was going to require a doctor's note if her child missed another day of school. Her child gets good grades and is not behind in any classes. What if she wanted to take her child out of school to visit a museum? Or see family? Why can't she have the final say in how her child spends his day?

I have so many plans for my boys. Did you know there is a foreign exchange program for kids as young as 10 that allows them to spend up to six months in Europe living with a host family and learning French, Spanish, or German through total immersion? There's also an Insititute in Maine that teaches anyone 16 or older how to build a house?

I could go on and on. But I will stop. For now.

Those Weird Homeschooled Kids

I really liked this article after I read it yesterday. It was the kind of article I couldn't help but think about throughout the day. I was happy to see homeschooling get some positive recognition, but the end just didn't quite sit right with me.  

This morning I pulled it back up and re-read the conclusion and some of the comments. I don't like the article today as much as I did yesterday. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a veiled barb. I feel like the author is saying, "Look, I found our generation's version of the yuppie! Aren't they special?!" I feel marginalized. It's like she figured us out so now she can put a stamp on us, dismiss us, and file us away. Her ending was just off-putting, however. The comments pretty much ruined it for me. So much judgment out there.

Look people, just because you can tell me about one strange homeschooler you knew when you were growing up does not make your argument that "homeschoolers are weird and socially inept" airtight. I knew a homeschooler when I was teenager too. I thought she was a little odd too. 

Time and distance has allowed me to open my eyes though. It turns out she wasn't weird; she was just way more mature than me and my friends. Despite being a year or two younger, she was just as comfortable in a room full of adults as she was supervising a room full of kids. She didn't feel the need to emulate her peers. She liked doing things outdoors and didn't much care for TV or popular music. I didn't relate to her. She was nice, but weird.

Now we are Facebook friends and guess what? She lives in Bucharest. She went to college in Spain. She majored in marketing. Her life looks fantastic, exciting, and not one bit weird. Not to mention she looks beautiful and is married to a cute Spaniard.

But maybe you are thinking to yourself, "Well I don't know anyone like that. The homeschooler I knew sat outside eating dirt and talking to himself. So there, Miss Know-it-All, I even know how he turned out and he is officially Weird. Capital W -- Weird. That's what really happens to kids that homeschool."

Okay then try this on for size? Ever hear of Asperger's syndrome? High Functioning Autism? Sometimes weird kids are born that way. People with Asperger's get married, have kids, find careers, but never quite figure out how to stop being weird. Schools weren't equipped to handle kids like when I was in school (and that was only 15 years ago). It didn't even have a name when I was growing up.

So what if those parents that homeschooled their weird kid just maybe spared them from a childhood of frustration, bullying, and constant social nightmare? We are going to dare judge them for that?! Even without an official diagnosis, some people are just weird. They have to spend their whole lives learning to cope with that, so please stop judging them and condemning their parents for trying to help.

How about this: let's just stop pretending we know what's best for other people's children altogether. Whether it's breastfeeding, schooling, video game playing, or whatever else makes you feel all superior to the unwashed masses. You are not going to change anyone by criticizing them -- and you might just make an enemy if you criticize someone else's kid.*

The nurses in the hospital tell you the day your child is born that no one will know your child better than you. They urge you to trust your instincts because they know a parents' natural instinct is to love and protect. So all of a sudden that's bad advice if the parents decide to homeschool?

Let's try having some faith in people and let them make their own decisions.

*I get this might sound hypocritical coming from a blogger who is preaching the merits of clean-eating and homeschooling. But if you are reading this it is because you were looking for this sort of information and found me. I think everyone should know the facts about these issues, but once you do, feel free to make your own choice. I won't judge you.

Homeschooling... Not Just for Nut Jobs Anymore

Okay, I actually never really believed homeschooling was for nut jobs. But the only reason I could ever figure for homeschooling was to keep the nice, Christian kids away from the dirty-minded, regular kids. My parents sent me and my sister to a Lutheran school to keep us from being tainted, but little did they know that all the delinquent kids who got kicked out of public school ended up there too! So homeschooling really is the only way to protect your kids from that sort of thing.

But that is not why I do it. I am not really afraid of my precious darlings mingling with other kids. Yet. My oldest is 6 and all the other 6 year olds he plays with are public-schooled and delightful. I don't even do it because I think I am better than his teachers. I loved his Kindergarten teacher, and so far the teachers I have met at our public school seem perfectly nice and competent.

What I don't like is the system. That nebulous, big, bad system. Much like "the man", the system is hard to pin down, hard to understand, and hard to hold accountable. And I think our country could use a little less of that right now, and a little more simplicity and transparency.

So what's my point? My point is that I think schools really only adequately serve the top 20% (and maybe not even that many... I was #1 and look how I turned out). Parents are starting to realize this, so to make sure their kids make it into the top 20 they are acting crazier and crazier. The pressure on kids these days is enormous. And even if the kids manage to perform like good little circus monkeys and get the grades and the awards, they still often wind up living in their parents' basements with minimum wage jobs. Because all they know how to do is perform. They did not learn to think for themselves, and they sure as hell did not learn how to be ambitious or think outside the box.

Now I haven't even begun to make my case yet, so don't bother to nitpick everything I just said. Like clean-eating, considering homeschooling is a process. I didn't make my decision in one day, and I am not going to try and explain it in one post either.

We live in a nation that decides its elected officials based on 15 second sound bites. Well how's that working out for us? You're not going to get anything good from me in less than 15 seconds either, so if that's what you want, let me recommend my favorite short, funny, blogs right now!