Mild-Mannered Radicals

Day 2 of the Homeschool convention. I was among a large crowd and spoke to only a few. I heard a really excellent presentation this morning about the developmental phases of a child's cognition and adolescents, too. The speaker is a mother who homeschooled all 4 of her kids [2 boys, 2 girls] and is now doing graduate work on child psychology. She provided lots of data, but had a funny, engaging style which I thoroughly enjoyed. The other talk I heard was about the socialization advantages of homeschooling. I felt a little sorry for the woman who spoke well but never came out from behind the lecturn which was on the floor. After a brief trip to the vendor's confab where I bought this huge book/chart/timeline, I left for the day. I may or may not go back tomorrow for my third helping.

I observed many hundreds of people in the two days. They mostly appeared clean-cut and modestly dressed. The youth were also clean cut, neat and modest. All were exceedingly polite. And yet. . . the whole enterprise--schooling your own children--is radical, given the current standards of society. The reasons why people homeschool would be unique to each family, and perhaps to each child and their educational needs. The message I gleaned was that there's no 'right way' to do this. I know my child well enough to do this and what we are setting out to do is possible if only I stop trying to bring their/my version of 'school' into the 'home' and go ahead and homeschool.