Facing Opposition

Many people support us in our home schooling quest while others lecture us on the fallacies of our choice, and still others (grandparents) outright oppose us. Someone told us that we could not effectively discipline our children, that children need to learn that the world does not revolve around them and that they will only learn that by being one out of many.



In some ways, there is truth there. Children need to learn that they don't run the universe. In other ways, there is a big nasty lie in that message because learning that you are just one in a million does not teach you that you are not in charge. It only teaches you that there is nothing special about you and that blending into society, hiding in the masses, is the best road for life. Living by society's standards and getting by with the status quo is not the road to freedom on which our founding fathers built this nation.



Facing the opinions of others has been one of my most challenging homeschooling dilemmas. I faced it with the "I am going to prove them wrong" mantra and then overdid the homeschooling efforts until we all burned out. I really should not have allowed myself to be concerned. The appropriate response was to let it go and to carry on as normal.


So this last weekend, the grandparents came to visit. Memaw was quite impressed with our progress. She joined in with our art activities, and we talked a lot about M's progress, how well she can read, etc. We talked about R, and what she is doing too. Then Memaw talked about when TJ was young and how she taught him many things before he even started school. I did not say it, but she really was an unschooling mother. She told me how she never set out to teach him anything, but she answered his questions, which is how he learned to read and tell time before he even started kindergarten.

These last few visits, not one word of opposition has been said. The truth is we do not need to argue with opposers. When we procede as usual, the results will speak for themselves.

I think the one criticism most misinformed people state is "socialization." And I have met my share of annoying, bratty, "unsocialized" homeschooled children, especially when I was a kid. But I have also met my share of annoying, bratty, "unsocialized" schooled children as well. Being thrown in a school does not make you "socialized."

When my oldest was just a baby, I remember meeting one young lady who was homeschooled. Every time I spoke to her, it shocked me to think she was only 6. She talked with confidence, she looked you in the eye, she acted like an adult. She had no bigotry based on age as she seemed to think of herself as an equal--but not in a bratty way.