Has anyone ever e-mailed or responded to columnists who put out a column that you really had a lot to say about?  I never have!!!  Until today...a friend sent me an interesting column that went over the internet from some sort of I'm Initiative by Microsoft.  Never heard of it before..but it was on the subject of homeschooling threatening the culture of everyone else...blah blah.  Anyway, I just had to reply by sending an e-mail to this person..was I right to do this..only God knows, but it felt good saying these things to someone who may or may not have a dim view of "us".  The column wasn't really geared toward smashing our choices but the contrasting comparisons used kinda irqued me..I'm gonna share this with you all too just so I don't just lose it in the E-mail universe never to be heard of again.  I will let you know if this columnist actually gives feed back of any sort..probably won't though most columnists want to speak, not listen or dialogue.  Well, here it is......let me know what you think.

I read your column via another homeschooler..interesting thoughts..most are accurate..the stereotyping of homeschoolers appearances/family structure is a bit much but in the case that you were using that as your basis of comparison of the "different cultures" understandable...(we are, as many are, not quite that serene in our public appearances or as outdated as you depict).  In fact, we were just out in LA in April and saw a pic of a homeschool group and the kids were quite your typical "looking" teenagers/children. 

As we live out in Kansas in the "country setting" we would I suppose be assumed to follow your criteria of a homeschool family. Oh to the contrary.  Our children are in fact for the most part great kids..but rebellion, wanting to die their hair black and wear black eye liner and black clothes, not scoring the highest on assessment tests in every subject, putting a price tag on behavior/actions or driving mom frazzled as she tries to accomplish her tasks for the day are quite the norm in our household/family.  Yes, we homeschool to try to give our kids the opportunity to achieve their potential as individuals not driven by society's expectations but by their own drives and ambitions.  Trying to leave our posterity a future heritage with morals intact is our goal in life as parents.  Can this be guaranteed? No. But, we can only do as all parents do, give what we can and prepare them to move into society to make thier mark as we all have.  Rejection of the mainstream culture? Yes, to a certain extent. Each has their own level of rejection.  Even I, as a country homeschooler, long for the serenity portrayed by your picture of "us".  Maybe my level of rejection needs to be raised in order to acheive this serenity, but for now I am where I am and the kids ranging from 18 to 6 are thriving in their own individuality as dad and I learn to embrace and survive each personality.

I have faced the hostility from 17 yr old kids as well as the 55 yr old American citizens for preferring homeschool education to the mind numbing drone of public school.  It always amuses me to have the young get so worked up about the well being of my children socially when they have not had the 5am hockey games, the two times per week ballet classes with recitals, two times per week church activities, spending the night over with friends, homeschool group days (social and educational venues)every week, not to mention all the short notice things that kids throw at you to deal with because they have no children...and the public educator..don't get me started (by the way I did cave and let the two oldest experience public school which lastest no longer then 2 yrs.before I pulled them out amidst lying and sneaking to do as their peers encouraged against their parents boundaries) when I'm told that "well, I didn't mark that wrong because I could see she got the concept for that algebra problem but just had a math error", it raises my concern even more about the education of my children.  I would love to say "well, I didn't turn my kid in for vandalizing your car because I could see that she understood that what she did was wrong she just had a momentary error in judgement."  We are taught so many things in the rules of life and society in all the simple acitivities of even our academic education.

I shudder when I hear the horror stories of people who have used homeschooling as a cover for such hideous acts of barbarism and abuse and it causes concern to me, as a concerned citizen, for the protection of our children.  But, I hear even more stories of horror happening to children who have been placed under the protection of the state whether it be riding a bus to or from school, being in school or living in foster care after being taken out of harms way from the parent who may (or may not) have caused harm to a child.  So is the term "Witch Hunt" appropriate when it comes to outsiders deciding to be the "voice" for other's children when those children actually speak for themselves and tell you they want to be homeschooled and live with their family? Yes. 

Homeschool Mom from Kansas