|
Sep. 13, 2006
Homeschooling by the Wayside
 Yesterday,
on the way home from grocery shopping, a fireman stopped us near the
fire station because they were trying to back a fire engine into the
station. We pulled off into a parking lot and my husband took Baby Bear
out of the car to watch by the side of the road. When Baby Bear was
younger, he wanted to grow up to be a fire truck. Now he has matured a
bit and wishes to be a fire fighter.
The firemen noticed our
little three year old watching with rapt attention, studying their
every move. One invited him over and he got to go into the station. He
climbed in the engine, blew the horn, flashed the lights and got a
personal tour of the station. When it was time to go, he got a handful
of candy to share with his sister and returned to the car full of
excitement. He rattled off everything he had done and emphasized that
he was going to be a fire fighter.
There is a lot to learn just
being part of a community, and one thing I love about homeschooling is
the time I feel I have to just enjoy such moments. But this gift of
time also leaves me wondering sometimes. We go on walks and no one is
home. We hang out in the park and in our backyard and yet rarely share
many words with our neighbors. They are always out...always busy.
Sometimes,
I miss the sense of community I felt living in Germany. I miss the
formal "visiting time" when you knew you were welcome to drop by
unannounced or might expect someone to drop in on you. You put the tea
on (or in the rest of Germany, coffee) and enjoyed a leisurely hour
with your family. And with any guests who dropped in. I miss the German
custom surrounding invitations. There, if someone told you drop by
anytime, they tended to mean it. Here, I always question whether the
invitation is genuine or made merely out of politeness.
I find
it ironic when people oppose homeschooling and talk about community
responsibility and that "it takes a village to raise a child." I wonder
where, since the advent of free and compulsory education, our
communities and villages have disappeared to. Not that the two are
necessarily linked, but how has public education increased awareness of
community values when so much time is spent outside of the community?
I
watched with interest as some of the census data unfolded about the
"tradional" nuclear family. As Christians, we tend to fight for this
model of family life and warn of the impending disaster if our "family
values" continue to decline. But the nuclear family is not traditional.
The term has only been around since 1947, coming more into common usage
in the fifties and sixties as this became the model of the American
family. The concept of the nuclear family has allowed us as a society
to strip families into compact, portable units that can be carried
across the nation to follow a job or a dream. We've shed off
grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles in order to become modern and
mobile. My family lives in five different states. I've lived in at
least ten different communities and have never lived in one place more
than six years.
If we are willing to strip our family bonds down to the nuclear family
for ease of mobility, how much easier is it to cast aside our sense of
community for the same goal? And what "village" is there to assist in
the raising of my children if none of my neighbors know me by name? Or
share more than a word or two as they get ready to go?
|
| •
Post A Comment! •
Send to a Friend!
|
Comments
|
|
|
|
Sep. 14, 2006 - Communities
I agree with you in wondering about how you can be a community when everyone is gone. I see it at church, too.....fewer kids at Sunday School because of sports, fewer people at worship on holiday weekends because they're on vacation, etc. It's hard to have fellowship at church when so few people show up.
You made some good points,
Barb