I remember you mentioned your family was newish to homeschool in a chat you had with Dr. Hooten Wilson (about the book Deschooling Society). So this was interesting to read! And I have gathered some of the same observations, not so much from a convention but just in general observing in person and online.
Thanks Myles. We have homeschooled our kids (now in a university model private school two days a week with three days at home) and this echoes much of what we have experienced as well. The fringes are real, but there is also a beautiful and deep community to be found.
As a homeschooled child, and a homeschooling mom until 3rd grade, I appreciate the nuance. I was one of the weirder ones, lol, but I made it into adulthood fairly competently.
Do you think there are assumptions underneath “other booths have undercurrents of liberty, self government, and personal choice, an ethos which puts it squarely at odds with another value of homeschooling: the value of community.” Why is liberty, self-gov, and personal choice at odds with community? I don’t think I see these as at odds
Mostly because, from a Christian vantage point, independence has to give way to enter dependence. I was in a homesteading seminar today that really valorized independence at the expense of caring for systems, which reminded me of this dynamic. Independence as a prime value only leads to more fragmentation, not communities. It can produce only coalitions, and which our interests align, side-by-side and not connected.
Thanks for the response. I think you’re right in some instances. I can see complete self-sufficiency, at least in one’s heart, to be a danger to community. Also, I’m thinking of 1 Thessalonians 4, and while I don’t want to eisegete American valorized and atomistic capitalism into the passage, I can’t help but think an important part of Christian ethics is one’s ability to provide and care for others.
Final thought is the political dimension. I don’t think choice (by which I mean am absence of gov coercion) is in conflict with radical giving and the interdependence of freely chosen community centered around a moral (or spiritual) vision.
In my experience, churches have largely changed from places of mutual support and interdependence, into ideological huddles against the evils of “the world” and are unwelcoming to anyone who doesn’t share the groupthink.
I remember you mentioned your family was newish to homeschool in a chat you had with Dr. Hooten Wilson (about the book Deschooling Society). So this was interesting to read! And I have gathered some of the same observations, not so much from a convention but just in general observing in person and online.
Thanks Myles. We have homeschooled our kids (now in a university model private school two days a week with three days at home) and this echoes much of what we have experienced as well. The fringes are real, but there is also a beautiful and deep community to be found.
As a homeschooled child, and a homeschooling mom until 3rd grade, I appreciate the nuance. I was one of the weirder ones, lol, but I made it into adulthood fairly competently.
We started homeschooling because of lockdowns as well. It is a strange world but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Do you think there are assumptions underneath “other booths have undercurrents of liberty, self government, and personal choice, an ethos which puts it squarely at odds with another value of homeschooling: the value of community.” Why is liberty, self-gov, and personal choice at odds with community? I don’t think I see these as at odds
Mostly because, from a Christian vantage point, independence has to give way to enter dependence. I was in a homesteading seminar today that really valorized independence at the expense of caring for systems, which reminded me of this dynamic. Independence as a prime value only leads to more fragmentation, not communities. It can produce only coalitions, and which our interests align, side-by-side and not connected.
Thanks for the response. I think you’re right in some instances. I can see complete self-sufficiency, at least in one’s heart, to be a danger to community. Also, I’m thinking of 1 Thessalonians 4, and while I don’t want to eisegete American valorized and atomistic capitalism into the passage, I can’t help but think an important part of Christian ethics is one’s ability to provide and care for others.
Final thought is the political dimension. I don’t think choice (by which I mean am absence of gov coercion) is in conflict with radical giving and the interdependence of freely chosen community centered around a moral (or spiritual) vision.
In my experience, churches have largely changed from places of mutual support and interdependence, into ideological huddles against the evils of “the world” and are unwelcoming to anyone who doesn’t share the groupthink.