On Wednesday night after work, Mike and I went to
see a free Roy Orbsion documentary with a talk afterwards by the
writer/director/producer of the film who works for the BBC music journalism
department. Then on Thursday night we went to another Arizona Republic
sponsored storytelling night, Estamos Aqui/We Are Here. It was so fabulous, and
I was so bummed that the kids couldn’t come with us, but they both had classes.
As we were walking out, Mike asked me how I hear about all of these cool events,
and I gave him my typical answer that I’m on every mailing list in town. I
realized then that I am essentially homeschooling Mike now.
So, here’s my point – homeschooling is such a messed
up term. If I never had to utter that word again it would be too soon. Yet here
I am again writing about it! Today I’m trying to condense our lifestyle for the
last 10 years into a one-page “high school transcript” GODDAMIT. I’ve been
digging in my heels trying to avoid this bullshit document even though I’ve
saved every piece of everything my kids have ever done. In a few weeks Patrick will
be graduating with his Associate’s degree from community college, and he will
transfer in to ASU as a junior, not having to complete anymore lower division
G.E. and already powering out much of what he needs for his major, Urban
Planning. Rebecca, despite having taken 50 million music and French classes,
will finish her Associate’s and AGEC in
one more year, so I’m going to go ahead and graduate her too, and give her the
Ohm Academy diploma as well, as I spent good money at OfficeMax buying the
high-quality paper with gold seals. Ohm = OurHomeschoolMystery or the measure
of electrical resistance, which we clearly have much of (naming our school was
one of the fun days we had here.)
My standard answers are still the same. Yes, anyone can homeschool. No, we did
not homeschool for religious reasons (although we’re also not anti-religion
either and some of our best friends are both devoutly religious and atheists.)
No, we are not unschoolers (although if you truly look at our day-to-day it
might look that way.) No, I have nothing against schools, schoolkids, or teachers.
Yes, my kids have friends and social lives (we have met some of the most amazing people since starting this journey.) Yes, my kids partook in most, if
not all, of the major milestones that school kids do – proms (three of them),
plays (countless), band, sports, clubs, etc. (see our blog in its entirety.) Yes,
I worked as a registered nurse the entire 10 years that we homeschooled. Yes, my
husband also works full-time. Yes, he is one of the homeschool teachers, too.
No, we are not crazy (relative term.)
Since I started homeschooling my kids, I have now
moved on to doing nurse case management, which largely consists of matching
patients with services they need for wellness. I liken this role very much to
what I did when I pulled my kids out of school and what I went on to do
throughout their homeschooling, which is continually ask the question, “What
does my kid need for educational success and how can I get that?” I have been
relentless in advocating for my kids, and at this point, my proudest moment is
that I see evidence that they can now advocate for themselves. This is how I know
that it’s time for me to wrap things up, write the transcript, seal the
diploma, and say goodbye to homeschooling in its formal sense, and let it be
the lifestyle choice and state of mind that I already know it really is.
