Homeschool Stereotypes

Mandatory reading: Jane's You Don't Look Like a Homeschool Mom. (She wrote this in response to an article about how the stereotypical homeschooler is so different from the "normal" American that the rest of society feels threatened by those weirdo homeschoolers.)



On the one hand, I don't want to write any more in this post, because I really want people to go read at least Jane's musings, and preferably the op-ed piece too. But on the other hand, I want to chime in.

I remember the time I was chatting with somebody who was suggested as a possible substitute paper carrier. We needed subs for vacation, and I called the lady. During the conversation, she (who was fairly new to town) decided that we would be greeeeat people to get to know. After all, we were
a) a pastor's family,
b) a large family, and
c) homeschoolers.
And we all know what that means, don't we? And those were the kind of people she wanted for friends. Thing is, this woman didn't know who we really were; she just lumped us into her stereotype.

There was also the eye-opening story of what happened shortly after we met Jane's family. They'd been church-hunting for many months. Everything they found was happy-clappy. Then they came to visit Triune. The stayed for lunch. We loved them and they loved us. But more importantly, the kids made it clear to Mom and Dad that the church-hunting was done and over: they had found the place where they were staying! As Jane told the story, later that day she announced happily to a group of friends (mostly pagan) that they'd found a church-home. For the most part, these friends didn't really care about church or liturgy, but they cared about Jane, and they knew how important this was to her. So they were all ready to be thrilled for her. Until...

she mentioned that the pastor and his wife have six kids and they homeschool. Whoa; put the brakes on, Nelly! "Jane, are you SURE about this? Are you sure this is the kind of place you want to be?" And Jane's response was, "Oh, they're not like THAT!" So even among homeschoolers who are not part of the stereotype, we too are very aware of the stereotype. Good grief, even I am leery of pastors' wives who homeschool more than 4 kids. Some of them are wonderful. But the experiences of the past have convinced me to be cautious when I meet people whose basic situation in life is identical to mine.

And for some reason, that's just kinda sad.