We live in such a homeschool-friendly area, and have large communities of homeschoolers, that sometimes I feel left out when I hear of people giving great comebacks to detractors. At times, I have offered up clever, stinging comebacks I would give if only I had such a naysayer to cross my path! With the exception of a couple of members of my extended family, I have never had anyone question me as to whether I was doing the right thing. I have had perfect strangers tell me they wished they could homeschool, and the proceed to tell me their personal stories regarding their experience at one of the local schools.
My middle daughter and I went to get our hair cut Saturday. We just go to one of those places like Supercuts - nothing fancy - but the beauticians come and go from there so quickly, I've given up all hope of finding one that I can call "mine" - so I just take whoever is available.
At any rate, I sat down in the chair and the chit-chat began.
She asked me was my daughter excited about starting school. I thought about just telling her "yes" - just to get past the part of explaining - but I didn't. I said, "Well, we homeschool and we haven't started school for this year yet." I didn't feel like explaining we haven't been out of school all summer long and are just taking a few weeks off...but, I didn't.
She then asked me to tell her more about it. I told her we do school at home and usually go to co-op once a week. (I didn't mention the classes at the zoo or the church activities or the once-a-week visits by my mom or the tea parties with a neighbor.) She nodded approvingly and said that it's soooo important to get that socialialization in. She also said that it gives them a chance to have another teacher besides me - and I didn't answer right away...I thought about it because I was honestly wondering what that had to do with anything - ANYTHING at all.
When I hesitated she said "right...RIGHT?!" - and I said "Oh...yeah." and just left it at that.
No snappy comeback. After all, she was weilding scissors. ;)
Anyway, I reasoned in my mind that I probably know far more about education in general and homeschooling in particular than she does...after all, she's not a homeschooler. Just like she knows how to cut hair and, much to my dismay, I don't. Besides, if I had been impolite to her, it might color her attitude towards all homeschoolers.
Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have educated her on the abysmal test scores of the public schools in our county, or the fact that 20% of all students in our county attend private schools (not counting the homeschoolers), or the fact that they're closing schools a few every year because of low attendance.
However, feeling pleased with my new short hair, I left, satisfied that she really knows how to cut hair...and I really do know how to homeschool! :)
