If Homeschooled, Please Press 1
Sometimes I really hate being homeschooled. It’s not the homeschooling itself, per say. It’s the way people react when they find out.
When I tell people I’m homeschooled, I get one of three reactions. Reaction #1: “Oh, wow, you’re so lucky! You don’t have to do any work!” Reaction #2: “But. . .what about socialization?” Reaction #3: “Cool.
” Let’s discuss these, shall we? Number one usually comes from kids. And my question to them would be – what on earth gave you that idea? Are people really that ignorant? Do they really think homeschoolers sit around all day watching TV in their pjs? Give me a break! Would you like to see my transcript? I’d be happy to show you my curriculum. Actually, I apologize. That was four questions. Moving on. Reaction number two most often comes from distressed mothers who think they are doing a public service by grilling my mother about my social life.
Want to know the worst part? They tend to do it when I’m standing right there. It’s like a script. My mom strikes up a conversation with some lady. They find out we homeschool and bam! Here comes the interrogation. “But, what about socialization? What do they. .
.do?” HELLO! The object of your questions is STANDING RIGHT HERE! Would you like to talk to her yourself? Oh, but you can’t. I’m an unsocial introverted freak who doesn’t know how to speak for herself and couldn’t possibly hold a normal conversation. Because, you know, my mom keeps us locked up at home. With no human interaction whatsoever.
And I have no friends. Or hobbies. At all. Seriously? Come on. If anything, I would say I’ve been oversocialized. Here’s a list of my extracurriculars, past and present.
1. IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) 2. Basketball 3. Drama group 4. Violin 5. Figure skating 6.
Volunteering at my library 7. Volunteering at a theraputic equestrian center 8. Art classes 9. a Young Authors club 10. Fiddle group (it’s a group of people who get together every week to play traditional fiddle music) And probably more that I can’t recall right now. Also, I don’t have a lot of friends.
But I do have a few extremely close friends who are more like sisters. I know that no matter what, they’ll always be there for me, pardon my cliche. What does the word socialization mean, anyway? Well, I looked it up. The dictionary definition of socialization is: “A continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.” The way I see it, socialization is a process you go through to find out who you are, and how you fit into this world. But that is purely my opinion.
You can choose how you view it. And now that I’ve ranted your ear off and probably made you forget what I was talking about in the first place, let’s proceed to the third, and final, reaction. Reaction number three. I’ll keep this short and sweet. Simply put, I love you guys.
You accept what some people think of as “abnormal” without a hitch in your stride. That’s not always easy. I congratulate you.
