Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I'll Take It!

On Sunday at church, there were some new people attending. One of them was a woman who was a PE teacher in a local high school. At one point I was talking about something related to unschooling and I told her that most of the families that attend the church homeschool, actually unschool, their kids. This was before I knew she worked as a teacher. C had a separate conversation with her where she told him what she did for a living and then said that if the kids there were what unschooling produced, she thought she would want to do that if she had kids of her own. Her actual words were something like, " If this is unschooling, I'll take it!"

When he told me later, my first reaction was that I seem to take for granted the way that my children "are". They are not different or special to me, they just "are". So, when someone who meets them for the first time makes a comment like that, it takes me by surprise. Really? My kids? Not that I don't think they are wonderful. Of course, I do. They're my kids. That is my job. (And they are wonderful, btw!) I was reminded of their uniqueness by a stranger and it begs the question "what is so different with my kids that she would notice and comment?"

I don't have the answer to that question. All I know is that what we are doing with our kids, the unschooling, the peaceful parenting, is getting them noticed in a good way. I could be tempted to take the credit for the way they are turning out, but I know I can't. All I am doing is getting out of their way and supporting who they already are. It is amazing how wonderful kids can be if you simply love them, support them, and not try to control them.

What is even more amazing to me is that that above formula is so quickly rejected by most of society. I know we are the minority of a minority, as unschoolers. I am lucky to have an incredible circle of friends here to support us in this life choice, and I guess I forget that the rest of the world does not get it. Oh well, their loss.

1 comment:

Brenda Marie Hoffman said...

Glad to see things are going well for you. Things have been busy but good here. I just thought I'd stop by and see what's going on.

Brenda Marie
http://www.livin-smart.net
http://www.livin-smart.com