Finding Community

The other day I set out into the world of cyberspace to meet some homeschooling folk. After a few minutes of web surfing, I was starting to feel very low. I found some homeschooling blogs and message boards, yes. Quite a bit of chatting going on. But the conversation seemed to always get around to Jesus somehow. Now I have nothing against Jesus, but this was a little hard for me, a Jewish girl from New Jersey. Where was the new wave of homeschoolers, the more mainstream and secular (dare I say sexy?) bunch I'd been hearing about?

A little more digging around on Technorati and I hit pay dirt. It arrived in the form of a smart, funny little blog called Like I Have Time For This? The author calls herself RegularMom, a self-described "Reader. Writer. Thinker. Homeschooler. Insomniac." A kindred spirit - I don't sleep so much either! A link from her blog took me to a place called The Denim Jumper, billed as "your sassy, secular home away from homeschool." The home page promised, "If you don't fit in at other places, chances are you'll fit in here." I signed myself right up.

Community, I'm finding, is crucial for the homeschooling kind. You're up against a lot: stereotypes, prejudices, funny sidelong looks. It helps to link arms (virtually or otherwise) with the like-minded and draw support from one another. When I told the DJ that I was getting a lot of flak for thinking about homeschooling my daughter, I got this great reply from Katherine of Our Report Card, who imagined telling the naysayers: "If you don't like it, go have your own babies and throw them into the huge anonymous meat grinder of institutional education. That's your business and these children are mine!" You tell 'em, sister!


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