Homeschool, Defined

We, as homeschoolers, have often felt the distinct line between the conventional mindset and the homeschool mindset. As we venture out of our homes and mingle with those who come from conventional education backgrounds, as we step out of homeschool paradise, start college, get a work, the words we hear are almost the same, "Welcome to the real world!"

To this, we often respond with nods, polite smiles, and soft laughter.

But wait! Is it true that homeschool is not the real world? Is it something that strangely distinct and differently apart from what everyone else sees?

A real world, in a conventional mindset, is a world where everything is normal and regular and ordinary. It's a world where almost nothing changes. Where things have been as they have been ever since the world began. It's a world of trains and bus stations, crowded sidewalks and polluted air. It's a world where everyone is busy, where everyone always has someplace to go. It's a world of gigantic skyscrapers that blot out the blues of the sky. It's a world of straightened desks and chairs, of rulers and other forms of measurements, of precision and strictness. Creativity does not always exist, and if it does, it is strictly kept to the minimalistic level. Black and whites and tints of grey make up what they call the "real" world.

We as homeschoolers, as human beings then, if they will not allow us to be homeschoolers, claim rights to this "real world." We say we are a part of it too. Nothing can be more real than the lives we lead, than the tangible things we touch and see (and I speak for everyone—the conventional student in his classroom, and the homeschooler on his mother's kitchen table). They may be two different dimensions, but as I see it, they are both very much (and equally) real.

If the world of homeschool is disallowed to be a part, a faction, of the real world, if it must be defined by the conventional mindset, then by all means, make it a fantasy world. A world after the likeness of Narnia, Middle-Earth, and Neverland. Let the children laugh and play and defeat pirates. Let them go on adventures and discover things for themselves. Let it be a place where animals talk and rivers dance. Let it be a world of poetry, literature, and prose. Let the flowers and trees be made of adjectives and adverbs and a wonderful mixture of colors. Let the grass come in a thousand shades of green. Let the bridges be made of books and music. Let words soar and swell like the wind. Let creativity run through the veins of all who romp in the fields. Let each sunrise and each sunset outdo each other in beauty. Because that is the kind of world we live in. That is homeschool.