I think my brain just exploded.
**NOTE** I wrote this quite a while back, but didn’t publish it because I was pretty mad at the time and was not sure I could judge whether or not it was coherent and not just a rant. Since then, the ruling that sparked this post has been overturned, but (although it’s still a bit of a rant) I think the basic principle of my post still holds, and I feel like I need to get it off my chest. I mean no offense by this, I just have a lot of old frustrations and feel like people will gladly remain closed-minded about this subject, and I’m tired of fighting old, outdated stereotypes. **END NOTE**
This is bullshit. I would really love to know how on earth they twisted the constitution to justify requiring state teaching credentials that didn’t exist when it was written.
Listen, kids. I know, I know, I know, I KNOW. You all knew those crazy homeschool kids who weren’t that bright, or the fundamentalist religious crazies who couldn’t so much as consider the possiblity of debate and take every hard-core biblical view they can as their own personal vendetta. Well I’m sorry. I know those kids too. But I know a lot of non-homeschooled kids who are exactly the same. And believe me, it’s always the crazy ones who stand out, but that doesn’t mean they’re the norm. The normal, incredibly bright, articulate, open-minded kids who got world-class educations don’t go around screaming that they’re homeschooled.
You know why I don’t? Because I know, if I tell you that I’m homeschooled, that all of a sudden I have gone from just some person you know to having to overcome a thousand stereotypes of the batshit-crazy fundamentalist six-day creationist seventeen siblings never been out in public standing on the front porch with a shotgun unsocialized weirdo. And you know what? I don’t love that. I don’t love having to spend my time trying to change prejudices that strong. I don’t love people who treat me like a sheltered, naive, ignorant religious freak. It doesn’t matter if I do or don’t have anything in common with the stereotype, I shouldn’t have to spend my life justifying my education and rebuilding my reputation as who I actually AM instead of who you assume I am. People find out I’m homeschooled and somehow all of a sudden everything they know about me doesn’t matter anymore. This isn’t hypothetical–I’ve seen it happen. I’ve had to deal with this crap from strangers, from casual aquaintances, and from some of my best friends after they’ve known me for YEARS, and it sucks.
