If you grow up in one culture and move into another – say, moving from the United States to France, or from India to the U.S. – it will take you a while to adjust. There will be changes in language, clothing, customs, holidays, even figures of speech. The same is true for those like me who grew up evangelical or fundamentalist and are now a part of what you might call mainstream American culture.
Since most of the world doesn’t understand Quiverfull/Christian Patriarchy culture, do you feel this creates barriers in friendships or in romantic relationships? Do people have a hard time understanding you and your past? Joe: Coming soon. Latebloomer: It seems like people are much more interested in who I am now than in who I used [...]
Do you still feel as though you are “different” or that your past experiences emotionally isolate you from society? Joe: Coming soon. Latebloomer: I definitely feel the effects of my past even today. Because I was isolated from my peers in my formative years, social interaction takes a lot more concentration for me than for [...]
How were you first exposed to “mainstream” American culture? What were your first impressions? Joe: I was public schooled all my life and so lived in this “mainstream” culture first hand. I say “lived in” because it was beaten into us that my siblings and I were sojourners in a foreign country. Martyrs for the [...]
I just realized something. Harry Potter and I have something in common. Harry was raised a muggle, and when he learns he is a wizard and begins attending Hogwarts he is forever not knowing things everyone assumes he should know. The bedtime stories every wizard kid grows up with? He’s clueless. And on and on. [...]
Do you perceive of your academic or social abilities differently today than you did when you were being homeschooled? Joe: I had the best of both worlds. I went to public school and had many friends who were home taught. I can relate to both. Had I been homeschooled, I would have thought that everyone [...]
What do you see as the pros and cons of having been homeschooled? Do you feel that your homeschool experience prepared you well socially? Academically? Joe: Homeschooling is right for some people and very wrong for others. Many people see homeschooling as the opportunity for indoctrination of their children. Others see it as the only [...]
When I first went through my struggles with my family and proclaimed my independence, I thought I was alone. I thought I was the only conservative homeschool kid to take the path I did and go through the trouble I had faced. I thought I was an oddball, alone, without anyone I could really identify [...]
When I first left home for college, I wasn’t afraid to stick out. I still shared my parents’ beliefs, and there was something satisfying about the shock on a person’s face when she learned that I had twelve siblings. I don’t think anyone could have known me for five minutes without knowing that I was [...]
This is probably the most common question homeschoolers get. As a child, I was well schooled in how to reply to it. “Do you have any idea how many friends I have?” “Segregating children by age group is not a natural form of socialization.” “Socialization is just a code word for peer pressure.” Today, I [...]
My parents thought they were doing me a favor when they chose to homeschool me and intentionally shelter me from the outside world, but what they didn’t realize is that their decision would leave me culturally disconnected from my peers. I asked someone who Brittney Spears was some years back, and was rewarded with the [...]
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