{"id":3800,"date":"2015-02-04T23:52:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T04:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2015-02-04T23:58:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T04:58:37","slug":"the-isolation-of-homeschooling-its-not-such-a-bad-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2015\/02\/the-isolation-of-homeschooling-its-not-such-a-bad-thing.html","title":{"rendered":"The Isolation of Homeschooling – It’s Not Such a Bad Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In thirteen years of homeschooling my children, I\u2019ve gotten quite adept at refuting the claim that homeschooled kids are unsocialized and locked away from the world. I\u2019ve pointed to their myriad of activities and the hoardes of friends who have swarmed through my house throughout the years. I\u2019ve argued vehemently against the idea that closing out the world was our goal so vigorously that I\u2019d failed to see that in some ways they were right, and that it wasn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Since last June, people have repeatedly remarked on how well Ella has adjusted to her life as a paraplegic. They\u2019ve credited\u00a0 both her resiliency and our parenting. We\u2019ve given the credit to the wonderful community of people we\u2019ve found, and the dual strength of faith and prayer. But it wasn\u2019t until last night that I fully grasped how large a part her being homeschooled has played in her ability to cope.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was deep into a conversation with Kelly Mantoan<\/a>\u00a0 when I heard the words \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible blessing that she was homeschooled when all of this happened, because she was able to deal with it all in relative privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was floored, even though I didn\u2019t say so to Kelly. I\u2019d never even consciously thought about it before that moment, and yet the truth of it flowed right off of my tongue. Homeschooling has provided a cocoon for all of our family this past year, but especially for Ella and me.<\/p>\n

If she had been a student in a traditional school, her first day of class in a wheelchair would have been a mere 9 1\/2 weeks after she\u2019d stopped walking. At that point she was still unable to get herself in and out of cars. She struggled with her clothes after going to the bathroom, and would often sob in frustration when what had once been one of the most private parts of her life suddenly required help from other people. It would be months of trial and error, and rivers of tears before she was once again the independent girl she was determined to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine how different this whole journey and it\u2019s current outcome would look if she\u2019d had to live this all in front of a classroom of her peers. How would the narrative of her life be changed if she\u2019d had to face the failings of her body alongside the prejudices and imposed limitations of her teachers and classmates? Would she have been allowed the freedom and space to explore all of the things she was capable of doing if she was hampered by the safety rules the school district has in place for students like her? I tend to doubt it. The schools can do many things, but they can\u2019t shield you from the assumptions of others or stop you from believing them.<\/p>\n

Someone once said to me that what\u2019s unique about Ella\u2019s approach to her life is that \u201cshe isn\u2019t in a chair; she just uses one.\u201d It\u2019s the truest description that I\u2019ve heard. She doesn\u2019t view her wheelchair as a limitation. In her mind it\u2019s nothing more than a tool she uses to get around, and a toy she plays with at the skate park. It doesn\u2019t define her perception of herself, and because of that, it doesn\u2019t define how others perceive her either. This protective bubble of homeschooling has given her the space and the freedom to grow slowly into an acceptance of who she has become and of how her life has changed. Without anyone to tell her how pitifully handicapped she is, she learned instead how wonderfully capable she can be.<\/p>\n

And the freedom to define who you are is a benefit of homeschooling that you don\u2019t have to be a kid in a wheelchair in order to fully enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In thirteen years of homeschooling my children, I\u2019ve gotten quite adept at refuting the claim that homeschooled kids are unsocialized and locked away from the world. I\u2019ve pointed to their myriad of activities and the hoardes of friends who have swarmed through my house throughout the years. I\u2019ve argued vehemently against the idea that closing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,38,25],"class_list":["post-3800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ella","tag-homeschooling","tag-thinking"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Isolation of Homeschooling - It's Not Such a Bad Thing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In thirteen years of homeschooling my children, I've gotten quite adept at refuting the claim that homeschooled kids are unsocialized and locked away from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2015\/02\/the-isolation-of-homeschooling-its-not-such-a-bad-thing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Isolation of Homeschooling - 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