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Homeschooling Stereotypes; Also? We Voted Today!

Homeschooling Stereotypes

The 9, 7, and 5 y.o. unschooling gang, (also known by their aliases here as Daize, Towser, and Tawnse respectively), went to vote with me this morning.  We got to visit city hall which the kids love.  City Hall in San Francisco is a bit of a thing.  It’s ornate in the extreme, and then to top it all off, people get married there.  We haven’t ever been without seeing a variety of gorgeous wedding dresses.



We all took our time taking in all the wonder of the place for the umpteenth time—it actually never gets old, at least not for us—then we headed to the desks where we could pick up my ballot.

The people at the desk observed that it was odd to see three school aged kids at their polling place on a school day.  Before long they’d put together that the gang is homeschooled.  They asked the kids the usual questions.  How do they liked being homeschooled?  The gang’s used to this one by now.  They all responded that it was great!  Next a man asked if they ever get any breaks because they’re homeschooled.

“Nope, no breaks.” Towser grinned at him.

The following question was directed at me, “So, you don’t have to get all the required vaccinations right?”

The question pushed me back on my heels just a bit.  Nobody’d ever had the temerity to ask before.  Plus, I frankly wasn’t nearly caffeinated enough this morning, so I danced around the issue a bit.  “I’m sorry, what?  I might not have understood.  You mean the vaccinations that are required by the public school system?”

“Yeah.  You don’t have to get them right?  That must be nice.”

“Ummmm, we get them anyway.  It turns out that lots of other things the kids want to do requires the same vaccinations.  Also, they keep you from getting sick?”

“Oh, yeah… right.  Of course.”

By this point I had the ballot in hand.  Everyone had been very nice, if perhaps a bit odd.  They even gave each of the kids a little coloring book about voting.  As a parting thought, the lady at the adjacent desk added, “You kids help your dad vote.  I think you can.”

And she was right!  The kids are out and about in San Francisco every day.

I had to endure a conversation a few weeks ago about how would I ever teach my homeschooled kids about inequities, racism, and oppression that goes on daily in the United States.  The assumption of the person I was speaking with was that the kids are sheltered in some way.  The assumption was wrong, and the answer to the question is simple.  The kids see things that shouldn’t happen every day.  They’re very well aware of what’s going on.  They discuss those things at length with each other and with a lot of the adults they know.

As we were walking up to city hall, we were discussing the reasons society doesn’t think kids should be allowed to vote when Tawnse launched into a story about how she, Towser, and Daize saw someone be arrested for no reason.  I knew exactly what she was talking about.  The person was homeless.  Someone called it in that they didn’t like the person being where they were doing nothing to harm anyone.  The police swept in and arrested them.  Tawnse and her sibs saw the incident from its completely uneventful start to its police officer curreated finish.  She and her sibs wanted to be able to vote to help to address the problem.

As a result of our conversation, (as well as my political leanings), I voted for every candidate for judge our new District Attorney Chesa Boudin endorsed.  (D.A. Boudin won his recent election on a platform of, among other things, not prosecuting San Francisco’s homeless for peeing on walls.)

The kids were right, as far as I’m concerned, they should be allowed to vote.  They participate in our city every day.  They do see what goes on, and because they discuss it with a variety of people in their lives, they have thoughts on exactly how those issues could be addressed.

So, to sum up:
Not all homeschoolers skip vaccinations.  And:
Homeschooled kids are prepared to address the issues around them, and are in a position to understand their role in these issues because they’re actually out and about witnessing what goes on in the city every day.  They learn because they get to see and to talk and to listen.


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