In this huge stack of letters there's a small note from Queequeg that's telling. It matches up with my experience well. He says that homeschoolers always have a well rehearsed party line about how the schools are bad and it's for the kids well being but....they are fundies who just don't want to say "we are homeschooling because we are fundamentalist anti-science Christians".

That's true. Evangelicals will tell you they homeschool for every reason under the sun other than religious bigotry. Yet, that's what it is. These fundies can even get a fairly freewheeling granola-sounding set of excuses rolling (boy, it must hurt to have to do that, since the truth is they are very authoritarian people).

But none of it is true--they are fundies. You go to their homes, and "history class" is reading copies of "Israel My Glory" (a frankly scary Christian fundamentalist Zionist magazine--yes, that's right) and other deeply skewed and politically inflammatory religious materials. "Science" is about how homosexuality is an abomination to the Lord. The kids are methodically kept away from any opposing viewpoints. If the parents even suspect you don't agree with them, they won't invite you back.

I could have worked in the tutor outreach program for these homeschooled kids (a resource developed because the parents don't know--well, anything) when I was subbing for the public schools, but couldn't because I would not sign a statement saying I was a Born-Again churchgoing Christian. I would happily have agreed to respect their religious views, but that was not enough. This tutor program was for ALL the homeschooled kids and being "Born Again" was a REQUIREMENT. So how many anarchist granola types do you think were in the homeschooling movement there? Surely not 1 out of 100.

So those of you who think that fundies are "irrelevant" to the discussion--be careful, you may not know their true numbers. Remember they aren't exactly admitting it, they know the drill, and they may just be good at saying what "damn liberals" want to hear.

Okay a lot of people seem to be concerned that there is a conflict between on the one hand, saying that homeschoolers are granola elitists and on the other hand, saying that they are grubby trailer park Christianists.

Is this a contradiction?

Yes, and no. There are definitely both of these groups in the homeschooling movement (the latter much more numerous than the former). At the same time elitism is at the core of both their homeschooling arguments.

The rich HS is a snob who thinks her kid is "too tender and good" for other kids, who believes her snowflakes should never have to be teased, who thinks when hubby has a conference abroad, she should get to fly to Japan with him while school is session so "fuck it, we'll homeschool and take them along." etc. etc. The wealthy helicopter mom, who just doesn't want to work anymore and so makes parenting a profession. This is homeschooling as an indulgence, which usually ends when the kids get a little bigger and start to talk back and it's not fun and games for Mom anymore.

But the fundies are coming from a point of elitism also, just a lower point. In their case, they are often overtly racist and almost always subvertly so. Yes they will sacrifice financially to keep their kids away from the World, the World meaning blacks, hispanics, Catholics, kids who go to public school, etc. They too are homeschooling thinking they are better than everybody else, because they are former landowning elites (somewhere back there, there is always Grandpa's 800 acre land grant farm, long ago divvied up and sold) who aren't anymore, but are still trying to hold on to that status. Not to mention their certainity of religious superiority...hooooo boy!

So yeah. Seems like a contradiction, but it's really not. Homeschooling is an enterprise based on elitist convictions whether those doing it are rich or not.

Well, you see, I WAS homeschooled, so when you scream and rant and rave about how I am judgemental, bigoted, use Fox News mentality and so on, there's a reason for that....I learned it at home :)

Same to those harpy HS moms who say my English isn't prefect enough to criticise--might be better if I could've attended a school, dontcha think?

I'm one of you, so when you hurl this mud, it's sticking to you too.