Today was a ‘weary’ day.   No specific reason except that I sometimes get tired of constantly defending what we do, of being on the fringe.   I truly don’t see how Lenore Skenazy does it.   Yesterday I posted a link to her latest blog on the homeschool email list that I belong to and the very first person to respond basically said that letting your kid go out on their own is unsafe.   Of course some of my fellow unschoolers agreed with me & Lenore, but I find it exhausting to always be on the outside.

I guess this is why many people choose the path of least resistance.  It’s easier.

Yesterday at our weekly gathering one of my friends was talking to another parent who just happened to be there – a parent of traditionally schooled children, and when the conversation turned to school as it ALWAYS INEVITABLY does (because grown ups in a playground are incapable of talking about anything else) and my friend said that her kids don’t go to school and are unschooled, it was all the usual stuff:  how will they learn trigonometry, what about colonial America, etc. etc.

Yawn.

I also find it exhausting that every year the newspapers and magazines are filled with articles debating school reform, teacher effectiveness, testing and on and on, and never is there an article talking about homeschooling as a possible alternative.  Not. Ever.

So today I just felt tired, even though it was a good day as far as our family and the kids were concerned.   They had Spanish and loved it.  We went to the Lego store because today they launched the new Series 5 mini-figures.   The kids cleaned Joshua’s office.   We all got new shoes at Payless.  We ate dinner, we are healthy – nothing bad is going on.

Even so, it took this op-ed article in the Times to make me feel better.   Maybe you’ll enjoy it too.   Maybe we should plan a trip to Tripoli and visit the amazing Roman ruins that until now have been off limits to Americans.   And we’ll shake hands with the locals and maybe there we won’t be seen as part of the alternative fringe.    We’ll just be regular Americans.   And we’ll be welcome.