I want to choose my own prison
Or, even better, I want to love myself into doing the thing. Maybe our kids do too.
This started off as a piece about demand-avoidance, and ended up being a piece acknowledging all the children for whom going to school without being harmed in multiple ways, is simply not an option.
The children who struggle in school, who would be harmed by it, who have school trauma or in any case are still dealing with the effects of school; and also the adults who are tending the hurt left by school, whether they are aware of it or not.
It seems like this is the case more and more, but perhaps it’s just that our standards of care and education have risen, and the school’s standards have not.
This is not a piece bashing school (although ugh, there’s a lot to critique). I’ve said this before but I think we need accessible, publicly-funded places for children and young people to go. I don’t think they ALL need to look like mainstream school (and when I say mainstream, I include the majority of public and private schools). This is a piece simply acknowledging a fact that is often conveniently missing when people talk about how homeschooling is such a privilege: for some children, going to school is a stretch, impossible even. Home is not actually a choice, it’s the only reasonable option. Home is not ideal, just a result of a lack of alternatives. It’s a privilege, but also a necessity.
This is a personal piece, so I’m paywalling it.
This is Part 1 of 2 (or more) on this topic. I’m currently collecting testimonies from people whose children are not able to attend school without significant harm being done to them, and I hope to share them in Part 2.
If this sounds like you, please reach out! I’d love to chat.
(If you’re like, what about the harm that homeschooling can do? Well, I’ve written about that already. Go check it out. This piece is not about that. It turns out that both home and school can be harmful, and no, children are not more safe in school.)
