Why Should I Have to Pretend?

Secular Homeschooling in the Secular Community

There has been a bit of a hullabaloo in my neck of the woods the last week or so.  In the midst of the hullabaloo was the issue of being secular.  Sadly, the issue was inside a homeschool group that carries 'secular' in its title.  One would think that a secular group, that displays the word in its title, would have a clearly defined working use of the word secular.  However, no matter how well defined, it is apparent that the word means something different to each secular homeschooler and unless the word is defined to the ninth degree, there is room for interpretation.  Who knows, maybe even when it is defined to the ninth degree there would be room for interpretation.

What Is Homeschooling?

What Does It Look Like?

 

Homeschooling is no longer conducted in the shadows, behind closed curtains, with the fear of 'whispers' from the neighbors.  I know there are those who still 'speak out' against homeschooling, buying into the old, and might I point out disproved, myths that can still swirl about regarding homeschooling and more pointedly homeschoolers.  The homeschooling community itself will 'poke fun' at itself by talking about being weird and unsocialized because we know it is, more often than not, untrue.  Either that or we embrace our 'weirdness' as being unique individuals raising free thinkers who will change their world.  Regardless though homeschooling is legal in all 50 states and so we can walk in the sun during school hours without fear of serious, legal retribution.

Bill Nye Insults Homeschooling?

I had the chance to actually be in the moment when a homeschooler asked Bill Nye on his facebook page if he would ever consider creating a science curriculum for homeschoolers.  This was on a thread where Bill Nye asked his fans to submit questions he would answer:

"Bill Nye (the Science Guy) here, sitting by ready to take your questions (your good questions)..."

THE question:  "The homeschool community is severely lacking in real science curricula. Will you give thought to creating a science curriculum for the ever-growing number of secular homeschoolers?"

His response was less than stellar, in my opinion: