I've
talked about my personal journey; how I arrived where I currently am. It is how I arrived and what I endured that
drives me to build the National Alliance of Secular Homeschoolers (N.A.S.H.).
We
are entering our 6th year of
homeschooling. I homeschool my soon-to-be 13 year old daughter who
we fondly call Punky. She is entering the 7th grade. Our reasons
for homeschooling are similar to many families, yet, as with all families,
varied and personal. Our journey over the last five years has been filled
with some 'hits' and a lot of 'misses', yet we move forward because we still
believe it is the right choice for us. Over the course of these years, I
have scoured through books and the internet looking for help, answers, resources,
and anything else that even pertained to omeschooling. Sorting through
all that information on homeschooling, especially in the beginning, can feel a
bit like climbing a very large mountain.
Weeding through all that to find what fits is challenging and made more
so when one is looking for secular materials and resources, including real life
connections.
When
I first began homeschooling, everyone I met was a religious homeschooler;
specifically a Christian homeschooler. I
don’t think I was even cognizant of the term Secular homeschooler. I knew of course that public school steered
clear of, or was legally required to anyway, religious instruction, curriculum,
etc. I wanted that in our homeschooling
experience and so I avoided using religious curriculum. I graduated from a religious private school
and I still remember show skewed the history and science books were.
Other
than searching for non-religious homeschooling supplies, curriculum (the
struggle to find history and science that was taught from a secular view point
was the hardest), resources, I didn’t think there was any ‘secular’ support for
homeschoolers. Or at least, I didn’t
think I’d ever meet anyone like that.
For the first part of our homeschooling year we fluttered and faltered in
and around the Christian groups. I did
not like having to sign Statements of Faith.
We found one group whose SoF was their declaration of beliefs and by
signing you were agreeing to not advocate against it. I settled for that. It was the best I could find where we live
and we did meet some great people in that group – some that I’m still friends
with today. However, it ultimately
didn’t work out and neither did my attempts to establish an ‘inclusive’ group. The good thing that came from that though was
finding that some secular homeschoolers who had moved to our area heard of me
and that group and while many of the religious homeschoolers found me
‘distasteful’ and referred to me as a heathen or an atheist (I might qualify
for the first, but not the latter), these new to the area secular homeschoolers
were drawn to the ‘least religious’ thing in town and therefore…me! It was this group of folks who formed the
Secular homeschool group that I joined after leaving behind the inclusive
group.
