(Look kids!That is how clouds are made in fast forward.)
(Well, there is more than one way to make a cloud)
(This post inspired by Chris O’Donnell based on his recent decision to focus less on arguing the academic merits of homeschooling on his blog, and to focus more on 80’s metal bands) (Although I was never a metalhead, something close steered me where I am today…)
I have a crackpot theory y’all. So, these past three years have all been a build up to this moment. I’ve wooed you to trust me with my serene pictures of lakes and children playing in fields just so I can spring this one on ya.
Homeschooling is for punks. Or, shall I say, homeschooling is punk rock? I mean, punk sprang up out of a desire to tell the world that the prescribed way of doing things, that record deals and 9 to 5 jobs, the fashion industry, capitalism, and suburbia, and fascism and controlling media and scolding tennis playing parents who didn’t get you were full of crap. I think it is the latest musical genre that truly broke the mold and said ’screw the rules, why have rules?!’ It made it possible for any kid to pick up an instrument and scream out some thoughts without having to bother with formal lessons. It made music accessible to everyone in a way. It turned fashion upside down and made being self-expressive to the point of clownish okay if not desirable. There are some who’d say that it became it’s own little universe of conformism, and they’d be right. But I think people just try to emulate that spirit of freedom by making trends out of body piercing and tattoos. I also know that back in the 80’s I wasn’t emulating anyone other than old men who’d had heartattacks and left all of their plaid shorts,cowboy shirts and ugly suits to the Salvation army.
Although punk’s origins were arguably somewhere in Detroit (Iggy Pop) or New York (Jonathan Richman, Velvet Underground, Ramones, New York Dolls) or England (Sex Pistols, The Damned,the Clash), they were all a response to poverty,conformism and boredom. That message translated well to school kids everywhere too. Like wildfire actually. And it persists to this day in the hearts and minds of many of those kids and former kids, myself included. Some escaped school and some didn’t. But we all discovered that instead of the day being about being bored or bossed around and treated like cattle, our days could be full of the meaning and purpose we want to ascribe it. Yeah, Yeah, for some that meaning was a whole lot of drugs and booze and nihilism but most kids who were in to punk had/have a political conscience and when they’re done trying to ignore the world’s oppression, they come to the revolution. Some call it DIY.
DIY may now be hip enough to have its own cable show and magazines, but punk birthed the do-it-yourself attitude among youngfolks that persists today with the currents trends to: knit (activist knitting too!), design clothes, make robots out of a computer mouse, form garage bands, start your own line of plushy dolls, start cooperatives for everything from preschools to farms, and in some cases to homeschool your kids. Just because everyone wants to DIY, doesn’t mean they do. I like to watch Martha Stewart and imagine myself being that resourceful in the ktichen, but that is just like porn for harried homemakers really.
Like punk music, homeschooling grew out of a desire to question the way things were done. It also said phooey to the rules. It made it possible for parents to become teachers without special training. And most homeschoolers I know are very able to be self-expressive to the point of clownish-and proud of it. Homeschooling is the antithesis to the conformism that schools prepare us for in modern society.
Most importantly, homeschooling is punk because homeschoolers do do it themselves! At the very least, they question an institution’s ability to educate their children effectively. And in our case, homeschooling is a political statement, an act of faith and rebellion, a trust in oneself, a trust in my kids, a desire to create a world where we are safe to explore our interests without formal lessons, a resistance to conformism and boredom, and a rejection of the poverty of time we’d all have otherwise.
Okay, I’m not saying homeschooling can’t be Buddhist or Christian or rock and roll, or that all punks and former punks should homeschool. I’m just saying that punk roots made me question the validity of institutions and traditions in my life. And so I’m grateful for that!
20 responses so far ↓
1 O'DonnellWeb // Aug 4, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Homeschooling is punk…
Kim makes a compelling case that homeschooling is the punk rock of the education world. Like punk music, homeschooling grew……
2 Andrea // Aug 4, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Homeschooling *IS* so punk.
It’s anti-establishment, man.
3 Atypical Homeschool.net » Homeschooling is so punk, yeah // Aug 4, 2006 at 5:40 pm
[...] Kim at Relaxed Homeskool says homeschooling is punk. You know, original raw anarchist punk, not the quasi-emo-punk of today. [...]
4 Kirsten // Aug 4, 2006 at 6:29 pm
I have always felt punk is as much sheer unadulterated rage as it is all the things you mentioned. Do you find that homeschooling can also be a big flip-off to a system that let you down?
5 COD // Aug 4, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Since my trackback seems to have ended up in the wrong Internets tube…
http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/002639.php
6 JoVE // Aug 4, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Well argued. I think I agree with you though I was never a punk. (I came via Andrea’s blog but I think I’ll come back.)
7 WhyKnot // Aug 4, 2006 at 8:22 pm
So, am I the only person whose old punk-rock friends are entirely down on homeschooling? As teenagers and young twenty somethings, we were everything you said, but now, when I talk to them, they are more anti-homeschooling than my “straight-edge” friends. I just don’t know what to say when my friends are sitting there with their piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, whatever saying, “Yeah, but what about socialization?” It makes me want to cry. When my oldest was born, they would take his little fists and pump them up and down saying that they’d make sure his first word was “OY.” Now…I don’t know. Maybe my friends are broken. I fight back by making snide little comments. They bounce their babies and say things like, “I’ll never tell BABY that she can’t have a mohawk.” I respond with, “Maybe over the summer, but the school won’t allow him to attend with a mohawk,” and then I smile smugly as they realize MY child gets to have a mohawk year round. Wannabes.
8 Faith Roberts // Aug 4, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Wow, now I understand why I took to the concept of homeschooling. I loved Iggy Pop, The Ramones and Velvet Underground!
I think homeschooling might be a little bit reggae too. Cuz punk charged me up but never made me relax, Now Bob Marley . . . .Don’t worry about a thing. . . . that makes me a relaxed homeschooler!
9 Jax // Aug 5, 2006 at 4:07 am
So when my kids are singing along with Sandi Thom, I wish I was a punk rocker, I can tell them they are already halfway there. Cool.
10 kimmy // Aug 5, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Yep, you nailed it, Kimzyn.
A lot of people do triple takes when they find out we homeschool. Tattoos, nosering, Math Rock drummer dad…..
We DIY School
11 dan abbey // Aug 5, 2006 at 10:41 pm
this has got to be one of the best articles about homeschooling that i’ve ever read. while i was never into punk (i was born and grew up just in time for the glory days of guns n roses and the onslaught of grunge) i identify with the DIY spirit. my wife and i unschool and to a lot of people think we’re off the wall. which is great. clownish, radical, non conformist. we’re also Christian (which kind of adds its own nice spin to it). anyways, for a guy who grew up with the Bible shoved down my throat and where rock n roll was deemed wrong wrong wrong, i never would have guessed, after excorsizing my demons, that i’d be making rock n roll a major underpinning for my educational philosophy… and btw, being able to spend time at home with my son listening to rock music and goofing around instead of doing math for hours on end, is priceless. rock on indeed.
12 Mama Chaos // Aug 6, 2006 at 5:02 pm
I absolutely have to show this to dearest. HIs well loved collection of Ramones, Rancid, Bad Religion, and the such should help him appriciate this.
13 John Thomas // Aug 7, 2006 at 9:09 pm
As a punk and a Christian, I think you nailed it.
Thanks for a great read.
- John
14 nancy // Aug 7, 2006 at 10:51 pm
punk is not dead, no-oo-oo
I have often thought that being punk and being an unschooler sprang from the same well for me also.
loved this post
15 RedMolly // Aug 26, 2006 at 10:42 am
What a great entry–and so true. I know I’m homeschooling ’cause I want my kids to learn to think for themselves, question authority, kill their televisions and all those other bumper sticker-friendly things.
And yeah, my 5YO has an occasional mohawk. Pretty freakin’ cute.
16 Gina // Feb 5, 2007 at 3:58 pm
This really explains sooooo much! I love this and it really is so true. So much in fact that the next time my 8yo insists on going out of the house dressed in a sequin costume and pink cowboy boots I may have to just let her.
17 Lisa // May 25, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Heck yeah Homeschool is totally punk rock. Avoid the cattle mentality, DIY, think and walk outside the box.
Now if I could only find some more relaxed punk rock homeschool mamas in NJ, I’d be set!
18 Mom Is Teaching » Blog Archive » Oh yeah, I rock. // Jul 22, 2007 at 7:24 am
[...] 3. Kim from Relaxed Homeskool. She’s one of the funnest unschoolers I read online. And she is the author of my favorite statement, “Homeschooling is for punks“. [...]
19 Æ-blogging is for metapunk? « Æther Tracker // Jan 21, 2008 at 3:58 am
[...] Most importantly, homeschooling is punk because homeschoolers do do it themselves! At the very least, they question an institution’s ability to educate their children effectively. And in our case, homeschooling is a political statement, an act of faith and rebellion, a trust in oneself, a trust in my kids, a desire to create a world where we are safe to explore our interests without formal lessons, a resistance to conformism and boredom, and a rejection of the poverty of time we’d all have otherwise. » [more…] [...]
20 Mom Is Teaching » Blog Archive » Anarchy In The Home School // Jun 3, 2008 at 5:26 am
[...] you know home schooling is so punk rock. All that anti-authority, sticking your finger up to “the man”, and refusing to [...]
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