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>>>I think that might have made an impression, but I'm not sure. I had just
forgotten how totally unmainstream I have become. And I think that was the
strangest thing to me, here I was talking to lesbian moms, gay dads, one
couple (no kids) the one woman had obviously been born a male and she'd been
made surgically a woman, and *I* was the one that was alternative in terms of
my parenting and education of my children. They were so mainstream in how
they parented, how they educated their kids, it wasn't even funny.<<<


Cracking up here!

I've noticed the same thing! But maybe it's that the more "out of the
mainstream" they are, the more "tradtional" they feel they need to be in
other parts of their lives. I have friends who feel that certain parts of
their lives should be VERY conservative, because they do have an alternative
lifestyle.

With my VERY traditional/conservative background, I think every step away
from mainstream in more liberating. Those already alternative folks may find
my steps just too "far out"?

~Kelly

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In a message dated 4/1/03 8:46:25 AM, kbcdlovejo@... writes:

<< I've noticed the same thing! But maybe it's that the more "out of the
mainstream" they are, the more "tradtional" they feel they need to be in
other parts of their lives. I have friends who feel that certain parts of
their lives should be VERY conservative, because they do have an alternative
lifestyle. >>

The New Mexico homeschooling list is a fragile and boring little thing,
because the structured folks are defensive and don't want the taint from the
wild ones. There aren't so many activities in town for homeschoolers these
days. There's a Harry Potter Tournament Thursday afternoons, and so a more
conservative group put a park-meeting playgroup on Thursday at the same time,
two miles from there (in a town 15+ miles across and deep). It was pointed
out on the list that it was a conflict. Nobody said "NO, it's a PROTEST."
Nobody even said "Oh, *really*?" So every week we get a reminder about that
playgroup meeting. And every week Holly and her buds go play Harry Potter.

(I am getting to a point, honest.)

Someone new came on and asked "What curriculum to you all use and why?" I
gave a mild unschooing answer and got JUMPED by a couple or three people
saying I was ALWAYS blah blah blah. That list doesn't usually even get one
post per DAY, and I rarely say anything about unschooling. It's one of the
lamest lists ever, but has its use when a law changes or there's a change of
displays at the museum, y'know?

So time passed, it was quiet, and someone new came on wanting to aggressively
organize a pre-school co-op at her house, parents help on a schedule,
vegetarian organic lunches, they would pay her a bit and help or pay her more
if not helping, very Prussian organization altogether, more forward and
organized than the list was used to, but I hung back and said nothing.

Someone inquired lightly about her beliefs (didn't say "are you Christian?"
but that was the question, I think) and someone else said it wasn't really
legal to run a school from a home in New Mexico, and so what was she wanting
to charge money for?

Again, very vague and tentative kind of communication.

The woman came back on and said (I THINK, maybe I should just go find it) she
was living with her two husbands and their son, one husband is Black, they
want to emphasize racial acceptance, yammered on a bit, and I could feel the
conservatives withering and the 'new age' faction covering their eyes and
shaking their heads slowly.

There was a great long silence.

I never volunteered to her any personal information or support, not even on
the side, because although her marital/sexual stuff doesn't bother me in the
least, her intent to run a school and call it homeschooling really DID
bother me. And her oblivion about first discovering who was on the list and
what they felt about even hanging out with unschoolers, let alone alternative
hedonists, was amusing.

So for a change I observed in silent amusement. It was like watching a very
slow-motion flower-cart wreck in the set for the marketplace of the recent
Disney version of Roger's and Hammerstein Cinderella. All cartoon-colorful
and fantasy-worldly, with no soundtrack. Flowers fly up and the picture
freezes without it even mattering where they fall or what happens next.

Sandra

Joylyn

I think that's a very good point.

Joylyn

kbcdlovejo@... wrote:

> >>>I think that might have made an impression, but I'm not sure. I
> had just
> forgotten how totally unmainstream I have become. And I think that
> was the
> strangest thing to me, here I was talking to lesbian moms, gay dads, one
> couple (no kids) the one woman had obviously been born a male and
> she'd been
> made surgically a woman, and *I* was the one that was alternative in
> terms of
> my parenting and education of my children. They were so mainstream in
> how
> they parented, how they educated their kids, it wasn't even funny.<<<
>
>
> Cracking up here!
>
> I've noticed the same thing! But maybe it's that the more "out of the
> mainstream" they are, the more "tradtional" they feel they need to be in
> other parts of their lives. I have friends who feel that certain parts of
> their lives should be VERY conservative, because they do have an
> alternative
> lifestyle.
>
> With my VERY traditional/conservative background, I think every step away
> from mainstream in more liberating. Those already alternative folks
> may find
> my steps just too "far out"?
>
> ~Kelly
>
>
>
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