But Aren't You All Hippies, Weirdos and Religious Nutcases?

No more than the rest of society!

The diversity within the HE Community is quite something. I remember being at a Home Ed group the other year, after it had finished we were standing with some HE friends waving goodbye to some other HE friends. As we stood waving, one friend turned and said:

"Well, I never thought the day would come that I would be waving and smiling at a car that had a BASC sticker in it's window!"

This friend was a vegan, and had previously been a hunt saboteur. The friends in the car were meat eating, hunting, shooting, fishing fans.

I think that summed it up for me more than anything has before or since.

We know teachers, doctors, scientists, computer programmers, engineers, drivers, shop assistants, yoga teachers, self employed business people, unemployed people, postal workers, single parents, married parents, cohabiting parents, straight parents, gay parents, vegetarians, vegans, meat eaters, non vaxers, pro vaxers, homeopathy users, alleopathic medicine users, big families, small families, only ones, people with disabilities, people with learning difficulties, step families, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Atheists, Buddhists etc etc etc.

It can be challenging when you meet people who have completely different values to your own, when the only thing you have in common is the fact that you home educate your children, but it makes for a very interesting life, and it certainly exposes the children to a very diverse group of people, people they probably wouldn't have had the chance to know so well were it not for home education.

We are a diverse bunch of people, and long may that continue. You might not agree with the way some people live their lives or the beliefs they hold, but they are as entitled to their beliefs and opinions as you are. We are all within our rights to educate our children according to our conscience, beliefs and personal philosophies - indeed this is a strong sign of a truly free society. The alternative does not bare thinking about.

I recently conducted a survey about religious diversity within the HE community. It was very interesting, notably because many of the families who responded were from multi faith families, which suggests to me a high level of tolerance of differing beliefs. This something that many from outside the community may be surprised by. Once more, it's a case of incorrect cultural memes needing to be dismantled.

But What About Friends?

The age old socialisation question!

Are you friends with a group of 30 people born within the same 12 months? No? Thought not.

If adults aren't expected to mix only with people of the same age group why should children? Isn't it more interesting to have a variety of friends from varying age and social groups? Isn't it presumptuous to assume that everyone wants to have lots of friends? Some people are naturally inclined towards having just one or two friends, just as others like having lots. Many children go to school and mix with hundreds of other children everyday, and yet they still have few if any friends, and feel as isolated as if they were on a remote island!

If you live in an area where there are other children, your child, if so inclined, will naturally make friends. If your child attends groups like brownies, scouts etc, they will, if so inclined, make friends. Home Education groups are another option for making friends where the children will have this educational choice in common.

My own children have friends who go to school; home educated friends; younger friends; older friends. They get on well with a wide variety of people which feels like a healthy situation to me. They don't see adults as *the enemy* because they are (mainly) used to adults interacting with them on an equal, respectful footing.

One thing that frustrates me about the socialisation issue is when people who really have no idea come out with statements like "Well I want my child to mix with a wide variety of people from different cultures and socio-economic groups, and they wouldn't get that if they didn't go to school." Hmm, well ok, that might be the case in an inner city school, although having spoken to professional educators who work in these types of settings, about this particular issue, I'm told that whilst they might be in a room together, the different groups tend to stick together and don't generally mix with other groups. That aside though, we live in the Yorkshire Dales. You don't get an awful lot of cultural diversity up here, so school wouldn't provide that opportunity for my children. Home Education on the other hand does, because we go to groups and events where people from all walks of life gather. We mix with people of different religions, people from different countries, people from wide ranging socio-economic groups. So that argument really backfires in our particular case.

Once again it's just a case of thinking outside the box a little bit, and not falling for false cultural memes.