by Christine Webb
It was a perfect weekend - The best in my memory! The beautiful Berkshire mountains, not yet ready to give up the last of their fall color, hosted us in their cool, crisp bosom. Under a full harvest moon, the dry fragrant leaves scuffed up around us as we tromped from lodge to meeting rooms to dinner. Voices, mostly adult, but occasionally the shout or cry of children, carried and echoed through the woods. Competing only with the woodpeckers and the rustling of the trees to break the silence, these voices told their stories.
The stories were told in workshops, and over dinner, and in quiet twosomes and threesomes as we walked along. They were told with shouts of laughter, in intense explanations, and with quick tears during an impromptu slumber party. And they were shared in whispered confidences at night as, not quite ready to give up, we attempted to not wake sleeping children. For, although the main text was homeschooling, the subplots were our histories, our families, and often, our battles.
We came to this camp outside Becket, Massachusetts with a purpose: the National Homeschool Association had issued an invitation for homeschoolers to participate in the National Homeschooling Roundtable Conference. Titled "Freedom In Education," it was a gathering designed for us to discuss and to consider the future of homeschooling. And although there were men and children participating, it was the women's voices and stories that drew me and which continue to intrigue and to inspire me: knitting mothers, nursing mothers, and mothers attending children. Homeschooling mothers. It was these mother-voices telling their stories that was compelling to me personally, from the first cautious hello to the last lingering goodbyes.
It was through the stories of these committed homeschoolers that we were able to explore a variety of issues related to the theme. Complex and controversial issues like how acceptance of vouchers by homeschoolers can jeopardize homeschoolers' rights. About how to minimize oversight of homeschooling families by both the government and private homeschooling businesses. And how homeschoolers can create networks to address political, societal and media concerns. The workshops were simply a jumping-off place for discussions that lasted into the wee hours and which will need to be continued in the years to come as we work intentionally toward a secure homeschooling future in this country.
Lonely voices came from women isolated in their daily homeschooling lives - women who have no support group in which their family's unique way of homeschooling would be acceptable, let alone encouraged. Hungry for contact and eager to delve deeply into issues, these women were passionate participants in discussions around topics so close to their homeschooling lives: How can we build inclusive support groups for families? And what is compelling so many of these groups to become less inclusive? What are the larger ramifications of accepting vouchers, of writing laws to provide for homeschoolers to participate in interscholastic school activities, or of participating in government sponsored homeschooling programs? How do we balance the specific needs of an individual family against the sometimes opposing need to protect the rights of all homeschoolers? Tears, close to the surface, overflowed on occasion in appreciation for the acceptance and generosity of those who listened and supported.
Weary warrior voices spoke of battles ended, battles in progress and battles yet begun. We learned from the women from Michigan, so disappointed at the results of their new homeschooling law, to be ever vigilant, how to build networks of support, and that we should never, ever let any person or organization speak as the dominant voice of homeschoolers in our states. Their understanding of the complex business of political lobbying and networking will help homeschoolers in many states begin, or continue to work toward, the least restrictive homeschooling environment possible. Their indomitable, unfailing spirit and determination will be an inspiration to all of us facing issues relating to the crafting of new homeschooling law in our states.
Voices of laughter rang out spontaneously in every gathering and it was this that was the greatest gift in the midst of all the intensity and intellectual effort. The small group of women who came together face-to-face for the first time after months of online communication found an easy, immediate camaraderie that was infectious. An impromptu evening gathering of theater games brought out the hams and even the most serious found themselves wiping away tears of laughter. The ability to find the amusing amidst the profound was inspiring and anyone who thinks homeschoolers are just too serious should have seen the small group which offered a parody of Handel's Messiah, appropriately titled "The Oversight Oratorio," during the plenary. It brought down the house.
Some of those voices have been writing and speaking about homeschooling issues for decades. Others were newer, less experienced, but equally impassioned. Each contributed a diversity of perspective, background and experience. The blending of those voices produced, for me, a kind of rhythm of possibilities. The soft and gentle and reassuring, washing over me like a soothing heartbeat, combined with the strident and staccato, filled with the energy of a blazing crescendo. And it is now, when I sit back to remember, that I hear their voices. The voices of wisdom. The voices of experience.
