Homeschooling Embarrassment

Much of the time I'm proud of the homeschooling community I'm part of. I can tout better test scores, college success, career success, and the opportunity to vacation in the off-season (I know it shouldn't be SO important, but it is...to me).

But other times...sigh. I just want to crawl under a rug and disown the lot of "them."

"Them" is currently, and usually, the local homeschooling organization that we are a part of. To make the group doubly embarrassing, they aren't just "homeschoolers," they are "Christian homeschoolers." And when Paul talks about the "less presentable parts of the body" in Cor. 12: 23, I am convinced, he was looking down through the ages and foreseeing the local homeschooling group that takes $25 of my dues every year and in return, makes me cringe on a daily basis.

For the last two years, I've seen all member emails go out asking for recommendations for a local electrician, or a dentist, telling of a local sale on a product completely unrelated to homeschooling, celebrating that the "baby turned" and occasionally sending out those email forwards that should be verified before being forwarded. I've gotten used to inane subjects completely unrelated to homeschooling and simply decried the lack of community in these women's lives that leaves them desperate to communicate in any forum they are given opportunity. (Ladies, get a blog!)

About three weeks ago, the (dying) leadership introduced a new website. It is one of those low-level homeschooling productions, probably a family business for some homeschooling family. But it is functional. And I don't have to have a paper directory anymore or try to find the link to the latest newsletter or that email that went around about testing requirements. It is all right there. Even better, each family can have their own webpage. They can now have pictures, school reports, videos of projects, all right there. They can share it outside the group with friends and families. Huge improvement.

Immediately, there was huge dissent (sent in the form of All Member emails) about hating the layout, security concerns ("I won't put the names of my children on the internet"...this usually from folks who had been emailing lengthy family "prayer requests" through All Member emails) and "How dare the Board make this decision without an All Member vote?" The poor Board can't get anyone to ever vote on anything or do anything and thus the International Fair was canceled and the Science Fair had two competing entries this year. But suddenly everyone had an opinion about the new website.

And then all the silly emails went out about the emails going into their spam filter and the patient replies: "Please put the address in your address book so that doesn't happen." And all the other responses that left me really thankful that perhaps because I'm married to a younger man, perhaps because I use the internet on a daily basis, I have SOME CLUE about, etc....

But generally, just incredulity that rather than display one's lack of technical knowledge to the ENTIRE Group, that one wouldn't have one person in one's life that could be asked the questions and could help to solve the problem. (My person's name is usually GOOGLE.)

And I know....I have a deplorable lack of mercy and grace. I'm not sure what part of the body that makes me. The abdomen perhaps? Mine lacks mercy and grace, for sure.