Me . . . well, my life has been slightly different. My leaf
tends to get stuck against every wet rock of the stream, my steering
has been out of alignment for as long as I can remember, and
the road I am on has been steep, winding, and many times even
closed for construction. My children, both with special
needs, have been stared at, frowned upon, and pitied in their
turn, and my home can feel much more like an open battlefield
than a fortress at times. And frankly, I've been tempted to quit
homeschooling more times than I've been tempted to cheat
on my diet, and that is saying a lot. However, while my life
in no way resembles yours, you needn't feel sorry for me one
bit. I like my life . . . actually, I love it - - every little
bit of it - - because God made me especially for it.
So many things in life seem designed with the "average"
person in mind, don't they? Airplane
passenger seats are designed for an average size person,
standardized tests are designed for
the average student, and medicine doses are prescribed with the
average person in mind. I'll never forget the feeling of empathy
I felt when I saw someone being asked to move along because they
wouldn't fit
into a ride at a theme park. Or the first time I saw children
on a park playground laughing at my son because he couldn't control
the jerking tics caused by his Tourette
Syndrome. Our society caters to the average person . . .
the average family . . . the average way of life. Unfortunately,
I just can't squeeze myself into that mold.
Homeschoolers used to be marginalized too, but over the years,
they have become more accepted and respected. Within the homeschooling community, there
are now groupings that help people fit in. There are Christian
homeschoolers, unschoolers,
Classical schoolers, Waldorf schoolers, Montessori
schoolers, and traditional schoolers. Would you believe that
I don't fit into any of those either? We are Christians, but
aren't really homeschooling for religious reasons, we read the
classics, but our exposure to Latin
consists of what is written on the backs of our coins, and my
worn-out lesson plan book would attest
that I am a far cry from adopting unschooling in the near future.
I suppose I simply don't assimilate well.
Strangely enough, though, my life is far from impossible.
Someone had the good sense to design a few things with the irregular
person in mind. TiVo 
invented a way to automatically record any show that happens
to concern Jane Austen - - my current obsession. Tombstone
miraculously created a frozen pizza that is half cheese and half
supreme - - the only way my family will eat it. I recently saw
a magazine in the library for people who garden
on their deck. I truly thought I was the only one guiding squash
vines around the railing posts. And thank heavens for Time4Learning.com,
a multimedia homeschool curriculum that is so well suited for
the out-of-the-box learner.
I have learned over time that the kingdom of God is certainly
an upside-down kingdom, and that swimming against the current
is actually inevitable. Praying for my enemies, returning kindness
for evil, and forgiving those who are beyond forgiveness are
part of the inverted life I've been asked to lead. So, I shouldn't
be all that surprised that my leaf takes a few hits as it heads
downstream. The image I see in my mirror each day looks different
from any other image I see in the world around me because God
has asked me to model a life that is far from average. In fact,
I think God delights in the fact that I am abnormal . . . unusual
. . . exceptional.
Because of this, I know that when I hit the roadblocks of
life, I can find a way around them. When my children face the
challenges of being different, I can remind them that means they
are on the right track! When the normal battles of life take
over my home, I understand that I will win the war in the end.
And when I have laid my head down on my pillow at the end of
a difficult day, and wondered why God has called me to this thing
called "homeschooling" - - I will remember that it
is because I have been called according to His purpose. Called
to be different.
Kerry Jones is a freelance writer and web maintenance engineer
in North Carolina. She has two sons, and has been homeschooling
since 1999. For more information visit her website at Simply
Write