yes, I was homeschooled. what's your point?

I was homeschooled--unschooled, technically--for five and a half years from a fairly small age. I never had behavior problems--certainly not more than what most little kids go through, at least. So it was a teensy bit annoying to hear, during a discussion of a little boy's behavior problems in the VBS I'm helping with this week, "I've got one thing to say to you--homeschooled."

Homeschooled? I thought. Now there's a word that I never associated with bad behavior. Sure, there are bratty homeschoolers, just like there are bratty public schoolers. But to say that homeschooling actually CAUSES bad behavior seemed a bit over the line.

"They have no structure," the woman continued.

No structure? My surprise increased. A good amount of the homeschoolers I know are very nearly as structured as public school--they worry about due papers and homework just like public schoolers. They borrow textbooks from resource libraries, they go through lessons. In many cases, it's not all that different from "normal" school (note the quotation marks).

"They don't have to learn," she said.

Okay, stop right there. Seriously. I was unschooled, which is the least formal method of homeschooling out there, and even I learned things all the time. I didn't learn one new math concept a day, I didn't do English worksheets, but it wasn't like I sat around and played video games constantly.

I'm sorry for the rant, but this is something that seriously bothers me. Homeschooling a child does not suddenly turn them ugly.

Honestly.

coats, periods, and other double meanings

(Lefou, I'm afraid) I've been thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know), and have come to the conclusion that casual English is really very vague. Especially when you get into modern slang. This is largely, in my opinion, because we didn't make up NEW words for slang, oh no, we just used OLD words with a new meaning.

Heck, it took me months to catch up on all the subtly nuanced references to anatomy in conversations at my school.

A few words that can turn a conversation right around if the other guy doesn't know which definition you mean:

Coat. Are we talking paint, or are we talking garment?

Period. Are we talking punctuation, menstrual cycle, or even a passage of time?

Bad apple. Do we need to avoid that creepy guy outside the post office, or is it a warning against a bad culinary experience?

I'm only scratching the surface, I'm sure. There have to be hundreds of words with dangerous double meanings, and while they make English fun...in a way...they also make it incredibly annoying. Just sayin'.

And I'm not even starting down the slippery slope of "that's what she said".

Katie

the purpose of writing

In my English class the other day, as a part of our Series of Stupid Grammar Lessons That You Can Pretty Much Figure Out With A Little Common Sense, we were discussing the Author's Purpose (sorry for all the caps. Just stylistic). My teacher, speaking with some authority, said, "Authors always have a purpose in their writing. They don't just sit down and write for the sake of writing."

And I thought, "Oh, CRAP. They don't? Er, WE don't?"

Because, yes, if I'm working on a story I have a purpose, sure. I'm trying to tell a story! But sometimes, if I haven't written in a while, my fingers get a stiff and a little grumpy and refuse to cooperate with my head anymore so I open a notebook and uncap a pen and write. Just for the sake of writing. Just because it feels nice and soothing and comforting. Writing is my comfort food.

Back to the class, though.

Classmate 51, bless his perverted little soul, raises his hand and says, "My sister does."

"No," the teacher said. "She writes to tell a story or to convince somebody of something."

But for once, I think I was more on the same wavelength with Classmate 51 than I was with my teacher. Sure, I have a purpose if I'm working on a story. But there are also times that I write for no reason other than the pure pleasure of it.

I guess I can afford to cut my teacher some slack, though. She is many good things, but definitely not a creative writer in any sense of the phrase.

Katie

P.S. If you, dear reader, write, do you ever just write for the heck of it, or do you think you usually have a purpose?