Second Thoughts - Co-op Dress Code

I apologize for the repetitive blogs on the same subject, but writing my thoughts is very helpful in processing them. I know that over the years, I have blogged about why we homeschool our children - one of the predominant reasons is to bring them up in an environment that is not hostile to our faith. Another prevailing factor is that our schools are organized after the Nazi Germany model, whose primary goal is to make children good citizens, compliant members of state who obey without question in a homogeneous society, blending in and making no disturbance. I think it may be time to re-read Farenheit 457, 1984 or Brave New World.
What about biblical authority? I can just hear that question floating through cyberspace. As parents, we have never wanted our children to be blindly submissive to every authority. Hitler's regime taught us that there is a time to question authority. We also do not want our children to be subversive, just for the sake of rebellion. This has even meant allowing them to question us, their parents, and we have found their arguments for equity, their quest to be heard to be often right and good. Sometimes their logic is flawed and we point that out, but sometimes our logic is flawed.
Our desire for our children has always been to discern right from wrong, truth from error, and when to take a stand. I think it may be one of the reasons that even if the kids are okay with the new level of control just so they can continue on at co-op, I may not be. If through the processing, I determine that it is wrong, I am not sure that I can just let it go. I might be able to for their sake but I have a feeling that every Monday morning, it would sicken me anew to feel like my kids have to pass through inspection, and be deemed worthy.
One major error I have encountered among Christian parents is the desire to indoctrinate their children, which often is quite cult-like behavior. While I want to have an influence on my children, I never want to usurp their ability to think for themselves. I am not afraid of the hard questions, or the ones for which we have no answers. I don't do this perfectly, but it is an ever present goal.
I am not sure where I will land with this. I know that it all makes me very uncomfortable. The question was tossed out at the meeting that if we are a co-op, why were we not all involved in the decision making process. The answer given was that "leaders lead", which in my opinion didn't answer the question. I believe there was a second part that went unspoken, leaders lead, the rest follow without question, which sends a shiver up my spine.

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After the first comment on this post from my dear sweet Alisha, I had to be sure to make this statement. Each family has the right to make the best choices for their family, their situation, their lives. Period. My focus here is freedom - and if we don't respect the freedoms of one another, then all is truly lost for all of us. We are obvious evidence that you can go through "school" and still come out on the other side, independent people, capable of thinking for yourselves, etc. (although I would have to admit it took me years to get here) and that a lot of it has to do with parenting, not just as school. Like Alisha said in her comment, "to each his own", although we've gotten so used to hearing it - it is true that the quest for freedom is empty unless it means freedom and respect, even when we make different choices, for all.

Cult Authority

Authority. This word presents a problem in our culture. We are a generation of think-for-ourselfers. We don’t like anybody to tell us what to do. I have been thinking about this as our family has been watching LOST. The people all seem to want a leader – someone to make the big decisions, someone to run to in case of a crisis – and yet, when that same leader turns around and makes decisions they don’t like, they snort and scrape their feet like a bull in a stall before a fight.
I encountered some of this when I was the coordinator of a co-op for the homeschool families where we lived in West Virginia. Every minute detail of how things were run was constantly in question. I was talking to a more mature woman about the subject and she said to me that people are just rebellious against authority. We don’t live in a society where that is respected – even to the end of people making fun of the President – not just his politics but how he looks, walks and talks, what he wears, etc.
The opposite extreme of this is people who follow any authority like blind sheep. This specifically annoys me when it is in a church setting. People amen anything the pastor says with little or no knowledge for themselves about God’s word and what it says. They sit swallowing what is spoon fed and never question, never dig deeper into the Word for their own growth, and never ask questions. When a pastor or leader says that something is “not up for discussion”, I think that is dangerous territory. I may even suggest cultish. Anybody who tells me I have to believe what they say without question treads on altogether different and seriously more dangerous territory.