For a long time, only a small percentage of Americans homeschooled. Then, with the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 and the whole country locking down in consequence, everyone got a chance to live a similar lifestyle for a couple of months. But while normal homeschooling families certainly found the lockdown hard, regular students and their families had a far more difficult time with the changes. Homeschoolers continued in their normal life with little interruption, while the rest of the country struggled through a completely different environment without any of the familiarity of their old schedules. With the stark contrast between the semi-orderly life of homeschoolers and the crazy mayhem of families who had never had to learn this way of life, homeschoolers went from confusing, rarely encountered oddities to sought-out advisers. The pictures below show the difference between families that are used to being constantly together and families still trying to figure out how to manage the craziness.
In this classic homeschool family, five children sit peacefully around a dining room table, no parent in sight. One older sister helps a younger one with her reading. Another paints at the end of the table. Two boys sit close to us. One is looking through a microscope, while the other works in his geology textbook. Afternoon sunlight filters through an out-of-sight window onto the wooden furniture. An open box of dominoes sits on the table between the boys, along with cups of water easily accessible all around, and a solitary black candlestick decorates the center.
The picture uses Pathos to make you feel drawn in. An urge develops to go sit with them in the silent companionship, to talk to the boys about what they’re studying, see what the older girl is drawing, sit and listen to the little girl read. It is very relatable to a homeschooler – a lazy afternoon, doing your own thing at the school table, but with everyone else.
In contrast to the peacefulness of Figure 1, Figure 2 shows a frustrated mother trying to focus in the midst of her stir-crazy children. A mess of (toys lies abandoned on the floor, given up in favor of the far more entertaining task of bothering mummy. The little boy wriggles around on the table the mother is working at, while her daughter chats companionably on the seat across from her. Morning light floods into the room from a big window filling the background, implying that this mother has a long day left ahead of her. Cleaned up and quiet, this could be a bright, cheery room. Instead, the light adds harshness to the already grating scene.
Pathos is, again, the main form of argument, but this time it gives a feeling of overwhelmingness rather than of peace. Again at a table, but this time a cacophony of unheard noise and untidiness and too bright light. Just one person trying to work now, the rest only unwanted distractions.
How did homeschoolers manage to keep their serenity in the same circumstances of spending so much time at home? Before the spring of 2020 introduced a mass lockdown, that wasn’t a relevant question. It obviously wasn’t that hard, if people chose to do it. But with the lockdown, people realized it wasn’t as easy as it looked after all, and started to seek solutions from experienced homeschoolers.
Figure 3 shows two contrasting pictures. In the top one, a group of awkward young adults is meeting conspiratorially. All wear tin-foil hats, blocking any mind-reading radio waves a government might be spying on them with. The second picture shows a father and daughter smiling at each other, both dressed as superheroes. The first picture has text reading “How homeschoolers were perceived before 2020” while the second reads “How homeschoolers are perceived now”. The pictures compare the misunderstandings and general assumptions that homeschoolers are socially incompetent, uninformed, and mostly crazy conspiracists, with the newer understanding that they are just good at a different kind of life.
A sudden change in environment took away many peoples productivity substantially. Students had to learn how to navigate online classes, work through the distractions of family around them, and adjust to having their whole rhythm messed up. Homeschoolers, on the other hand, while still struggling, had all of the materials they needed at hand, could continue to use the same schedule as before, and were used to working in the surroundings of their home. They had far less to adjust to, and were able to give pointers to the uninitiated, some of whom, as they managed to adjust, discovered that there were benefits to the different way of learning/working. Parents trying to work with little children in the house weren’t going to enjoy the experience, but maybe some discovered that they would rather be a full time parent with no distracting work, or just that a more flexible schedule was very convenient. Some parents discovered their children worked better in a different environment. Many people realized that if the craziness of being cooped up at home had the edge taken off, it was relaxing to not be rushing around.
Works Cited
Hess Un-Academy How homeschoolers were perceived before 2020 vs how homeschoolers are perceived now
https://hessunacademy.com/homeschool-quotes/
Accessed February 28
Homeschool Legal Defense “The Romeike family studies around a table at home.” Association.https://www.wired.it/play/cultura/2017/02/28/lhomeschooling-istruzione-domiciliare-scuola/
Accessed February 28
Kohei_Hara
Accessed February 28
Would be HAPPY to get constructive feedback, any criticism.