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Chelsea Vail

What's Natural is so Unnatural

For most of us, this is the way it goes. You go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, have a small handful of kids and send them to school every day so you can work to pay for the house. Suddenly, the kids are all graduating and moving onto college to lather, rinse, repeat. Is this the only way though? Is it even natural or have we been programmed by the system to toe the line?


I was inspired to post this as I woke up to the sound of school bus breaks in front of my house and I looked at my clock and realized it was 7:15. Both my kids were asleep and I was still deep in dreamland wondering what time school kids have to wake up to catch a bus by 7:15?! Then, I think back to my own childhood. They probably were startled by an alarm clock, immediately brushed their teeth and changed their clothes, ate a Round-Up laden bowl of Cheeriosâ„¢ with hormone infused cow's milk, and ran around the house screaming at their mom, "Where are my gym shoes? Dad, is my science project ready?"


Then, that child is herded into a building lit with fluorescent lights and they sit at a cold, hard, plastic desk and work for the next seven hours. They raise their hand to ask a question because they've learned that they must ask permission before inquiring or expressing curiosity. They ask permission to go to the restroom, drink water, sharpen a pencil, or chat with a peer. They spend their days trying to navigate an unnatural tribal mentality of popularity, cliques, bullies, teacher's pets, and outcasts and all the while wondering if the teacher, a complete stranger, really likes them or is paid to be nice.




They're told answers to questions they didn't have and encouraged to memorize these ideas, or theories, as facts, most of them useless and unapplicable to their young life in any real way and told they'll need to remember everything for the state test at the end of the year. They're made to believe if they fail, it will cause the teacher to lose their job and possibly the closure of their school. They have the opportunity to go to the library every two weeks, or every week, if their lucky and can choose from Scholasti-crap like "Dog Man" or "Pete the Crap" to read and then they're asked to be great writers in class, but yet they don't even know what a great writer is. They put their book in their backpack to read at home for the mandatory twenty minutes a night, although they don't have time to read because they have three hours of homework each night and countless other extracurricular activities to squeeze in even though they're so tired after the school day, you always end up dragging them into the car to make it on time.


They get art, music, OR PE every two to six weeks for an hour and twenty minutes of outside time a day, but even recess comes with rules. The parents and teachers think they're offering free play, but dismiss them into the field with, "No running", "No climbing UP the slide", "stand in line", "wait your turn", "hands to self", "no shouting", "dont hanfg upside down" because, let's be real, schools have to be overly cautious to avoid injuries and liabilities.


Then, in the blink of an eye, they've graduated. They spent seven hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year for twelve years of their eighteen years of childhood away from you and then they're gone. They go away to college and the indoctrination by the leftist, liberal agenda continues.


I happen to believe there's another way. Maybe it's homeschooling, maybe it's a learning pod or microschool, and maybe it's time we speak to the people in charge about school reform, but what's natural seems ungodly unatural to me. Reach out if you'd like help figuring out what YOUR options may be or if you'd like a customized homeschool guide for the year!


-Chelsea

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