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I agree wholeheartedly. I'm not anti-religion, quite the opposite, I love learning about different religions, beliefs and perspectives. It just has nothing to do with the reason we plan on homeschooling. I like the label secular homeschooling just because it makes Googling that much easier lol. Besides that I don't really care. I'm a "let's see what works for us" kind of mom, same can be said for our future plans as a homeschooling family.

You know, I can understand people being passionate about something.  I can be that way sometimes.  But why do some people get so bent out of shape about a subject they just can't accept criticism or debate?  I don't know where I learned it of if I was born that way, but I firmly believe in "live and let live" if you know what I mean.  I've got a nice comfy seat on the fence of most issues (but it's a recliner-swivel chair so I can lean one way or the other now and then!).  You're a gay Christian who believes in global warming?  (Just combining a few of the more lively groups).  Great...wanna help me fix this truck while we talk about why Mitchell still hates doing his math work?

I'd say the main reason we chose to be a "secular" homeschooling family was because it's how we've lived our lives for quite a long time (and like Okiron our reasons for homeschooling had nothing to do with religion). I atttended church as a child semi-regularily in a traditional church (the United Church of Canada) but have never felt drawn to religion.  But when the kids are old enough to understand religion I do intend to teach them something about the various religions of the world and if they choose to follow one, so be it.  I even have some curriculum with some Christian content.  I use it because it seems to suit my needs and didn't find anything secular to replace it.  If it continues to work for us, I'll continue to use it.  If it gets to preachy out it goes and I'm on to something else.  There's so many ways to learn, I might as well try them all!  Heck, even Iron Maiden has some educational songs ("Alexander The Great", "The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner", "The Trooper", "The Clansman" to name a few)!

Great posts, both of you!  I agree wholeheartedly!

imo, this isnt really a home school issue at all.  I wish I could remember the phrase, one of the UU ministers who preached at my UU church in the past years said she'd done (i think her thesis?) on religious injuries . . . that wasnt the phrase . . . but of people who have been traumatized by their religious upbringing.  They are so angry at what happenned to them, and they havent healed yet.  My teen daughter found a lot of these people when she joined some pagan on-line groups . . . there were a very few people interested in intelligently discussing paganism, but most were ony christain-bashing

the sad thing is, many of these people are actually people w a strong religious bend, but have been so hurt - wether through abusive clergy, dogma which prosecutes themselves or their loved ones, or abusive parents who twisted religion to be a punishment . . . and these people have an unfulfilled, thwarted need for religion.  They are, certianly, very unhappy people.  

jmo

Cara

This is a great article and I agree wholeheartedly with your point of view!  I think it is sad that some people choose to live their lives in such a negative way.

My reason for preferring secular homeschooling is that there are just certain aspects of Christianity that I do not agree with, not because I don't agree with ANY of it.  I was raised as a Christian and most of my family is very religious.  I was raised to believe that "this is how it is" and that is that.  I do not at all agree with that way of thinking and I will not raise or educate my kids that way.  I have a very open mind and, as Camaro stated, I "live and let live". 

I believe it is my responsibility to give my kids choices and not just TELL them what to do or how to live their lives.  It is my job to educate them so that they are able to make informed decisions and that includes teaching them about all religions around the world--not bashing any religion, shielding them from religion or (as my family does) tell them "this is the way and that is that!"

I would not feel comfortable talking about that person's blog without seeing it, but I will comment on the use of the word 'secular'.  While secular does basically mean 'not religious', that doesn't mean that people who identify strongly with the 'secular' part of secular homeschooler are overly concerned with what they're not.  With regards to religious beliefs, secular is often used as an umbrella term including atheits, agnostics, humanists, people who haven't put much thought into their religious status and don't want to etc.  All of those, excepting perhaps the last, are things that people are as opposed to what they're not.  When you add the term homeschooler to the end it extends the meaning evern further to people who are religious, but aren't particularly concerned with their religion in terms of homeschooling, people who are religious but just want to talk about other things for awhile, and an infinite number of possible ways that people define themselves in a given moment.  One reason the term secular is used so often is because if you made

atheisthomeschool.com

agnostichomeschool.com

haven't-put-much-thought-into-my-beliefshomeschool.com

religious-but-want-to-talk-about-something-elsehomeschool.com

etc., with homeschool as the extra unifying feature, or replacing the word homeschool with any other minority life choice, there may not be enough people showing up to get much of a conversation going.  Also, people who feel comfortable putting themselves in the category of 'secular', even if only for some conversations, want to be inclusive of each other, not further separate themselves by being very specific.  So, 'secular' is often used not to focus on what people are 'not' but to be inclusive of the many different things that people are when they're 'not'.

Regarding "getting away from 'those people'," atheists, agnostics, humanists etc. tend to enjoy each other's company as their beliefs are not so different.  That doesn't mean that they never enjoy the company of religious folk, or that people should be exclusive and judgmental, but there's nothing wrong with wanting some time with like-minded people.  I am part of an atheist/agnostic/humanist etc. group in my city.  Once a month I enjoy the freedom to state my beliefs without starting a holy war.  Once a month I enjoy a conversation where 'faith' is never a determining factor, but logic and scientific findings are valued.

So, while I'm not promoting being nasty towards people for their beliefs (which I believe was your main point, and I agree that being mean is a waste of time, though I think most of us have our sour moments now and then), I don't think time spent being whatever type of secular you are is time wasted.  Homeschooling is a really big deal to me and one of the main ways I define myself is as a homeschooler, but the 'secular' part of it is just as big of a deal to me; it's who I am.

certainly 'secular' is a pretty big part of who i am, but its invisible to me to a great extent.  I'm not any particular religion, and i'm sorta athiest, and i go to a UU church but dont really consider myself UU (which is a vague thing anyways)  ..  but it just doesnt come up much.  I mean, i've met strong christains, a pagan, a muslim, and other secular home schoolers through my local park days, and whoever I'm with, i try to keep the conversation away from controversy, and if thats not possible, i wander off.  I know there are many christain groups, and i avoid them because i'm not interested.  Kinda like football conversations.  The fact that i'm non-athletic doesnt really stand out to me, either  . . . . i'm way too busy looking for curriculum which seems reasonable to me . . . and trust that others do the same.

i do think, really, i prefer the 'inclusive' label . . . because 'secular' does make the non-religious and esp the adament athiests believe that they are not in the company of christains . . but this is misleading because of the 'christain-but-want-to-talk-about-something-else' contingent, who seems fairly large but less vocal in most of the 'secular' home schooling circles i've noticed so far.

Cara