Treasure Trove, Links of the Week: On Bartholet, Getting Unstuck, and Going Forward

It’s time to get unstuck.

This past week has had some sticky moments. I’m not talking about the stuck safe inside of lockdown or stay-at-home; I’m actually enjoying my time at home. I’m someone who is rarely at home, so COVID-19 lockdown life has given me a very different perspective on what it means to be at home, like how much money I save by not buying coffee or Chai lattes out nearly every single day.

Those sticky moments have mostly come from the news media, world affairs, and my frustration over hours and hours of blog redesign, site speed, and SEO issues–which have led me to skip out on self-care like working out and getting enough sleep. And I’m guessing you know well, like I do, that not getting enough sleep can make life feel sticky when it’s actually flowing just fine.

Harvard Law’s Anti-Homeschooling Stance

One of those things that got under my skin this week was reading more about Harvard Law Professor and Faculty Director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, Elizabeth Bartholet’s attack on homeschooling. She recently wrote the Article The Risks of Homeschooling in the Arizona Law Review, which “describes the rapidly growing homeschooling phenomenon and the threat it poses to children and society.”

And then there’s the Anti-Homeschooling Conference at Harvard.

As a lawyer who has put her legal career mostly aside to unschool, roadschool, and worldschool my four real cool children, I’m furious, to say the least, about Bartholet’s generalized attack on homeschooling, and Harvard Law School’s support of an anti-homeschooling conference. At the heart of Bartholet’s flawed and unsubstantiated, politically-charged argument is her idea that the government should have more control over children than parents. This makes my skin crawl. Bartholet’s attack is what Forbes describes a “Lazy Attack.”

Over-generalizations are dangerous. If you want to know what I mean read The Psychology of Hate and the Dangers of Overgeneralizing. Bartholet surely learned this in law school and during her legal career. Even my ten year old homeschooler understands this principle. If protecting the interests of children is really Bartholet’s motivator here, targeting a small percentage of the schooling population (3-5%), citing abuse and control as rationales for a “presumptive ban on homeschooling” is a misguided, waste of time and attention. After all, 95-97% of children in America go to school and aren’t homeschooled. How many of those children are abused, bullied, emotionally damaged by teachers, classmates, testing pressures, expectations of conformity?

WTF, Bartholet.

As my regular readers know, there was a time when I said I would never want to homeschool my children. And then I did. Have I mentioned how amazing, cool, kind, and culturally aware my children are? Oh, by the way, they are unschooled. And they’ve done some pretty epic sh$t, like visiting all 50 USA States, in their short lifetimes and guess what???…they are socialized.

Okay, that’s enough focus on Harvard. Going forward now….

Blogging and SEO

Another sticky thing this week…working on my blog redesign and SEO/ranking issues. One of the many articles I’ve read about SEO this week was Blogging Guru, Neil Patel’s Improve Your SEO in 30 Minutes With These Google Analytics Insights. It’s amazing how behind the scenes development work can suck up time like no other way. So, I haven’t had as much time as I would like to work on bringing you content. It’s coming, really.

I did have a chance though to post some fun homeschooling quotes and links on the Facebook page. If you haven’t followed the Wanderschool Facebook page, please do! I love opportunities to engage with my readers and learn about you and your life. We’re a growing community after all.

I also had the chance to do some work on my Pinterest boards. If you’re on Pinterest, you can find me at Wanderschool. Follow me and I’ll follow you back.

Getting Unstuck

This week I shared this post, How to Get Unstuck When You’re in a Life Rut. It has some great tips and ideas contributed by several bloggers. If you’re stuck or feeling like life just isn’t as good as you want it to be, check it out.

If you’re feeling a bit stuck homeschooling this week, you might find the blog post How to Homeschool When You Suck at Teaching by Making Mom Life Easy helpful.

If homeschooling feels hard, check out my post, If Homeschooling Has You in Tears Mama, You’re Not Alone. And if you’re doubting whether you can keep homeschooling the way you are doing it, read this post.

And if you need some inspirational quotes, read these 35 Inspiring Quotes.

Coffee Makes Life Better

If you’re stuck safe at home without good coffee or dreaming about the coming days of coffee (and a shot of travel), you’ve got to read my Coffee Shop Bucket List.

I’m passing my lockdown days with Italian Lavazza Classico coffee brewed in an Italian Moka Pot. One of my children is a coffee making, latte art guru, and he has convinced me how easy it is to make authentic espresso by using a Moka Pot. I bought my first Moka in the Italian Alps at a little hardware store not long ago.

Book of the Week

With all of my blog issues chewing up my time this week, I still haven’t finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. As I explained previously, a nurse who was raised as an unschooler (and unschooled her children) recommended the book to me.

I’m exhausted. So, off to chill out for the afternoon with my kids.

Please drop a comment if you feel like telling me how things are going in your life this week or want to give input or rant on any of the sticky things I mentioned above, like Harvard and Bartholet’s call to end homeschooling.

-Julie

P.S. Oh, as far as that little unschooling thing this week, it was an UNsticky and uncomplicated week. My kids had a blast and learned a lot of amazing things–like, ironically, making tasty vegan sticky buns from scratch. 🙂