We home school our son. He is thirteen years old. We took him out of school because he is artistic and we wanted to give him the time and space to explore the world as an artist. (I know, if someone is an artist, they draw on all surfaces and often get in trouble for drawing during class if they go to public school. Instead of that experience, we decided to just let our son develop his artistic self.)
That tangent aside, I want to write a bit about what this designation often says to those who hear about it. For example, my daughter will be asked about her sibling, with questions like "What grade is your brother in?" or "When will your brother go to high school?" or "Do you have a sibling?" ("Yes.") "Is he at the junior high?" When she answers these kinds of questions, she often mentions that her brother is home schooled. Her peers wonder why he is home schooled and she is not, as that seems different to their experience. They know people, possibly, who home school or have heard about it, but they don't know anyone whose family does both.
This, inevitably, leads to her saying that her brother is artistic and so that is why he is home schooled. From here, people usually think she just mispronounced his diagnosis as "autistic." They ask "how bad is he?" or "Is it awful having an autistic sibling?" She repeats herself, correcting them, "No, not autistic, artistic. He, like, draws." It just gets more comical from there. They ask if he is a social misfit or something and so "has" to be home schooled because he didn't "fit in" with his peers.
The funny thing is that my son is far from the cliche and stereotypical "teen artist." I guess without the angst of school, he has no "reason" to rebel, to dye his hair colors (like my husband and I did in high school) or to wear lots of black with chains hanging off his body. He doesn't have any piercings or other kinds of clothes. In fact, he wears straight cut jeans most often with a plain t-shirt (long or short sleeve depending on the temperature). He doesn't "look" like a artist...whatever artists look like. So, no, he's not home because he was just too "weird" to go to school.
He was well-behaved in school, and was one of those singular kids you find one of in each grade, who actually got along with the geeks, the freaks, the jocks and the popular crowd. None of these groups ever admonished him for hanging with the others, either. He is just a good person who got along well with everyone. Some days he'd be on the playground tossing a football and others he'd be imitating sword play with the most dedicated of fantasy fans.
It actually tells me something about the school environment and our society when teens automatically think that you can't possibly home school one child while sending the other to school. It says something about people in general being in "one camp" or another. I have a hard time with total criticism of school amongst home schoolers when one of my kids loves school. I have a hard time accepting all the crap so totally wrong with school, too, as I see the potential for home schooling and how it really supports healthy development without compromise. It tells me something that when a teen hears the word "artistic" that we hear so much about "autism" that we associate the term with a neurological difference and can't imagine that home schooling someone so they can pursue art is anything but out of the norm. Then, when they understand that it is about art, they automatically assume that art equals freak or social misfit. What does that say about our view of art and its value in society or the value we place on artists as a part of our society and world? Considering the lack of arts education in public schools, I guess it says a lot about the value we convey to students about art and its place in our society.
Before reading this blog, when you just saw the title, what did you think when you read "artistic" and considered a definition for the term? When do we move from teens who think of "artistic" as autistic or social misfit to something else? I hear the word "artistic" think of an adjective meaning someone has a talent of some kind (as a writer, painter, sculptor, illustrator and so on). I hear it and consider aesthetics and creativity. Why do our high school students think "artistic" is a bad way to describe someone, something that denotes a negative connotation?
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