Hippie unschoolers

LIFE is Good has spawned a comprehensive and entertaining flurry of activity on Facebook. On somebody's conference photos somewhere, I saw a comment about "all the hippie unschoolers." Hmmm. I don't recall seeing any hippies (with the exception of a couple former hippies like Frank), so I've been puzzling over this comment ever since I saw it.

All I can come up with is that unschoolers embrace an alternative culture. The thing is, our alternative culture is actually limited to our educational and parenting philosophies. Beyond that, our philosophies are varied and often pretty mainstream. Many of the moms stay home with the kids, and many of the working parents are part of corporate America. We drive minivans. We take the kids to soccer games and t-ball practice and ballet lessons and so on. Most of our kids use computers and play a lot of video games and have heaps of plastic toys.

Sure, some of us are into natural foods or Eastern philosophies or tie-dyed shirts or liberal politics, and most of us value creativity. But the same could be said of just about any cross-section of humans—at least on the West coast! To attach any label other than "unschoolers" to such a diverse group is shortsighted and seems rather dismissive (even to someone who admires hippies).

Maybe to some, "hippie" is synonymous with "alternative," and we qualify by the very act of keeping our kids home from school. I dunno.