Under the Denim Banner

The following was written by my brother-in-law, Ben Embry. He and his wife, Sarah, live in Texas and homeschool their 6 children (using the CC method). He and I were both homeschooled back when homeschooling was not cool or common. This article really resonated with me when I read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I’ll take my stand. Jumpers have fallen into disrepute these days, especially in the homeschool world. The Old World, back when homeschoolers drove vans, sported bangs above their over-sized glasses, and made their jumpers from scratch, that Old World is my heritage. It’s my very own Lost Cause, and in *that* Dixieland I’ll take my stand.

Mothers gather onto social media and ask their questions. Their quest is for bangs-free, jumperless homeschooling, an experience that keeps the mom put together and capable of play-dates, the homeschooled child still dressing hipper-than-thou as compared to his PS peers, and the vehicle loaded with so many Bluetooth enabled devices, the manifestation of learning reveals itself in a blue haze. PS? Public School. Moms have to learn a new language besides just Latin these days. DD, MOH, CC, ISO, and MFW all mean things, and using the terms with the proper nonchalance effects a measure of cool that is heartbreakingly enviable.

Mothers ask questions like, "Have any of you used the Lexia app? What about Epic?", "Where do you hang your timeline cards?" and "DD can’t do math, even though she’s really bright. Maybe switch from Saxon to SM or Math U See? Thoughts?" The questions rage and portend to blow up the very internet. "Who uploaded this flawless worksheet?" "Link here for great cut-and-pastes." "Where can I get a wall pocket thing that looks chic?” “Do I need to etch Beethoven’s bust into the oak tree or is that just an option?" “Are Buddhist mantra skills helpful in repeating lists of prepositions? Looking for Buddhist tutor.” Ultimately, the questions are of two types: 1) I’m so afraid that I’ll miss something. Ladies, will you tell me that I won’t; and 2) I am omni-competent, but almost no one cares. Ladies, will you validate my drive by liking and sharing? Somewhere in all of this, a kid is being tortured. (One wonders what symbol he will mock when he begins to teach his own children.)

But it wasn’t always thus. Imagine a time when removing your child from school was something of a legal gray area: you might go to jail, you might just become a neighborhood pariah. Imagine going to a homeschool convention and, instead of taking notes, buying downloads of lectures and then later next week researching online the different curriculum, both at the curriculum website and on social media (see above), you were denied these luxuries. Instead, you had to focus on specific vendors, read through the workbooks or the reigning philosophy of the program, discuss prices, worry about the legality of it all, and finally plunk down your hard-won $800 for a year’s worth of work with your children. Imagine returning home, starting up without any online cheerleaders, earning the worried brow of the pastor who isn’t quite on board with this kind of thing, and, in your spare time, ripping out the hem of a poorly sewn jumper, all of it punctuated with bathroom flights of morning sickness. And there was still time to read ‘Little Britches’ and ‘Detectives in Togas’. And to ride bikes with other homeschool friends. And to engage in the culture wars in other legal gray zones.

Homeschooling has come a long way, thanks to religiously motivated pioneers who risked civil penalties and social censure, thanks to be-jumpered moms whose wan faces hid reservoirs of grit. And their 21st century counterparts want advice on where to get Napoleon-shaped erasers or what the best time of day is to read Susan Wise Bauer to K4? While smirking at jumpers? Classy.

I humbly suggest a different approach. No, don’t search a This Old Schoolhouse forum for used jumpers that might fit. But still, use the jumper. Embrace the jumper. I suggest that the jumper be converted to the flag of the homeschool tribe. Do you feel the call to educate your own children and reclaim the education you received? Follow in their train. Hoist the Jumper! You believe that you have grit, that you can pull off a year or 12 of home education? Unfurl the Jumper! You want a model to follow, a saint to revere whose accomplishments measure not only getting many kids through college (on academic scholarship) but also resisting the disapproval of their own put-together mothers and friends and denying themselves what luxuries a meager budget might have afforded?  Do battle under the waving Jumper.

The Jumper is a sign of conquest, a cloth of triumph, a sheet of conviction. The Jumper stands for feminine confidence, for impossible harmony made possible, for a beautiful civilization, for philosophy, for freedom. The Jumper stands for disciplined originality and for creative frugality. From such spare contours, a tapestry of grace extends, and extends to you and me. Take comfort, take pride, homeschool mom, for a cloud of witnesses surrounds you, and their skirts are made of denim.

-Ben Embry