Who Cares, besides the teens and parents involved with the effort? 

A lot of non-homeschoolers used a Homeschool Prom to put forth their concerns. They posted in the comments of this Bloomington Pantagraph article linked below about a first-time prom organized by a Bloomington area homeschool group/network:

Home-school prom a night to remember Article by Steve Arney. 
Comments below were mostly anonymous:

• "I am familiar with several home schooled and fundamentally religious schooled children. While they are polite and can speak with adults, I get the impression that they are socially backwards for their ages.

Polite and able to speak with adults=Socially Backwards.  Go figure.

•  I like the kids but I hate to see them at a disadvantage because their parents didn’t want their "Christian" kids in with the hoi polloi, non-Christian students..  

 Most homeschoolers want their kids hanging around with the hoi polloi, non-Christian adults and kids in the community, without discrimination.  That’s one reason why we avoid classrooms, in that we have a much wider range of community.  Homeschoolers can be inclusive that way. 
Here’s another one that does wish the kids well…..eventually.

• Also, I feel that extremists like James Dobson have been responsible for pushing the paranoid myth that public school education is tantamount to having Satan himself teaching your child and that they’re trying to "indoctrinate" children into the "Church of Liberalism".

The Church of Liberalism has proclaimed itself in several articles/mantras.  Pick a mindset and you’ll find ‘homeschool research’ fitting into your little box.  Homeschoolers are diverse that way.  Reading the comments above, Northwestern University Law School K. Yuracko’s piece came to mind.  We can’t make this up:

Education Off the Grid: Constitutional Constraints on Homeschooling:  Modern day homeschooling raises then in stark form questions about the obligations that states have toward children being raised in illiberal subgroups. Surprisingly, the legal and philosophical issues raised by homeschooling have been almost entirely ignored by scholars. This paper seeks to begin to fill this void by making a novel constitutional argument. The paper relies on federal state action doctrine and state constitution education clauses to argue that states must — not may or should — regulate homeschooling to ensure that parents provide their children with a basic minimum education and check rampant forms of sexism.

That little piece above draws me to a commenter named OlyStudent08 Ignorance Abounds:

• Additionally, is it really natural to attend a dance with your parents? Kids need to get away from their parents some times and just act naturally stupid like teenagers do. With their parents hovering over their every move, be it at home school or prom, there is no possible way this kids can feel comfortable

His sister, Sarah, said there was no place here for dirty dancing of the kind she witnessed at a public high school dance - in the middle of the floor, with teenagers on the outer areas of the dance floor conspiring to block sight of dirty dancers from chaperones.

• " I can see why some people might home school, what with the violence and horror stories that come from public and other private schools, but seriously, this can’t be a normal upbringing for kids. How are they going to go from only associating with their parents on a daily basis to competing with other students in college? I think if a student is raised correctly, then a public school education and socialization is much healthier. "

Competing with other students in college seems to be working fine.  The Chicago Trib had a piece about  harpist Chelsea Link last month:  Home-schooled Evanston teen accepted by Harvard, Yale, more

"She is the best student I have ever had, and I have been teaching for 40 years," said Michele Hall, a native of Provence and Chelsea’s French tutor for the past decade. "She is brilliant, but without any of the social awkwardness or emotional problems that usually go along with it."
Link revels in the non-geek description, seizing the opportunity to debunk another common misconception of home-schoolers.

Then there’s Megan Kerr in Michigan The Sky’s the Limit for this Lake Michigan College Harpist:

In her three years at LMC, Kerr has built an incredible resume. In the classroom, she accrued a 3.98 grade point average and is graduating on May 4 with High Honors. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the international community college honor society, and was recently named the College’s 2008 Musician of the Year, an award presented annually to the student who best exemplifies leadership and who has demonstrated significant musical and academic growth during his/her LMC career. She has performed as a member of the LMC Concert Choir, the LMC Chamber Players and in several musical theatre productions.
Megan also volunteered her musical talents, participating as a soloist in many events including the 2007 Music Department Gala Concert, the 2008 LMC President’s Gala, Phi Theta Kappa banquets, the College’s Honors Convocation, career day workshops and others.

The most wonderful piece of the two young ladies’ accomplishments is it appears that they had time to follow their passions during their homeschooled childhood.
There are kids who attended brick and mortar schools who’ve had the same deserved kudos from their teachers/mentors.  What are the comparable proportions? I don’t know, but felt the need to defend a minority community with some real facts as we seem to be constantly under attack. 
Here’s a comment below from a ‘qualified smarty pants’. Everyone please face forward, salute and pay attention.  (Our kids work with a lot of teachers who are also qualified in the same manner (or more so), as this person.  They practice education without the preaching. ) Please notice that the eminently qualified person focuses almost entirely on the education of the teacher rather than the product (individual child):

" What are the qualifications for the home school teachers? I have a Masters plus and I am STATE qualified to teach and have to submit a certificate and renew an education plan every few years. I also have to follow state standards in my subject area. What exactly are these parents doing to achieve the state standards? Not only that, but how are these parents qualified to teach multiple subject areas like math, English, science, social sciences, pe, driver’s education, vocational training, and the like. I question the education as well as the qualifications of the parent/teachers as well as the social aspects. "

My original question here floated around Who Cares whether homeschoolers have a prom?  I think the answer lies above in good part.  Another question would be Why Care? 
I say that homeschooling parents have the qualifications to oversee their children’s education.  Some say that the certification piece (and school socialization) is much more important regarding the fundamentals of ‘education’. 
Sometimes the chase for the education money (child) isn’t as scary as the chase for the power ("social aspects" and control). 

Two debaters; one being an Indiana Senator. Neither likes taking money away from public education with the choice of homeschool.  Didn’t anyone ever tell them that homeschoolers are putting in money for public education (while taking nothing out)? Are these two the only choices available as common sense doesn’t seem to be at hand.  Rather, it’s their belief system. 

Here’s one candidate’s [Birkholz’s] quotes from Schooling Key Topic at Forum in LaPorte, Indiana:

"I’m not opposed to home-schooling, but I think all kids should be in the public school system," she said. "When we pull kids out of the public schools, it hurts the schools."

She doesn’t oppose homeschooling, but she does think all kids should be in the public school.  I guess she’s trying to be a politician.

Then we go to the other candidate:

But what Arnold doesn’t support is home-schooling.

"Every time we take our students out, we are taking money away from public education," he said.

Apparently, they both have “beliefs” in the public school religion.  Apparently they don’t know how to add two and two and see that in the public school system; funding equals 10. 

Homeschooling is definitely a fascinating societal swirl for homeschooling families and for the rest of the world trying to take a peek.

Kim, who is in Chicago land, wrote this: I’m so over homeschooling.  She says:

Scratch the surface of my calm exterior and watch as my nostrils flare in response to my children’s usual store behavior. Put down the marshmallows, honey. Look out for the nice lady. You can’t eat ice chips out of the meat freezer. My patience is about half an inch from snapping and launching me in to a public diatribe that will result in the reversal of all household DS and Skype rights for up to a week

I just told my kids again yesterday to please not walk backwards in the grocery aisles or on sidewalks carrying on a conversation, because you WILL knock down that little old lady 5 feet in front of you.  Do Not Touch Your Brother Again…through clenched teeth, with the death threat of NO video and no WoW.

Dana says this about homeschool related progressions in the name of educational choice:

So where does that leave us now? “Purists” may lament the direction things have gone. Rather than homeschooling being about individual families choosing a lifestyle, we have become a movement. A not-so-easily quantified special interest group with a powerful lobby. We are a force to be reckoned with in local elections where turnout is small.

Is that all bad? What did a small band of anti-institutionalists bring to American education? Popularity certainly comes with a price, but it brings with it something else that I think is important to not overlook. It brought with it choice. A real choice for many Americans. Not only do we have public schools and private schools, but now we have charter schools and magnet schools. We have virtual charters and other means of attaining an accredited education at home in many states. We have cottage schools and homeschool coops. And we have support groups across the nation. Even Ravenna, Nebraska with its 1300 citizens boasts a homeschool group.

I’m becoming less of a group person, even as I’ve appreciated the value of support groups along the way.  Our little farm community of 2400 doesn’t have a group, but we will have a new network in the next month or two.  (That’s one great thing about homeschooling.  I’ve been planning a networking get together for a year.  I might keep talking about it, and I might actually get ‘er done.  In the meantime,  homeschoolers are usually understanding about procrastination and busy schedules.)

Over several years, Annette Jurczak has looked at the mix and match of educational choices from a homeschooling perspective that Dana pointed out above.   Annette is one more observer of trends and transformations.

Change is inevitable.  We can only hope (and work) for the essence and goodness to remain bountiful, as we pull it from our lifestyle.  I really appreciate the observations of different homeschoolers about those changes.

I realized that I should not keep Vibrating Bed as a leading post for days and days.  Catchy title, but shouldn’t hang around for long.  So I want to blog all the stories that I have had up for days.  I’ve been busy getting ready for the Central IL Homeschool Conference, mowing, planting trees, shrubs and ‘taters and driving all over central Illinois in our usual manner. 

We are planting something nutty this year to add to the walnut trees we already have.  When the kids and I have headed out to the woods, I’ve loved the hickory trees, so I ordered some Kingnut Hickories from our Soil and Water Conservation District.  Along with the additions of some American Filberts (hazelnuts), dogwoods, and more evergreens for wind cover.  Rascally rabbits are loving my dogwoods.  I’m hoping they’re now getting a good dose of pepper and hot sauce with that first tender nip.

Speaking of trees and woods, from the home of Kindergärten comes Waldkindergärten (forest kindergartens) and this article from the WSJ:

German Tots Learn to Answer Call of Nature By MIKE ESTERL April 14, 2008

IDSTEIN, Germany — Each weekday, come rain or shine, a group of children, ages 3 to 6, walk into a forest outside Frankfurt to sing songs, build fires and roll in the mud. To relax, they kick back in a giant "sofa" made of tree stumps and twigs.

The birthplace of kindergarten is returning to its roots. While schools and parents elsewhere push young children to read, write and surf the Internet earlier in order to prepare for an increasingly cutthroat global economy, some little Germans are taking a less traveled path — deep into the woods.

This sounds a lot like a Charlotte Mason philosophy (except for the lack of parental involvement above).  Froebel’s Kindergärten seems to have lost its way over the last century and a half, as I read the quotes from this site:

It was created by the German born Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), famous Educationalist. Kindergarten in Froebel’s vision meant both ‘a garden for children’, where children meet with environment and also ‘a garden of children’, where they play together and express themselves in a smaller garden world by means of play with their age group. He believed that "children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers."

Speaking of appreciating the great outdoors, Diane Flynn Keith is recommending LibriVox for days like today from ClickSchooling:

Now that the weather outside is getting nicer here in the Northern
Hemisphere, it seems a shame to keep the kids cooped up indoors, doesn’t it?
Send them outside with some audio books! They can perch in a tree, skip
rope, start a garden, have a little picnic, or even play hopscotch while
listening to these wonderful classics.

A lovely idea.  I know that Valerie Bonham Moon records and recorded stories for her kids and grandkids.  I’m going to do that ….some day.

Diane also threw in an Old Time Radio link.  We listened to War of the Worlds the other day and it was amazing how authentically scary it was.  I would have felt a bit uneasy if I caught the program in the middle of the first half. 

Hmmm…I seem to be making little headway in disposing of my many open tabs and I’ve gotta go.  My original intent was to post the current Carnival of Homeschooling at Principled Discovery.  Very appropriate that it’s the Carnival of Homeschooling honoring the homeschooling bag lady.  I’m feeling like one of those in looking at my computer ’stuff’.