Is curriculum discussion taboo near you?

[HS Mom in NC]

I'm noticing a wide range of experiences on this topic in another thread. I'm wondering if there are any identifiable patterns that might help homeschoolers avoid sticky situations or help them understand social or cultural norms related to this topic.

 

Is discussing and comparing and contrasting curriculum, educational philosophies, and homeschooling approaches taboo in the homeschooling groups you've been in? 

What type of group was it pitched as?  Social, academic, co-op, support group, a play group, curriculum specific, faith specific, etc.

 

How many families usually attended the group?

 

Where did the group meet?  A person's house, a church, a community center, etc.

 

What country (assuming you're not in the US,) US state, and part of the state were you in?

 

If you know, tell us about the size of the homeschooling community there.

 

Any obvious demographic patterns? 

What age group did it cater to?

 

What year(s) was it?

 

How long had most of the homeschoolers been homeschooling who were particularly sensitive to curriculum discussions?

 

Specify any other factors you think might be relevant.

 

 

 

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I'm in New Jersey. Nothing is taboo to talk about here. We have no conversational boundaries and/or tact. 

[Rosie_0801]

At the couple of groups I've attended here in Oz, show and tell has been fine because of international postage rates. Curriculum chat for special needs has been fine, specifically maths and echolalia, but that's because no one knows how to teach maths to echolalic kids so any hint is worth knowing about. Curriculum chat has been fine between mothers of preschoolers, lol, because they are still learning what is out there and there is nothing threatening about what none of you have actually done yet. Otherwise, there is no curriculum chat because everyone else knows what they are doing and why they are doing it, and would prefer to discuss such things with anonymous people online.

 

These groups have been for socialising, not co-ops or anything like that. Faith is usually irrelevant.

[Jennay]

I'm in the DC area.  Have never found discussing curricula to be taboo.  It's kind of "live and let live" around here.

[Pen]

It is not taboo, but can be a bit fraught due to various strongly held beliefs, or differences in resources, or children's differing levels of attainment.  I also think that for most it is not just more comfortable to discuss online, but that the huge number of people online with varieties of beliefs, child ages and stages, and so on, give more useful information than a few local homeschool families do.  Also it can be more comfortable to post about one's own difficulties with anonymous others.  Local families are more helpful for things like good sources for supplies or how to register and start out in the first place, or where to do year end required testing and so on. 

[dbmamaz]

I tried to start a homeschool park day with a radical unschooler, and she was rude any time anyone talked about curriculum

 

At the regular park day, it seems like its hard to get people to talk about it because it seems to end up being divisive between the religious homeschoolers, the radical unschoolers, and whatever else is in the mix.  People seem very cautious.

 

There was a woman who organized a video game club - the moms there talked curriculum a lot, which was really nice, but we were all pretty eclectic, not strongly identifying with any one method, and all using curriculum.

 

And mostly i just stay home . ..lol

[Farrar]

I'm part of a couple of groups - mostly loose meet ups, though we're in a small co-op as well and have met other homeschoolers at classes and so forth.  It's never been taboo.  In in DC.  Most of the other people I meet are eclectic and homeschooling for secular reasons.  There are also a lot of unschoolers, but I've found they're either just not interested in talking curriculum but not annoyed or offended by it or anything if others are talking, or they are actually interested because if it's a good enough resource (like, say, the Beast Academy comics or a science experiment guide or something), then they might want to strew it or offer it to their kids to see if they're interested.

 

Some people don't like to talk curriculum, of course.  But that's different from it being an off limits kind of thing.

[wingedradical]

Wow, what part of Arizona are you two Arizonans live in?

 

We attend both a secular and Christian group (the second has a wide variety of Trinitarian Christians plus a couple of Mormons)and there has never been a taboo on talking curriculum. The secular group does have some unschoolers and relations are good between us all, in spite of great differences. I can say we all have learned from each other.

 

What does tend to looked down upon, if anything, is public school at home - but only be a few.

[Guest]

Here's what I'm comfortable sharing about my personal experience in a timeline:

 

'92-'98ish: totally taboo in (large city I am not comfortable naming), but there was a lot of friction between secular and Christian groups back then and the usual infighting. I was an "odd duck" in a secular group that was mostly unschoolers who were a good 10-20 years older than me.

 

'99-01ish: Okay in (small town I am not comfortable naming), very large eclectic group with lots of activities, wide variety of secular and Christian, independent homeschoolers and public school charter users. We even had a "resource lending library" in a room at a church that was open once a month and you could check out curriculum for a whole year instead of buying it and donate your outgrowns instead of throwing them away or trying to sell them online.

 

'03ish: I was more involved with my church than the homeschooling group, so I don't want to spread inaccurate rumours, but everything went bad: resource center was closed, lots of infighting and splits between Christian and secular, independent and charter, huge ugliness, I got flamed off of the Yahoo list for putting my foot in my mouth while trying to help another parent find inexpensive curriculum so she could continue to homeschool as an independent rather than being forced to join a charter for financial reasons and became reclusive for awhile.

 

'06ish: ds1 enrolled in ps. Not my idea or anything I wanted to see happen. I wasn't totally out of the hs loop, but of course lurking on email lists and forum boards and renewing magazine subscriptions isn't the same thing as being a contributing member of a community.

 

'08ish-present: little ds and I are not core members of our local group by any means, but I see recovery in progress, strong existing hs families moving to the area, potentially long term friendships beginning among parents and kids, and I'm not about to rock the boat at this point. All I'm willing to disclose in my local group is, "I'm not an unschooler myself, but it sounds like you're doing just fine. Keep up the good work!" and I've been getting my curriculum advice here, mostly through the search function, and participating in various threads on the chat board to get a feel for the different personalities of forum members.

 

hth

[LibraryLover]

Northeast. We always talked curricula as well as unschooling.  We shared resources and sold resources to each other.  It is an incredibly diverse group, but we got along fine. :)  Live and let hs. I would say there were more unschoolers than school-at-homers, but we all got along well. When you see kids from all groups thriving over the years, you of let go of dogma.

[sbgrace]

I've been a part of two groups, as we moved about a year ago. Both were support oriented I guess, with social or academic opportunities for kids in the activity mix.

 

I've never encountered resistance to curriculum talk. People seem to like to help others, share their experience, and even share curriculum. In both groups there were even specific things oriented to curriculum talk. In the last group, parents met to watch IEW videos together. I believe they had a writing class for kids based on the curriculum as well. There was plenty of informal sharing of ideas, asking for curriculum help, sharing of actual curriculum, etc. This was a smaller group. I don't know, under 20 families?

 

The group we're in now is quite a bit larger. There is a lot of sharing even online in the facebook for the group (ie does anyone have x curriculum they can loan me, can I preview someone's x curriculum before I order, I need ideas for reading instruction, etc.). There is a curriculum library at a business in town (free to check out, use for your own kids etc.). The next parent meeting is specified to discuss and share math curriculum actually! It seems that people of all stripes are open to sharing--from unschoolers (I only know of one though; she was a leader in the group we came from), virtual school, relaxed schooling, school at home style (really common here), charlotte mason type, to classical. I've seen it all shared.

 

So, no resistance here. I'm in the midwest. The groups are open to any homeschoolers. One has a statement of faith, the other did not. I'd say the majority in both groups have a Christian world view. This is a common world view in this area of the US though. There is an assumption by many, though likely not all, that everyone is young earth oriented. I think that's common in the homeschooling world over-all perhaps. It feels to me that experienced homeschoolers are actually more likely to discuss curriculum, at least in terms of sharing what worked/didn't and trying to help others. This includes those with graduates.

 

 

[NicAnn]

Denver area- not taboo. Secular group. It wasn't the main topic of discussion, and those that schooled were slightly excluded, but the topic came up.

 

Seattle area- not taboo at all. Secular group. The topic was the first thing someone asked me and discussed several times since. Lots of talk about virtual schools as well.

 

Kansas City area- not taboo. Faith based and secular groups. Lots and lots of lively discussion of methods and curricula.

 

I've found that when the majority of the group identifies as 'unschooling', any discussion of curriculum or school is taboo. It's often met with a scoff or a reason why we shouldn't push our kids.

[HS Mom in NC]

I'm in the SE part of The Valley in the greater PHX area.  It's not taboo here in the secular or religous groups I've been in. I've rarely been to a homeschool group that didn't have people happily discussing curriculum options or something related to educational philosophy at some point and I've been to just about every category of group there is over my 13 years of homeschooling-all here in this city where I've lived for 40 years.

Groups usually have a fairly wide range of members, so it's not weird to have a wide range of curriculum represented.  Even the big unschooling group can have people who don't unschool in it and those that do often unschool differently from each other. Some of them have children doing very badly academically, some have kids doing average academics and others have kids doing incredibly well.

 

Online, in print and at conventions I've heard some groups of Christians say or imply  they choose moral/Biblical training instead of rigorous academics and I see people do that by choosing what I consider lower quality curriculum, but I've not met anyone local willing to say so directly in person.

 

I think in AZ people seem to interpret negative reactions to people classifying public school online with homeschooling (which isn't legally possible here-either you legally homeschool or you're legally  in public or charter school on site or online and the laws are very different for each) as a negative view of public school at home. I've been careful to point out, when it comes up (and it comes up fairly regularly around here)  that public school at home is great public school option. As a taxpayer and advocate of education options, I'm all for it.  I personally knew several people, when it first became an option, who were genuinely unaware of the issues when they signed up for it and were very vocal about thinking they were misled into believing they were homeschooling with all the freedom that goes with it while using public school online. Then they had very bad experiences with the online school regulations.  Who is responsible for their unawareness is a matter of debate.

[OneStepAtATime]

Interesting topic!  I'm in Texas and in our area (sort of rural but moving away from agriculture more now) there are around 4 co-ops.  One requires you to sign an extremely stringent and restrictive faith statement and has a reputation as EXTREMELY snobby and isolating.  I joined that one first because I didn't know there were any others in the area and hadn't heard of the reputation.  I sent in my money and a request for more information since their website was limited for non-members.  I got confirmation that the payment was received via automatic e-mail and never got anything else.  I tried e-mailing a couple of members and called and left a message and no one ever e-mailed or called back so I tend to think a curriculum discussion probably wouldn't have happened even if I had stayed with this group.

 

Ended up joining another group I found afterwards. I was honestly kind of disappointed when we attended the first meeting of the second group (roughly 40 families meeting in a non-denominational church since two key co-op members are members of that church, but you are not required to be part of the church or sign a faith statement) that there was virtually NO discussion of curriculum and no support for new homeschoolers.  They did discuss field trips, special events, volunteering to help with teaching, but didn't even discuss what topics would be taught in the co-op classes or have a time for people to introduce themselves and get to know each other.  I had to do all my research entirely on my own, no helpful suggestions from anyone, no reaching out to make me or the kids feel welcome and we had just started homeschooling (pulled the kids out of brick and mortar) with no clue what I was doing.  Forum on their website is mainly discussing field trips, no curriculum discussions or just visiting among homeschoolers at all.  Ended up being fine, but it was a rough initial couple of months.  Felt pretty isolated.

 

If I had had a better grasp of what to ask, I'm certain somebody would have discussed their curriculum choices with me if I had pinned them down on it.  Nice people, just sort of not a chatty bunch.  Not a lot of outside the box thinking in our area, though, so mostly textbooks and mainstream, tried and true homeschooling curriculums.  The group gatherings I have attended sometimes include curriculum discussion, but usually in a general way and they don't seem to know how to respond if you mention anything that is not well known to them.  I get a lot more useful info from people in similar learning situations to mine by hitting the blogs and chat rooms...

 

The other two co-ops are very specialized.  One is strictly for Catholics and they almost all use Angelicum to guide them through curriculum choices so as far as I can tell there isn't much curriculum discussion.  The other is Secular, but the group is tiny and not very active and I have never been able to get a response from my inquiries for when and where they meet.  There is no discussion of curriculum on their website.

[dbmamaz]

Yes, i do find, for me, the radical unschoolers are the ones who make it impossible to talk about curriculum.  The person I mentioned before would whine "Why is everyone talking about BORING curriculum".  There was another unschooler who hosted events sometimes, a teen event, an atheist book club once - i dont remember which event, but I mentioned that when my 7 yo asked how to spell words, I would ask him how it sounded to him - and someone lectured at me for several minutes about how disrespectful this was and how she would not allow her husband to do this to her child.  Another radical unschooler responded to me saying something about a curriculum by talking about how wonderful it was that her children were making videos about pokemon with their stuffed toys.  I dont know if that all counts as taboo, but i certainly felt that it was not welcomed.  I've studiously avoided unschoolers since those experiences.   Well, i have one friend now who identifies as an unschooler, but i'm not sure how radical.

[MinivanMom]

Denver area- not taboo. Secular group. It wasn't the main topic of discussion, and those that schooled were slightly excluded, but the topic came up.

 

Seattle area- not taboo at all. Secular group. The topic was the first thing someone asked me and discussed several times since. Lots of talk about virtual schools as well.

 

Kansas City area- not taboo. Faith based and secular groups. Lots and lots of lively discussion of methods and curricula.

 

I've found that when the majority of the group identifies as 'unschooling', any discussion of curriculum or school is taboo. It's often met with a scoff or a reason why we shouldn't push our kids.

 

I live in a highly-educated, urban area on the East coast. I belong to a very large (250+ families) inclusive, secular group. Talking about curriculum is very taboo. 

 

There are also several unschooling groups, a large Catholic group, and a number of SofF (protestant) Christian groups in the area.  Our group is the one really inclusive group. I would guess that unschoolers and relaxed homeschoolers make up around 30% of the group, but they make up the majority of the leadership and the "old-timers".  Many times we will have new homeschoolers show up to Park Day (which is required to join the group) and any questions they have about curriculum can get shut down pretty quickly by the older women. For several years I was the friendly one who went to every single Park Day and made a point of chatting up new people. If I answered any questions about curriculum, one of the older ladies would swoop in with a condescending, "The great thing about homeschooling is that you don't have to do anything with your kids, because they are just learning all the time." I watched so many new people just sort of fade away from the group. Many of them are still homeschooling, but without a lot of support. I finally got tired of it and this past summer I stopped going to park days. 

 

I've been reevaluating the role of support groups in our homeschooling journey since then. I want to keep our membership in the big inclusive group, because they are large enough to provide certain opportunities I want (Spelling Bee, Geography Bee, etc). I'm just not sure that it's worth my energy at this point. I've been focusing on planning activities with just a single homeschooling family at a time instead of attending official homeschooling stuff, but that limits us to the homeschoolers we already know and they are all very different from us in terms of lifestyle and educational goals.

 

I'm not sure where we are headed from here, but I'm very surprised there are so many groups where discussing education is considered acceptable. I think the unschooling women in our inclusive group (who are all older w/teenagers) are having an influence that is much greater than would be expected based on their numbers. I'm not sure where we are headed from here, but I feel like we may be working more on building relationships with non-homeschoolers. I think that our lifestyle and educational standards are more in line with them.

[Kathryn]

I've been in a secular support group and a Christian support group for three years. I live in a mid-sized city the South. I haven't noticed anyone having a problem talking curriculum in either group.

[LucyStoner]

I'm an extrovert and reasonably charming (or so I have been told) and getting anyone to talk to me about anything, at all period, curriculum or not in our urban/main city homeschooling group in the last few years was difficult. Now it is better but still not great. Going to park days without a buddy meant that you would spend the afternoon hanging out with the kids until you decided to go home. It was like being ignored by the rabbi when you want to convert to Judaism or something. I am.not.kidding. I had trouble with it and I can't even imagine how much harder people who are shy have it. I make a point to talk to people who are new but our city rep for standoffishness is real and magnified in this group unless you are in the right neighborhood and have a lot of homeschooling friends. Since few of my friends even have kids old enough to think about school, I didn't come with a buddy system. This group is non-sectarian, lots of unschoolers, in a liberal city with mostly affluent white liberal active participants.

 

We live just into the burbs now though and I joined a casual one for the whole area north of the city. It is more diverse socioeconomically. It's mostly younger kids though. I've only been to a few things but curriculum is definitely discussed and no one is judgmental about it. There seems to be a mix of religious and secular types in the group.

 

In both groups, I find it interesting how easy it is to pick out people who have a similar bent based on unrelated small details. Applebee's America is real people.

[Camelfeet]

No, its not taboo.  We discuss and compare curriculum frequently.  

 

 

[8filltheheart]

I live in the South and have been members of several Christian hs support groups. I haven't ran across many unschoolers. Talking about curriculum is expected and encouraged. It's the first thing moms usually talk about after "how many kids" and "where do you live" sorts of things! :)

Reading this makes me wonder a few things about this discussion in general. Perhaps the different answers reflect different perspectives about what discussing curriculum means. Is discussing curriculum "what do you use for 3rd grade math?" Or is it "why did you select x instead of y for math?"

 

Superficial questions are one thing. The reasons behind them are another. I suspect that more experienced homeschoolers also take cues from responses in a different way than those starting out. Or maybe I am just guilty stereotyping and categorizing mentally? For example, some of my kids' best friends are from a family that uses 100% straight Abeka from k through graduation and have been for almost as long as we have been eclectic. We love the family, but discussing homeschooling has no overlap for us except for household management, etc. if I meet someone who thinks that TT is the absolute best math curriculum on the market, I take that as a cue to not discuss math. ;)

[Carrie12345]

This will probably sound snotty. So be it.

 

The topic isn't "taboo" here, but the homeschoolers I meet mostly fall into two categories - unschooly or cyber school (whether charter or independent.) The unschoolers can talk unschooly philosophies just fine (which is great, but low-interest for me) and the others generally don't have any homeschool philosophy outside of not wanting to send their kids to school. I've yet to meet a local, irl hser who will talk nitty gritty pedagogy.

 

That's why I come here to talk about homeschooling... when I'm not talking about fluff, lol.

[Dmmetler]

No, but it seems to be limited to parents of very young kids and parents of just starting high school kids. I moderate the curriculum discussion board for the local group,and, really, once people pick a reading program for their little one and a math program for high school, they're generally OK. And invariably the math that everyone recommends around here for high school is Teaching Textbooks, because "it's so easy for the parent".

 

We also have an unschooling sub-board and, again, usually it's parents of young kids wanting to know how to get started and parents of high school kids wanting hand-holding on making it work in the high school years.

 

 

[Wabi Sabi]

It depends on the group.

 

I'm part of an all-inclusive group that holds an annual used curriculum sale. It's also not uncommon for moms to bring samples of their curriculum to park day when there are other families who have expressed interest in it. However, I still tread carefully after an episode last year where several moms at park day started arguing about whether SOTW is indeed secular, some insensitive things were said, and a religious mom felt attacked. It was ugly and hurtful.

 

However, there are also many unschoolers in town, and my kids are friends with many unschooling families. In these cases bringing up curriculum does indeed seem taboo. I have a friend who tells a story that sums it up well. In an attempt to make small talk, she casually asked unschooling mom what math curriculum she likes for her daughter. The mom got huffy and said something to the effect of, "We do NOT use a math curriculum. Darling Daughter decides what she wants to learn and when she wants to learn it. Her education is self-directed and we do not believe in imposing our will on her..." Okay! Note to self- don't discuss curriculum with this family, LOL.

[Mandylubug]

I just joined a co-op this year. I've had multiple conversations about curriculum. People making suggestions if asked, etc. Most conversations stay on the general side of things with most acknowledging the fact that each family's needs are individual and may not match their own needs :)

[elegantlion]

In one group we could superficially discuss curriculum, mostly if you were discussing Abeka, BJU, or on the fringe (that's sarcasm), Sonlight. I truly had no clue how much homeschooling stuff was out there until we'd been homeschooling a few years. Classical wasn't on most people's radar, Charlotte Mason wasn't discussed, unschooling - well we didn't discuss them. I remember feeling like I'd hit the mother lode when I found this board. I like options. 

 

We're not in a group now, however, I keep most of the curriculum discussion to people who understand our goals.  

[regentrude]

I have been a member of a social group since 2008. We are 40 families, 20 of those regularly attending weekly get-togethers at parks, skating rink, pool.

There is a large homeschooling community in the area (several 100s of families), but mainly religious; we are the catch-all secular group for anybody who does not wish to join the Christian homeschool groups.

 

There is no demographic pattern. We are a poor rural area with small towns. Parents' educational background ranges from high school degree to graduate degrees; income rang from poverty to upper middle class.

 

All ages of kids are in our group, from infant through teen.

 

Some parents who are "sensitive" to curriculum discussions have been homeschooling for 8+ years

[regentrude]

Reading this makes me wonder a few things about this discussion in general. Perhaps the different answers reflect different perspectives about what discussing curriculum means. Is discussing curriculum "what do you use for 3rd grade math?" Or is it "why did you select x instead of y for math?"

 

Superficial questions are one thing. The reasons behind them are another.

 

LOL. Here I could ask neither. The answer to "what do you use for 3rd grade math?" would be "oh, nothing. We do not believe in making the kids do academic work this young" and the question as to "why" would be met with elaborate waxing about the detrimental effect of formal schooling and structured activities on the child's psyche, and about how unnecessary it is to go to college.

[MysteryJen]

I looked for a long time for a group. The unschoolers were pleasant and fun, but really, really unorganized.  And then we (dh and I) converted to Catholicism. So other groups became less of a good fit.

 

So I started a group and that went pretty well for a few years.  People looked at my curriculum and we discussed some different approaches, but as my kids have grown (I have the oldest kids and do not have a toddler or a baby), the group had too many littles. Big Catholic families :)

 

Also when you are not pg or nursing, you become a little less enamored of dropping everything when a baby comes. I taught a class for quite a few years and became tired of moms not making sure the work was done and then being offended when I would point it out. 

 

Also, I have found no one wants to talk curriculum anymore in irl.  I always want to say, "What I have decided to use is for my family. This is not a judgment on you. Please stop taking it that way." But it seems that they can't or won't do that.

[Mergath]

I haven't been in any hs groups yet because the only one in town has a strict SoF, but I have sat and chatted with other hsers on occasion.  It's not taboo to talk about curriculum here, but for the other people I've met, it's almost like an afterthought.  For them, the whole point of hsing is to keep their kids away from all the non-Christian influences in the ps, and beyond that, it doesn't really matter.  When you're a curriculum junkie, it's very disconcerting to have someone say to you, "Oh, we use, ummmm.... Heart of Dakota, I think it's called.  And something else.  Abeka, maybe?  I'm not really sure, I'd have to check."  

 

I mean, how can you not know?   :scared:   It's kind of like hearing someone say, "I think my child is a girl.  Maybe a boy, though.  Hold on and I'll check." 

[8filltheheart]

LOL. Here I could ask neither. The answer to "what do you use for 3rd grade math?" would be "oh, nothing. We do not believe in making the kids do academic work this young" and the question as to "why" would be met with elaborate waxing about the detrimental effect of formal schooling and structured activities on the child's psyche, and about how unnecessary it is to go to college.

 

Since we move a lot, I have witnessed a broad range of homeschooling "local" cultures.   I can definitely have seen this in one area we lived in, but not our current one.   One place we lived I never talked about what we did at home b/c we were in an area where there were only 2 homeschooling groups for activities--one Catholic and one Protestant.   The Protestant group would not let Catholics participate and the Catholic group didn't consider you "Catholic homeschoolers" unless you were using one of the main Catholic providers like Seton.   The easiest way to deal with the Catholic group was to never even acknowledge what we did at home. :p  LOL!

 

Where we live right now is refreshing in that they do actually discuss educational approaches and curriculum pre-planned for meetings.   Since people know the topic ahead of time, you know what to expect.   We have had meetings discussing everything from unschooling, to  how to teach writing, to even favorite picture books. 

[Soror]

Well, it isn't taboo but there isn't much discussion beyond the basics. Most use a small number of programs. I recently tried to start a curriculum discussion to perhaps see if there was anyone in the group who was similar, yep, no one. I haven't found much to discuss in the way of skills but in the content area we have had some good discussions about out of the box learning.

 

Philosophy discussions, not at all. I don't think that is a consideration for hardly any at all. Most would just identify as Christian hs'ers. The only real philosophers I've heard brought up are Charlotte Mason and unschooling.

[Jenn121]

I live in Northern Cali just north of San Francisco and in our groups it is totally open for discussion. In fact it is one of the (many) reasons that we moms et together. :)

 

[Bookaddict]

I have only pre-school aged children but am a real nerd so I have started researching educational approaches, methods, etc (that is how I am across Classical and the WTM). There are two homeschool groups that I am aware of here. One is "Catholic" and the other all inclusive. The larger all inclusive though is mostly moms of pre-schoolers and co-op style. So most of the discussion is more play/learning centered. While the group hasn't specifically forbidden curriculum talk or thoughts on curriculum It just seems to get cricket responses. Even on our group forum online-I put out questions with not a single response. As for the other group-it does seem that academics are just an afterthought of their homeschooling and that really they are a Catholic faith support group. I am Catholic but wanted more of an EDUCATION support system or at least people with whom to discuss education or any topic besides which is your favorite park? Who knows, the group dynamics can change once the kids get older. For now, I covertly scout out moms that I think might be on the same page or if they want to discuss it. 

In another mom's group I belong that includes homeschoolers, private school kids, and public school kids-I find that the education topic comes up quite a bit more because there are moms with pre-schoolers trying to decide private, public or homeschool? Since my husband attended "good" private schools here and I was homeschooled but both of us were still not happy with education results-we have a pretty interesting combination of experiences and points of view. 

[LMD]

Not taboo at all.  This year our group has set a discussion topic every few weeks, where we all bring some of the materials we use to teach that topic.  We all pass them around (in Australia, so getting your hands on something to look without paying $50+ shipping is great!) and discuss.  We discuss philosophies.  We have lots of newbies who ask lots of questions about both philosophies and actual curricula.  We have a few older's who have graduated kids and teens.  We have plenty of 'in the thick of it' primary & secondary students.  We have people who've used box-type stuff all the way through, though most are very eclectic.  We don't seem to have many radical unschoolers, I'm really happy that most people in the group have some academic standards.

[TyraTooters]

I'm still really new to the hs group here (small town) and am finding it hard to talk curriculum. About a year before I started (was in the thinking/praying stages) while dropping the 2 year old off at a moms day out I noticed a small group of hs moms swapping kids. It's their own little co-op that seems pretty private. I've asked a couple times what they use not for nosy reasons but for guidance, support and sincere inquiry. No answer. Not sure why.

[CrunchyGirl]

I come from an area that is heavily involved in unschooling (or to be fair, it really is no-schooling--minecraft, TV, and a day or two at the co-op) so discussion of curriculum is tantamount to discussion of how you abuse your children. It's funny because most of my staff no-school so that's something we never discuss. But anyway, a year ago we moved to a much more conservative part of the country. Fewer unschoolers or no-schoolers but I'm having a hard time gauging the climate. I went to a meeting for the "inclusive" group and one poor mama, who was pulling her 12 year old out due to bullying, asked a question about math curriculum. The group leader was so wishy washy (and very clear that she "didn't use a written curriculum") that this poor woman (who I have now become friends with) decided that this certainly wasn't the place to receive any sort of advice. It made me sad. We should be able to talk. It shouldn't be shameful to use curriculum or focus on academics. It makes me wonder what is becoming of our society and how exactly we think we are going to compete with the rest of the world (and I say that as someone who went through a doctoral program with mostly Chinese students because the US can't manage to produce qualified candidates for advanced academic programs--this certainly influenced my perspective).

[G5052]

Not locally.  It is different with our relatives though.  They use A Beka and ACE and think we're off base.

[Luckymama]

I'm the one who doesn't discuss curricula in the group!

 

We joined the only large homeschooling group in the area (Christian but no SOF) so that dd could do academic competitions on their teams. I think there might be one other liberal in the group. Everyone I have talked to uses Apologia for science, which we most definitely do not use.

[happypamama]

South-central PA here, and there are a lot of Christian homeschoolers around here. In my immediate area, there doesn't seem to be an unschooler group, but there may be some in the busier counties. Nope, curriculum discussion isn't at all taboo; in fact, it comes up often. There seems to be a variety of curricula in my particular group; some people use online charter schools, some use very conservative Christian materials, some are unschoolish, and some of us are eclectic (like myself). It isn't at all uncommon for people to say, "here, I brought that book/curriculum/other material we were talking about last time so you can see it." We do an annual portfolio share, where we invite current and prospective homeschoolers to view portfolios we've put together to comply with the law, and this year, we're hoping to add a curriculum component to that, so that when someone says, "oooh, I like how this looks in your portfolio," the portfolio owner can say, "here's what we used for it, and here's how it broke down for us." It isn't uncommon for my local friends to share cool stuff they've found via FB.