Friday, August 18, 2006

Perceptions of isolation

A few weeks ago a well meaning friend mentioned that we isolate our kids too much and wondered how they would learn to live in the "real world". Of course this is in response to the fact that we homeschool. According to this friend they would encounter the "real world" if they were in school. I, of course, took up the usual banner and countered that the real world doesn't segregate us by age and job. He couldn't really argue with that since he is 15 years older than me. But on the whole he didn't seem to agree.

Fast forward to last night and an email list I belong to. A few participants were discussing the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. One warned of the possible inappropriateness of the movie since there is implied sex and the man proposes while lying in bed with the woman (she is clothed at the time and they don't show him below his shoulders). I was pretty shocked, I honestly think this movie is very clean. There is no nudity, no foul language, and although the sex is implied nothing is really shown.

So I guess it's all perception. By many's standards we isolate our kids but by other homeschooling families' standards we allow our kids to watch inappropriate movies. I find the whole thing very interesting!

1 comment:

Jane said...

We never seem to do it quite right by other folks standards, do we?