by Mary Griffith

"Hey, I'm a homeschooler--I don't need to go sit in some hall at some conference and listen to a bunch of people tell me how I should be teaching my kids! Who needs it?"

We've all heard some version of this. Why on earth should any decent, self-respecting, independent homeschooling parent bother with a homeschooling conference? Isn't there something a little odd about folks as iconoclastic as homeschoolers getting together to listen to the advice of a bunch of self-proclaimed "experts"?

There would, indeed, if that were actually what happens at a good homeschooling conference (and it certainly does happen at some homeschooling conferences). But the best conference organizers (like those of the California Home=Education Conference, for example) take the view that a conference offers opportunities to get together to hear ideas and opinions we might not otherwise hear. They take the "smorgasbord" approach: offer a wide variety of speakers and workshops, and most people will be bound to find something interesting.

So what exactly can you expect to get from a good conference?

--hear speakers with ideas you may not have heard before

--get learning and resource ideas

--see (and purchase, if you so desire) books and materials from a variety of vendors specifically interested in addressing the needs of homeschoolers

--meet lots (and lots!) of other homeschooling families

It's hard to overstate the value of this last item. Even the most experienced and confident homeschoolers are often surprised at the boost in morale that seeing a thousand homeschoolers together in a group provides. Knowing intellectually that there are thousands of homeschoolers out there somewhere doesn't have quite the the same impact as actually seeing a good number of them in person.

Just to have a couple of days during which most of the people you see and talk to are people who believe that homeschooling is an obvious and natural educational choice is surprising. The effect is really quite astonishing--just find a nice, comfortable seat somewhere and listen to the bits of the conversations going by. You'll hear stories and debates and jokes and ideas and more stories, and underlying every one of them is the basic assumption that homeschooling is that obvious and reasonable choice. The lift you get from that kind of affirmation is difficult to describe, and I don't know where else you can experience it.

And if you're one of those of us who occasionally begins to feel like something of a community oddball--either the only homeschooler or the only "different" homeschooler in town--a good conference can be extremely comforting: No matter how offbeat you may feel, there will always be someone whose approach to education and learning you'll think is even more outlandish than your own.

So find yourself a good conference and get yourself there. Take a look at the formal program, but don't take it too seriously. Undoubtedly there will be some interesting and useful presentations you'll be glad not to have missed, but remember that the "official" parts of any conference may well end up as the parts you least remember. A good conference needs a good program to attract all those homeschoolers, but the it's just an excuse to everyone together--don't let trying to keep up with all the workshops you "ought" to see make you miss the *real* meat of the conference.

Mary Griffith is the author of:
The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom and The Homeschooling Handbook.

and The Childhood Mystique: How Our Attitudes Limit Our Children and Our Future