Homeschool Helpers

Homeschool News & Views

Issue 118, May 24, 2009

From Homeschool Helpers

By Dan L. White

Last Thursday was warm but not too hot. We have been getting rain in the Ozarks about every other day for about three months, it seems, but that day the rain held off. That was good, because last Thursday was the annual Christian Homeschool Spring Formal English Country Dance.

That afternoon several of us moved the chairs aside in the auditorium at Oasis Worship Center, put up decorations, set up tables for refreshments in the gym, and got the musical equipment ready.

The doors opened at 6:30, but we have learned that most show up fashionably late, just a little. The ladies were resplendent in formal or semi-formal dresses. The gentlemen varied in their dress from guys in plain shirts, like me, to a young man dressed in top hat and tails, like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. The crowd consisted of Christian homeschool grads, older teens, parents and some younger siblings.

We thought we would begin the dancing around 7:00, but at that time the crowd was still in the hall, getting their dance cards, taking pictures in the photo area, and just visiting. I stood in the hall watching them, considering whether I should try to herd them into the main auditorium, but they were just so busy being sociable that I deferred for a while longer. Part of the aura of having a big dance is not dancing at all, but just being there. And most people were out in the hall, just being there.

Finally, about a quarter past seven, most of the crowd had migrated to the auditorium. They hushed as we thanked God for the opportunity to have such a fine fellowship activity and asked His blessing on it, for sure. It is only through His spirit that Christian homeschooling has produced the wonderful fruits for which it is known.

Our daughters Carrie and Annie put in hours and hours of time preparing for this dance, and much of that time was spent in selecting the music. This was an English Country Dance, with dances that go back hundreds of years. The music varied from a formal style to lively Irish reels and the magnetic music made us want to dance. Even walking across the floor in a straight line was difficult, as my feet automatically started doing funny things.

The first dance was the Gay Gordon. As I said, these dances go back hundreds of years, and back then, they word gay meant happy, not miserable. The Gay Gordon is a circle dance, gentlemen on the inside, ladies on the outside. Four steps forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, partner in, partner out, and the lady swings under, back to the next gentlemen in the circle. That continues until each lady has danced with every gentleman in the circle.

Margie had a bit of a limp from a twisted knee, and I was getting over a bug, but we wanted to get in on the Gay Gordon. As I danced through the circle of ladies, I was doing my best Pride and Prejudice dance imitation, including the social discourse:

“Is this your first trip to Bath?”

“Have you been in Bath long?”

“Have you been to the opera yet?”

(You had to have seen the Jane Austen movies to appreciate that.)

About halfway around the circle, I was hit with a cough from the exertion of the dance. Realizing it would have been most impolite to have coughed on each lady around the circle, I desperately grabbed a noble young man on the side to take my place, while I headed for the water fountain. Gordon had to go on without me.

Later in the evening, some adult friends who had never been to one of these dances before were talked into dancing The Physical Snob. That's where you circle around, weave in and out, then join hands with your partner, elevate your noses precipitously in the air, parade in front of everyone else and pretend to be an absolute physical snob. In spite of their lack of experience, our friends caught on to that surprisingly well.

There were over two hundred people at this dance. If you sit two hundred people down in an auditorium, that doesn't seem like so many, and they can fit in a fairly small area. However, when a couple of hundred dancers go reeling and whirling and promenading all over the place, they take up a lot of room. That auditorium is as big as two gymnasiums, and the dancers filled it up from wall to wall.

Well, as quick as could be, three and half hours of dancing had passed, and the night was over. Even then, the dancers wanted to get in one last Posty's Jig.

In a world that's full of a lot of ugliness, it's nice to see some beauty. That Christian homeschool dance was beautiful. At a normal school dance, the students try very hard to be cool. At a Christian homeschool dance, the young people are very warm. That's the difference.

There is such an enormous contrast between the two cultures, the Godless public school culture and the Christian homeschool culture. In our local news this week, another female public school teacher is being prosecuted for seducing a male student. http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009305230021

Many of the comments by local people on that story showed they are not against such activity. Which is to say, the Godless public school culture is getting to the point where teachers using their students for their own lewd desires is thought to be OK.

We often hear of or from parents who are making the move to educational freedom and away from Godless socialistic education. One of the biggest factors hindering their decision is the opposition they may face from family, friends or church and pastors. These opponents of homeschooling are afraid young people will not get a quality education, such as people commonly get in the public schools, where teachers have sex with their students. If they could see one of these dances, though, with courteous, respectful young people, at a dance with their parents and young siblings, they could see the results of a truly quality education.