Stefan Merrill Block had a hard time learning about sex. For a long while, he thought that "beating off" was a brass-tacks description of a process, so he would literally slap his own organ until he grew bored.
He attempted to have an online relationship with a peer--"Skittles4U"--but he overlooked certain bits of subtext. When the "peer" sent a photo--a self-portrait of a man in his thirties--things fizzled.
In college, hoping to create a dramatic rupture within his family, Block willed himself to become gay. He encouraged his own body to ignore its "programming." No dice.
Not one of these stories is earning media attention; "Homeschooled" is buzzy because of its descriptions of Block's mentally ill mother. Block's mother--depressed and isolated in Plano, TX--kept her child home from school for something like five years. There was nothing like a curriculum. Block's mother physically assaulted her child, required him to crawl on all fours throughout the daylight hours, and had him sit in the sun for marathon stretches simply because she wanted him to "regain" the blonde "look" he'd had in infancy. No one supervised or disciplined the mom. Block's point is clear. Though schools are frequently awful, they are much, much better than "at-home education." In almost all, if not all, cases, homeschooling should *not* be an option.
I agree with Block--but I want to point out that the argument about education is just one part of a charming, effective book. Block's memoir is a success because of its voice--candid, funny, lyrical.
That night, I’m in front of the TV upstairs, sprawled out on the carpet. I crank the volume, an old rerun of The Dick Van Dyke Show is about to start, and I want nothing more than to escape into the simpler lives of the Petries. Dick Van Dyke has just done his hop around the ottoman when my brother throws open the door with such force I’ll later find a dent in the wall....
Block is a natural, and I enjoyed his memoir.
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