Mom Is Teaching

Sometimes the oddest things come across my email box. Take this for instance. The article is a review of the book “Home School” by Thomas Dunne that is apparently the sequal to “The Graduate”. Apparently Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine, is married to Benjamin and have two sons of their own now. That they homeschool, hence the title of the book and the reason Google sent me this link. But it isn’t just a part of their lives that we see as they try to move on. Homeschooling is apparently an important topic in what seems to be a bizarre book.

According to the article the storyline wraps around the sinister principle who wants them to stop homeschooling. In an act of desperation the ever alluring Mrs. Robinson is called in to seduce the principle. Now here is where I start scratching my head in confusion.

I can’t help but wonder if the prinicpal has a long, handbar mustache that he twirls. And what kind of problems is he giving them that seduction seems to be the only way out? And, lastly, is Mrs. Robinson still … you know.

Benjamin and Elaine haven’t spoken to “Nan,” or allowed her to see her grandchildren, in years, so this scheme is undertaken in desperation. Having invited the vampire in, so to speak, they find it all but impossible to get rid of her. Her arrival also coincides with a visit, for “moral support,” from a family of appalling Vermonters who are considered leaders of the homeschool movement.

What? Is this book supposed to be a joke? Is it a real sequal to “The Graduate” that we all know, or did someone decide to go a little crazy here? Is this the product of some one just wanting to hurry up and get the book written without caring about the plot or characters?

And yet, the best and funniest part of “Home School” is not a critique of corporatism and yuppie culture, but rather the book’s relentless parody of the excesses of homeschooling and intrusive parenting. The matriarch of the family from Vermont tries to breastfeed everyone in sight, and to ensnare troubled folks such as “Nan” in a hilariously groan-making New Age practice called a “Circle of Agamemnon.”

Now I’m even more confused and uncertain. Do I want to read this book or not? I just don’t know. It feels a bit like a trainwreck, I want to turn away yet I just can’t. I’m horrified to see what they’ve turned a favorite book/movie of mine into with the sequal. And equally horrified at what topics such as homeschooling and breastfeeding are displayed as.

homeschooling, book, book review, Home School, The Graduate, Thomas Dunne