Refusing to Take the Path of Least Resistance

This is a picture of a few of the various computer programs I used during the many years I was home-schooled. There is a math, a couple of science, and also an all in one program. I'm not really sure why we still have these because no one uses them.

I chose this picture to represent the concept of refusing to take the path of least resistance in the social location of my home. What this image represents to me is the time and effort that was put forth by my father to provide me with an education through home-schooling. The reason I feel that this embodies the concept that was introduced by Johnson is because it was my father doing the educating. Johnson defines paths of least resistance as something that "define[s] certain behavior and values as appropriate and expected." (79-80) I feel that the expected behavior on the part of my parents, and my father in particular, would have been to either send me to "regular" school like almost everyone else or for my mother to take up home-schooling while my father worked outside the home. My dad chose to stay at home with me while my mom went to work outside of the home, and in addition to being a caretaker to me he was also my teacher. In multiple instances I've had people react with surprise (and perhaps uncertainty?) when they hear it was my not my mother doing the home-schooling. They seem to question whether my father was "fit" for that task, and also question why my mother would not want to stay home with me. By engaging in this behavior, my mom and dad took the path of least resistance when it came to how they chose to raise me and parent me, and they often faced questions about why they did it the way they did. As Johnson says, some people may feel restricted and even trapped by the rules that are put in place by the systems around us, but it is easier to simply go along with those rules rather than make some sort of change. (80)