By Rejane Migliore
What started as an idea for a new video by a Trevecca sophomore became one of the biggest hits on YouTube last week.
Jordan Taylor, a 20- year-old English major, posted a video called “Seven Lies About Homeschooling,” last week and it is now the number three most viewed video in the comedy category.
In only six days, the video has more than 500,000 views, according to the YouTube website chart.
Taylor has since been busy receiving e-mails, messages through Facebook and YouTube, text messages, and phone calls congratulating him on having more than half a million views on his video.
“I did not expect that a four minute video would get 500,000 hits in three days,” Taylor said.
Taylor and his two siblings, Josh and Amy (also Trevecca students) started with a list of about 12 broad misconceptions about kids who learn at home rather than at school. Then the list came down to seven, more precise ones. These misconceptions were also part of their lives, since Taylor and his siblings were homeschoolers from kindergarten to high school.
The video was dedicated to Taylor’s mother as a gift on her birthday. It was posted January 16, 2012, and on Jan. 17, on Taylor’s mother birthday, the video was a success.
“I went to my mother’s bedroom to give her a kiss and wish her a happy birthday and my mother said to me, ‘Thank you for being famous on my birthday,’” Taylor said.
Taylor and his brother started making videos about six years ago, but he considers their first videos dumb and they stopped making videos for about two years.
One day, Taylor’s brother suggested doing videos every Monday, and that is when their mother pitched in.
“My mother said to call it Messy Mondays,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s brother, Josh, writes the scripts and edits the videos. The 4-minute homeschooling video took about three hours to make. Taylor did not think the video could be a success because he said it was too long for viewers to watch and he didn’t really think it was that funny.
“Every time I think a video is funny but not really, really funny, it generally gets pretty big and it’s a good sign,” Taylor said.
Taylor said he grew up hearing the same misconceptions about homeschooling that were on the video. There were also situations that people looked at him and his siblings, wondering why they were not in school during school hours, like the other kids their age.
One of the situations that Taylor still remembers is when they took a break after finishing their school work, and went to a grocery store. The grocery store cashier asked his mother why her kids were not in school, and Taylor’s mother would respond, ‘they are homeschooling.’
One of the most important things about homeschooling for Taylor was the time spent with his parents.
“In homeschooling, one can have a better relationship with parents, and also, parents can teach you how to think, not what to think,” Taylor said.“I feel like in school, in general, you are getting indoctrinated to how you’re suppose to think, and I think homeschooling teaches you to think better.
One of Taylor’s superheroes as a child was Bibleman. He has all the videos, but worries that there isn’t much “cool” for Christian kids to watch.
“I made a list of things that I want to do before I die, and one of the things is to make Christian entertainment cool again,” he said.
