It’s one of the more laughable attacks upon homeschoolers ever concocted.
And it came courtesy of a handmaiden of the mainstream media, a feminist legal theorist affiliated with the Georgetown University Law Center.
Robin L. West, in an essay titled, “The Harms of Homeschooling” (scroll down for the article), and published by the University of Maryland’s Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, argues for greater government oversight of home schooling and takes a shot at fundamentalist Christian families who are short on mammon but big on procreation.
Here’s the quote:
The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner. These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000 square foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots.
West provides no evidence of these exotic tarp-dwellers, which would have brought out the national media, anyway, if they actually existed. But I’m happy to supply an example of parking-lot homeschoolers.
That would be the MacDonald Family Singers (mom, dad, grandpa, eight kids) who spend part of the year crisscrossing the country in a coach bus while performing gospel songs at churches and nursing homes. They’ve been known to park their vehicle, overnight, in a big-box store parking lot and sleep in the bus’s beds.
The fun-loving MacDonald children, who play the trombone, trumpet, piano, banjo, flute, guitar, tuba, mandolin, fiddle, and saxophone are required to bring schoolbooks on their road trips and participate in family devotions often led – gasp – by Mr. MacDonald. When not traveling, they live in a large home in western Massachusetts.
Adventuresome homeschoolers, who have gone on similar road trips or even traveled in a big rig or a sailboat, on a shoestring budget, would likely be enemy combatants in West’s world.
Even if her silly scenario was normative, what does West have against double-wide trailer dwellers or anyone who has lived with benevolent relatives in cramped quarters, anyway? And what’s wrong with a man daring to assume spiritual responsibility for his household and a wife not only honoring him in that role, but viewing pregnancy as a blessing, not a curse? Isn’t that far more preferable to being on welfare, living in subsidized housing with only one parent and several half brothers and sisters, and having gangbangers as your neighbors, all while attending an unsafe government school run by dues-paying teacher union members who rail against global warming?
And if government oversight could deter criminal activity and keep the educational standards of these homeschooling rubes high, which is part of West’s argument against the right to homeschool, why are there so many poorly educated miscreants in the heavily-regulated, lavishly funded public schools?
In 2005 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, middle school and high school students were the victims of nearly 700,00 violent crimes, including rape and robbery. Meanwhile, The Detroit News recently reported that the Motor City’s public school test scores “were the lowest in its 40-year history.”
Railing against the harsh conditions that millions of urban schoolchildren endure daily thanks to the wonders of godless socialism, isn’t going to make the cut as an article for the Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly. But such are the fruits of a brand-name, institutionalized liberal education.
But wait; there’s more.
Their lack of job skills passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.
Mystery solved! All along I thought it was high property taxes and lack of decent-paying private-sector jobs that depress a community’s economic health. It turns out to be backwater homeschoolers with a conservative religious bent.
How then to explain Tim Tebow, the wildly popular University of Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner, thrived in such an atmosphere.
Tim, age 22, grew up on a farm outside of Jacksonville, Florida and was homeschooled by Christian missionaries. Mom made him memorize Scripture; Dad made him do chores. All of the family (Tim has four siblings.) regularly took trips to the Philippines to minister at the orphanage that Tim’s father founded.
When Tebow gets drafted by the NFL this year, he stands to make millions and render mucho taxes unto Caesar, turning him into a one-man stimulus package.
American parents sometimes choose to make informed educational choices based on the Biblical belief that it is their responsibility, not the State’s, to train, educate, and protect their children. Even the Supreme Court agrees. (See Wisconsin v. Yoder)
Until those in media and academia figure out that what often drives these choices is love, not laws, attacks on the 20th century’s greatest education reform movement will continue.
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Bravo! The State-controlled Education monopoly is enraged by all who dare live and learn outside it's thuggishly political, often violent domain.
THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE
"Their lack of job skills passed from one generation to the next"
I don't know, those words are so typical of the elitist mindset I'm hardly blown away. It's a shame that Ms. West hasn't had the opportunity to meet my roommate, another home-schooled hero like Tebow who is a pilot in the Air Force and comes from a large family, all of whom do 'normal' productive jobs (including another sibling in our nation's service). It's a shame she hasn't heard the story of another friend of mine who grew up home-schooled on a farm in rural Ohio and worked so hard he got into one of our nation's service academies, and he was the first member of his family to even go to college, let alone a prestigious institution like a service academy. I guess home-schooling just doesn't offer any hope for these 'disadvantaged' kids, who she probably thinks are brainwashed so they don't understand that they are missing out on the 'wonderful' opportunities of public schooling.
Shoot, I went to public schools and I know damn well I learned more from my parents pushing me to learn outside of school by reading and exploring subjects on my own.
I have been moving people cross-country for 30 years, so, that means that I have met thousands of families in their homes. The majority of those that home-schooled their children are mostly white-collar, well-to do whose children tend to be more respectful and intelligent. This is hard for the parents, but, they willingly take on the extra work to insure that their children have the skills and knowledge to make it in this world. It is these children that are going to be the driving force of this country(along w/private schoolers). I am an non-religious individual that would rather pay to send my daughter to a Christian school than a public hell-hole school.
I wasn’t homeschooled, but I would just like to say one thing: “The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner.” This statement has been used for years to characterize members of my religion (LDS), though it puts a negative spin on what we strongly believe is a positive thing. The majority of our members live by this rule if they can afford to do so, and the majority of our members are also well-educated and comfortably middle class.
Denigrating those who live by this idea, whether homeschooled or not, is ridiculous – and for the record, I have known several homeschooled children who are exceptionally bright. One young lady, when placed into a public first grade class, was so far ahead of the other students, she was placed into a study group of advanced third graders. And yes, her parents lived exactly as stated above.
A feminazi legal theorist is an expert on education? Well, I guess since she's "affiliated" with Georgetown Law that qualifies her. She sounds just like Chairman Maobama and half of Congress…… a law school grad who has never done an honest days work in her life. As for the idea that Christian bible-belters are the majority in home schooling their children, I have known Jews, Atheists, Buddhists and Hindus that home school. All of which were in tax brackets higher than Ms. West. If I had children they would most definitely be home schooled. The level of socialist indoctrination in the public/government schools is so astounding, I'm quite surprised that more people aren't doing it.
My homeschooled children were part of a dance team that ministered in Mexico, Europe and throughout the U.S. They've been to more places before the age of 20 than I have in my life thus far. They practiced 3 times a week, went to college, and held down part-time jobs and did their traveling in the summer. My daugher graduated college at age 20 w/ 2 majors. My kids also obtained many scholarships and grants because of their high grade point averages. My sons are completing college and highschool and holding down part-time jobs while continuing to participate in many other activities at our church. I'm so glad my husband and I have had the choice to educate our children the way we felt was BEST.
The anti-intellectuals on the left fear home schooling because in order for their brainwashing to take hold they need to have the children for a 10 year period. Home schooling would cheat them of that opportunity. Liberals are not interested in educating the kids, as a matter of fact they've been dumbing down the public school system for over 3 decades. No longer do the children read the classics but instead read sexually deviant material from degenerates like Hussein's school czar, Kevin Jennings, who should be publicly flogged and thrown into a prison population where they can teach this pedophile a few things about fisting, but I digress.
The sky-is-falling regressives have had only a modicum of success in getting school kids to believe that the sun is going to commit a fiery jihad against them if they don't get their parents to write a check to Algore Inc. This creates a dilemma for NEA minions who desire to create legions of scientifically illiterate loyal liberals that think their breath is a pollutant, so what to do?…………………
""The racial madness that has left-wing America in its thrall finds its apogee in the Berkeley, California public schools. Berkeley High School is now poised to eliminate science laboratory classes because "science labs were largely classes for white students.""
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/berkeleys_...
Harry Reid and the Berkley school board probably think people with a "negro dialect" are incapable of learning science. When I was in high school [90's] everyone took science class. I guess liberals have "progressed" so far that they just tell the minority students to not even bother showing up, it's not for "those" type of people, isn't that right you leftwing champions of minorities?
When this glittering jewel of colossal ignorance (thanks Rush!!) can help public schools figure out how to educate kids, I'll talke her advice on homeschooling.
Home schooling does not fit with the liberal socialist agenda.
"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
Vladimir Lenin
"Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."
Josef Stalin
"The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense."
Karl Marx
"We must create out of the younger generation a generation of Communists. We must turn children, who can be shaped like wax, into real, good Communists…. We must remove the children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them. From the first days of their lives they will be under the healthy influence of Communist children's nurseries and schools. There they will grow up to be real Communists."
Communist Party Education Workers Congress – 1918
She's gov't edjumacated and dumb as a rock.
Typical elitist drivel from an academic who couldn't tie their own shoes without a government grant.
It's the common folk who keep this country going while Ivory Tower academics slam it at every turn.
Revolutions are never kind to intellectuals and the coming one will be no exception. Pointy heads will roll.
Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the largest in the nation, has approx a 50% drop-out rate. Liberals in academia have failed at every level. The kids that leave LAUSD and go onto college need remedial courses in every subject.
Being a Marylander I am far from surprised with her statements, In Maryland they lowered the passing grade to 60 percent , They even bragged the next year about more students passing ( Hell Forest Gump would get an A in these schools ).. Baltimore has a 60 percent drop at rate and city schools have 1 if not 2 police officers assigned to each school due to the high crime rate.. A few years ago a teacher was attack by a student in the class room and they blamed the teacher becaused she asked the student to get out of her space, the student was in her face threatening her after the teacher asked her to leave a radio turned down.. The school board turned on the teacher and said she wasn't trained properly in defussing these type of situations..
Heres the secret she's not talking about, the schools are paid per student per day they attend, so it boils down to " Get those large family's in school as we need the money"..
Excellent article and excellent posts above. Yep, they just want to get at our kids because 'the elites know best'. Expect more home schools and private (underground?) schools to crop up as obamachine unleashes Kevin Jennings and company.
Exactly!
I home-schooled our daughters for most of their education. They did attend High School so they would be able to attend college with out problems (which I admit my husband and I regret). When they entered college, their Professors loved their work ethic, which was superior to most students. The Prof's also were surprised at their exposure to the classics in literature, music and fine arts. Though we found the indoctrination of our girls still set them back in their journey's, they have all come back to their conservatives roots.
I think that West's statement, "The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner. These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000 square foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots", shows she has no understanding of what it means to be a family, with the joys of teaching ones own children the riches this world has to offer. I also find her elitism offensive to think that living in in a trailer park is somehow a bad thing. This woman is haughty and I suspect has never understood the desire to nurture ones child the best way you can, even on a budget.
Excellent! You could not have made a better argument!
What I love most about all of Breitbart's sites is…….the total absense of leftist Trolls. I don't know why they don't post comments, but am so happy they don't as they ruin the comment section of any sites they post on.
Praise the Lord and honey see to the kids.
I went and read the PDF, expecting it not to be as bad as Mr. Lyman made it out to be. Boy was I wrong. It was worse. Check out this section on the "political harm" done by homeschooling:
Fourth, there are political harms. Fundamentalist
Protestant adults who were homeschooled over the last
thirty years are not politically disengaged, far from it.
They vote in far higher percentages than the rest of the
population. They mobilize readily. The “army” in
which adult homeschooled citizens are soldiers has
enormous clout: homeschoolers were called “Bush’s
Army” in 2000 and 2004 for good reason. Their capacity
for political action is palpable and admirable,
although doubly constrained: it is triggered by a call
for action by church leaders, and in substance, it is limited
to political action the aim of which is to undermine,
limit, or destroy state functions that interfere
with family and parental rights. Nevertheless, and by
their own accountings, these citizen-soldiers in the
“homeschooling movement” and the various political
campaigns in which they are enlisted have no clout in
the army in which they serve. They are as effective as
they are, and as successful as they are, because they
engage in politics in the same way that soldiers participate
in combat. They don’t question authority, and
they can’t go AWOL. With little education, few if any
job skills, and scant resources, their power either to
influence the lines of authority within their own
sphere, or to leave that sphere, is virtually nil.
Wow, just wow. Really. This is an impressive fantasy. She really thinks that there are armies of powerless, poorly educated homeschool-bots out there. And their influence is clearly harmful (unlike the influence of, say, the armies of powerless, poorly-educated rock-the-voters), because they support conservative causes — but not because they understand them (duh, if they understood the issues, they'd be liberals, right?), no, because they are the hapless tools of their nefarious "church leaders."
Exactly who is wearing the tin-foil hat here?
One of the aids in my son's classroom walked by me on campus today wearing a Pink for Peace T-shirt.
A stink against Pink will be made tomorrow and I don't think the principal is going to be happy.
The phenomenon of home schooling is a HUGE threat to the left which explains their disdain for it. The easiest form of mind control starts in schools. Once kids are in the public school system it's very hard to un-do what they've been taught; there is no God; the state is their creator; there are no values other than what you determine for yourself, etc. And of course, as home school kids outperform many in public schools, then their fears get compounded. Not only are HS kids independent, but they're better educated, as well.
How could the left NOT be threatened by this?
The only "harm" of homeschooling is to the Left. The Left can't easily indoctrinate homeschooled children into the warped utopia of Liberalism. SInce they can't brainwash the homeschooled kids, they are out to attack the homeschoolers by using the typical Leftist attacks.
Actually, Geoff, we get our share of trolls, but we know how to make them disappear quickly – sharp replies and lots of laughter.
The citizens who are educated outside of the 'system' will be the citizens who will rescue this country. They will be the ones to ask questions without fear. They will demand their rights, and disregard obtuse legalese, used to deny those rights, as the founders intended. When you are raised to fend for yourself, and think for yourself, your home is your castle and your liberty is your lifeline.
BIg Bear, if I had been drinking, you would owe me a keyboard! I am going to use that one!
I have a friend, male, who homeschooled four of his five children until about two years ago; the oldest two are both in college with full rides, the youngest is a 17 year old freshman.
Very Catholic, great family that really loves one another, and supports one another…..quick, someone tell Janet N that there are new additions for the watch list!
"Their lack of job skills passed from one generation to the next"
I only home schooled 3 (two engineers and a junior in college studying opera) but I guess with a measly Master's Degree and my husband's PhD we probably weren't qualified. But I invite you to look at this family, not satisfied with their own 5, they adopted 3 from Haiti.
http://www.lukehamsandwich.com/
Obviously they are oblivious to the "Harms of Homeschooling."
Big_Bear,
I’m afraid that the revolution has already begun, and that the empty homes you mention will be the ones formerly occupied by certain enemies of the State, Republicans, Christians, “teabaggers”, old folks, the infirm, and any others whose lives are not deemed compatible with the new Utopia.
Unless you mean, after all of that takes place, the next revolution, fifty or so years from now. Yeah, then. Good news.
My 17 year old thanks me… monthly… saying, "thank you for not sending me to high school." The grinding is gross, the teachers are arrogant fools, the students are vacant, clueless. Oh… yes… she is graduating this May… with a state school bachelors…. accepted in a top ten engineering school's doctoral program. Neither of us are impressed…. ha ha ha ha ha. We sell what you buy and we live on your money without your approval… how sad you are.
Read John Taylor Gatto, especially "The Underground History of American Education."
This book really tied it all together for me.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/index….
"They don’t question authority, and
they can’t go AWOL. With little education, few if any
job skills, and scant resources, their power either to
influence the lines of authority within their own
sphere, or to leave that sphere, is virtually nil."
Ok. So she is referring here to Obama voters who believe that Obama is going to pay all their bills and life is going to be perfect, right? Talk about projection. . .
I get so sick of people attacking families that home school by portraying them as religious zealots. I have no problem with religion personally but I am not religious and maybe the real reason some of us want to home school is simply the fact that we can do a better job than the leftist indoctrination centers we call schools.
I want my child to have the ability to think for themselves and explore everything. As a homeschooler I guarantee he can have a more hands on education in which his creativity will no be stifled.
Texas is the place for home schooling. That's one of the reasons I am moving back.
My brother-in-law's wife homeschools each of their three boys for one year at a time, then the child goes back to Catholic school and she brings the next one home for a year. Two of them are starting soccer players at high school and one is applying for the Naval Academy next year. He is an airline pilot and flew fighters in the first Gulf war. She is a member of a family that has a 33,000 acre ranch. No trailers, though.
Yes I see the grammar error. HAhahaha
I wish there were some way to make MORE visible your comment (besides voting for it)
A socialist state can only be successful if everyone is dependent on, and entirely trusting of 'the state.'
Homeschooling most certainly destroys any inroads the state might have in indoctrinating the next generation of atheist/agnostic communists.
I wish one of these education experts would investigate the American penal system, and find out what percentage of inmates were home-schooled, how many attended private schools, and how many had public school educations.
Let's watch these home schooled kids run rings around the children subjected to the public schools indoctrination. Johnny thinks 2 plus 2 is 5 but he feels good about himself. I detest these liberal elitists who look down their noses at the rest of society. THEY are the parasites looking to keep the host alive through tax dollars.
And since they can't dispute our test scores….
My Mama use to say, "Some people go to college as a fool and return as an educated fool"…she must have met some of these elite leftists fools.
I only wish I had the budget that public schools get PER student. We would be taking some dandy cross-country and trans-world field trips.
Terrorists? Meh. Homeschoolers? Yikes!
Oh yes, the old and tired "submissive" wife thing. Feminists are -always- saying that. So if I want to stay home and raise kids I'm somehow "submissive". Yet another example of feminists saving their worst vitriol for other women.
This is pretty funny. I would probably be dragged to see that show by my wife.
She grew up in a similar Home Schooled environment, then a one room school by a little old lady from Northern Canada who taught them in Japan.. Same for her two younger sisters, and older brother. They were missionary kids, "stranded on the remote Northern Shores of Japan" in Kashawazaki prefecture. Their parents lowly Bible College graduates.
So how did it turn out do you think ? Well 40 years later, she's one of the two top teachers on the Back side of Berkeley CA … Classical Piano, studied with 3 concert pianists including the principal pianist for the Chicago Symphony; her baby sister ? Full ride PhD program at Notre Dame, her other sister only an MS while her Husband did an Econ PhD at Cal Berkeley … her lowly brother ? PhD linguistics University of Chicago, youngest tenured Professor in the History of Univ. of Minnesota and has been tenured and at Harvard for the last 20 years … specialty … Japanese.
It worked out for them I guess. They had a rich life, all were around the world several times as a family. But they didn't play much team basketball or water polo. Big deal. Her Father eventually finished his PhD in adult Ed at Oxford England and Indiana University so he went just a little farther than Prarie Bible Institue I guess. He helped found Tokyo Christian College where he was on Faculty for about 45 years.
Egad — tho — the wife tried to Homeschool our kids when we were stranded for 6 years in a corporate move in that Sh_thole Stockton USD in CA. How'd that work out ? Well when we got to the #1 school district in CA and put them in … they were two years ahead. Litterally bored out of their skulls the first year. But they did get to play team Baseball, Football, and womens LaCrosse … and did OK. UCSB, UC Berkeley, and two Graduate cum laude in pre med and Economics from Wheaton College (IL)
The Abeka Curriculum was pretty excellent.
Family seems to be a thing Americans have a bit of trouble with. (And it appears you are an exception, bravo!) I say this from the perspective of one who wasn't born here. I came to America when I was in my teens. In general it seems Americans don't have any sort of normal family life. In college I was the -only- American citizen with parents not divorced and who had regular contact with extended family. There's also a sort of strange push to shove kids out when they're 18 for some insane reason. I've never been able to figure out why. (I probably won't.) I do know that I needed my parents most when I was 18. I know I wouldn't have made it if they'd kicked me out.
Oh and since I'm on a rant…. Why exactly is it considered wonky for guys to live with their parents as well? That is one of the most annoying American cultural traits. (I have cousins in the "old country" who are single and married that live at home and nobody thinks a thing about it!) If I find out a guy is living with his parents I think he's a smart one and they tend to be more mature. Guys that "make their own way" I've found tend to be more juvenile and in general quite boorish. Which… actually about describes 90% of American guys my age that I've met. Juvenile and boorish. (Sorry guys, it's the truth!)
A huge USC fan and anything but a Gator fan.
Tim Tebow is such a warrior. After football watch out for this guy.
Robin West and rest of these intellectual elites will go to any lengths to put the brakes on this movement. It's not that they care about children, they don't. They care that the child or children in question, are not getting the Leftist indoctrination from the local public Madrassa, in order to keep the flow of "societal suicide bombers" coming at us non stop.
It's completely effective. My daughter has two Conservative parents, yet she has been an avowed socialist since middle school and upon graduation from U of Madrassa, got a job with a local democrat Congresswoman…
I hope home schooling examples, like Tim Tebow, continue to be highlighted in the NewMedia, becaue there isn't a snowballs chance in hell, the LSM will ever bring it up, except to critize it.
Is there a test required of Home Schooling Parents? Are they required to demonstrate their proficiency in teaching the 3 R's?
More importantly, if we allow non-union 'teachers' to play a role in the education system; are their any guarantees that liberal principles, political correctness and diversity will be appropriately included in the curriculum?
Time really look closely at this home schooling issue.
One of my lady friends is a typical homeschooler: Divorced mom, Christian, has primary custody of her kids… except for the fact that she's an MIT engineering graduate with an IQ that could instantly vaporize water.
I'm trying to get to know her better. LOL!
I home school my children. I do this because I love my children. I am not an oppressed wife. I am my children’s father. The people I have met who do home school are not suppressed housewives nor do they have 50 million children. In fact most of them have only two to three. Ironically, I live in my 38 foot RV in an upscale RV resort. This is partly by choice and partly because I cannot sell my house that just a few years ago would have fetched 3/4 of a million dollars. It makes it easier to move when your unsuppressed wife is poised for her 3rd promotion in 3 years. A growing number of parents are home schooling their children for varying reasons. One common thread we share is the enjoyment of teaching our children one on one. Not everyone can home school, send their kids to private or move where there are better public schools. Thus are forced to send their kids to deplorable government run schools. Then when they have a chance they have to deprogram them from the indoctrination they received. I am raising two little independent thinkers which I guess in the eyes of elitists or the statists make me the antichrist…but I know better.
I don't know what it's like where you live but the HSers always win the spelling bees. They make good responsible adults and that production line in the public is almost dead. Remember that life is the journey, death is the destination. Let everyone live their own lives.
Excuse me, who the He!! is Robin West and why would anyone care what she thinks? I mean besides trashing a significant contributing cultural base of the nation, just what makes her God? Please lady, go inspect your navel. Consider that you weren't aborted, and gee aren't you glad about that? How does it feel to be judged and found worthless? Work at it and maybe you'll get a clue. These people you have such a disgust of, manage to lead happy and full lives, freely chosen and they do it without your input or your blessing. Most don't know WHO you are. But try and interfere with their rights to live a quality life, they'll finally know you for WHAT you are. A vapid, vicious, insecure, overbearing threat.
Does Queen Bee Arianna give you a test to join the drone squad.???..Come to think of it, you sound like the leader of the "liberal principle instruction team"….Diversity of thought (as long as it's lib), political correctness( cencorship), and admiration of leftist dictators (Hugo's our man!…) …You people are a mess….
When I was 16, I attended a job corps and although under a different Dept than Carter's Education (Labor, Vinnel corp) I still consider myself to have been under the wing and childhood raising of Big Wonderful Nanny government. I lived on an old Air Force base where we submissively (sp?) waxed and buffed floors at the command of our patriarch the residential advisors
at less than min wage ( 12 bucks every two weeks) The food was bad and I even had a bad case of food poisoning one time (where was the FDA!) the education consisted of getting a GED and if you could endure the transplanted urban jungle for a little longer then a meaningless trade certificate.
I felt unloved by Nanny then and I feel that big nanny Gov is still unloving to her childrens at job corps everywhere this day. Why is she so busy harping on the edumacations and living conditions of homeschool kids? Why isn't she totally focussed on my younger siblings? MOM!!! look at US!!! and quit harping over the homeschoolers WE NEEED YOU!!!!
"Their lack of job skills passed from one generation to the next"
That may explain the high unemployment rate and multi-generational welfare culture in so many inner cities; all those inner city youths are home schooled.
OH WAIT!! I'm a libertarian (thank you Bush for sending me running) and aint supposed to be pushing for state power and money.
The best thing about my Nannygov nest at the old air base was getting stoned out the gourd on weed and hanging off the third floor fire escapse.. I guess it was a good thing that she was such a busy body and never took the time to see
what was happening under her nose.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time until home schooling goes the way of trans fats.
"limited to political action the aim of which is to undermine, limit, or destroy state functions that interfere with family and parental right"
And don't you ever forget it. We are out to undermine you. Just don't go thinking you're some all-star standout. We aren't nearly as limited as you think. You better believe it girlie.
You remind me of one of the moms I knew when my niece and nephew were going to Christian high school. She homeschooled her four kids – they had an arrangement with the school for her kids to take accelerated math courses and play sports. Her kids were the brightest, most polite, and well rounded kids I've had the pleasure to be around.
Good for you.
My kids are in public school and I debate frequently with myself over it. I had home-schooled my daughter when she was younger but she was kind of lonely because the programs in our area didn't have any kids her age. I had taught in private school in our area and, unfortunately, learned that private schools are not necessarily better (I was one of two credentialed teachers at the whole school). So we opted for public school– warts and all– and my daughter has been happy there. But you bet I watch what's going on and I'd raise heck if I saw a Code Pink T-shirt in the classroom too. *Sigh* I won't be able to do that when they go to college though…
I think it is a mistake to characterize all home schoolers as "Christian", "rural", or anything other label. I have met several different families who have chosen that path for their children and they have been accepted to elite universities. MIT actually courts home schooled students during the application process.
The bottom line is the education system in our country is broken. It does not exist to educate but to provide jobs for new graduates from the Education Dept. at the local University.
And it produces idiots. Twelve years of public education did nothing for me – except for, possibly, teaching me how to write in cursive.
If I could go back in time I would have skipped school more often and left the public system sooner. My parents didn't really concern themselves much about my education and homeschool would have NEVER have happened in
my household though my Mom was a submissive "tried" to stay at home Mom (Dad was alway wanting her up his behind and wanted her at the place of business all the time) I would have hit the library much more and used bookstores. Would have worked under the table and stashed the cash. THEN at 16 I woulda gone to Job Corps but with a suitcase full of cartons of cigarettes and with the understanding that I'm here to self study and make money so to one day transcend comfortably into a community college with the GED. I still woulda got stoned but only when offered.
Boy howdy! They don't like to have to defend themselves for very long. They use their talking points that can't be defended and eventually they disappear and then come back like a bad stink. The most confusing thing to me is one guy Syntax_Game has pretty high reputation score and that threw me for a while cause he is such an anti-semite. Thefonz and Mikatollah are the two others I know, they too are anti-semite. My avatar is hard for them to resist!
My sister-in-law (a ICU RN) and her husband (he’s military) homeschooled their son because they didn’t want him going to the horrible D.C. public schools. They live in a nice house that is a far cry from a 1000sq ft trailer and she is the primary bread winner. I’m amazed that we, normal working stiffs, are not calling out these nut jobs on the left that see nothing wrong in publishing bold face lies.
Many of our founding fathers were home-schooled and/or self educated. Their independent thinking led to a revolution. The liberals do have a lot to fear. I am sure the King of England had the same ignorant opinion of these uncultured, backwards rebels in the 1770s. As oppressors of thought and free will, like Robin L. West continue to take over and divide/destroy this country, you will eventually have civil war.
Let’s look at some of her fallible arguments:
1) “First, children who are homeschooled with no state regulation are at greater risk for unreported and unnoticed physical abuse” Yes we need the “State” to come in and inspect us to ensure we are raising our children appropriately. Somehow I think the parent that takes the time and sacrifice to home school their children are much less likely to abuse their children. But hey, the “State” knows best….
2) “Second, there’s a public health risk” – Yes those of us who home school our children also do not believe in seeing the doctor and getting our children immunized. Now if the “State” takes over the healthcare system as many liberals propose, this might actually come true.
3) “Third, public and private schools provide for many children…a safe haven in which they are both regarded and respected independently and individually.”….Really? with all of the violent crimes, gangs, drug use, sexting and other sexual experimentation, etc, in our schools you really are trying to argue this? Wow….
4) “Fourth, there are political harms” and in here lies her true bias/hidden agenda. The “State” cannot influence or political indoctrination….wow that’s got to be one of the best arguments for home schooling yet.
5) “Child-raising that is relentlessly authoritarian risks instilling what developmental psychologists call “ethical servility”: a failure to mature morally beyond the recognition of duties of obedience.” Evidently this woman has no experience and did not take the time to study her subject matter before opining (typical of liberal elitists). Students spend much of the time in self study and choosing topics to report on. The parent isn’t standing there shouting out orders all day long.
6) “The educational harm is the most immediate, direct risk of unregulated homeschooling.” Her argument is that without “State” oversight there is no guarantee of the quality of the education. While I would argue the average homeschooler is well above those that are in the public school system, there are some that slip through the cracks. However, this is far better that the “State” guarantee of mediocrity and failure.
7) “Finally, the economic harms.” Here she specifically takes a swipe at the so called radically fundamentalist movement being lower income, where is the evidence that they have a lower income? Where is the evidence that this has anything to do with the quality of the education they receive? How do you know their children’s’ future income potential does not exceed that of their parents? Do poor people not have the same rights as those with more money? I guess we should keep them in the Govt provided projects and send them to failed “State” schools.
Now when I was in school and had to right argumentative papers, we used to have to use facts to back up our claims. I guess in her “State” dictated education system we no longer need be concerned with facts. They just get in the way.
I'm sure our family and our kids will make the watch list as well. They all have started their college education in 10th grade, completing their Associates' degrees by December after they graduated high school. One was a swimming coach several years while in college, and another won the county 4-H community service award (over 1500 hrs in a year).
It's amazing how well kids can do when they are raised and educated by their parents, and not by strangers. How well they can do when their main interactions are with adults, and not peers. Leaders among their peers in academics, sports, and in groups/clubs on college campus (one while in 11th grade I might add).
And, among those who choose to homeschool and make that sacrifice for a one income family, we know of several families who have done and are doing likewise.
It's amazing how smart they can be and how fast they mature (or at least seem a lot more mature than any their age) when they are free from all that wasted time preparing for the standardized testing, and actually are expected to learn material appropriate for their education.
Normal kids given individualized educational opportunities in which they flourish. What a novel idea.
From an academic who will home school the children she has once she and her husband are certain that their marital bliss will last past the routine doldrums of early academic life, which is rife with rejection and periodic unemployment, I offer the following:
1) The journal that this drivel is in I use as bedding for my pet rats. It's way low on the list of journals people should get fired up about.
2) You should be more worried that this was "peer reviewed". There are at least 2 others who agree with her. They're probably teaching other's children right now as well. It's not just one person, it's 3!
3) Not all academics are like this. Many of us homeschool as well, you just never hear about it. We homeschool mostly because we look at the education majors we teach and think "You cannot speak coherently. You self-disclose you came to college for an MRS degree and are going to leave with a master's in STD. I hate your outlook on life you half-witted, grade grubbing, special snowflake. Your 'ideas' (pulled straight from Wikipedia) aren't coming anywhere near my child".
I have had 5 miracles given to me by Almighty God! He thought it so important that he allowed me to show the medical community that a woman can have 5, count them 5, c-sections. He even allowed me to tell the doctor that tried to talk me into abortion of my 4th child that "God gave me this baby and no man will take it from me" and then to prove him wrong again I had yet another baby and another c-section. And then… I homeschooled them and we lived in a old trailer and I stayed home and baked cookies like a proper mother and wife. I have raised 4 men and one woman willing to do the same…All Americans…take that Ms. West! What a great day to be alive and an American!!!
"…a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children…"
1) If a mother decides to take responsiblilty for her children's education, isn't that taking initiative?
2) Is there nothing more submissive than letting a public school district dumb down your kids?
A couple of things to ponder…
Thank you. Though for the purpose of transperancy I admit to being a one-income Christian family (only 4 kids) living in a 1200 sq ft home, we choose to homeschool because as a public school educator(licensed by the state with a degree in my field from a private college) I saw the struggle to provide quality education to all students in even good schools. Our kids love to read and ask me to read to them some more. Our 4 yr old runs around the house making jokes about Archimedes while my 9 yr old observes Aztec symbols in Lego sets and our 10 year old alternates between school work and piano. I won't even go in to the discussions about the basis for our freedom in America I've had with my 7 yr old. They're terribly anti-social(note sarcasm) with more friends and birthday parties (from all school options) to keep up with. Are these 4 kids any better or more wonderful than kids in a traditional setting? Hardly. Are their parents more wonderful or conscientious than parents of kids in a traditional setting? Definitely not. This is just how we choose to prepare our kids to be adults and citizens of a great nation.
Gee, I didn’t realize we had done everything wrong with our three kids. My husband and I homeschooled them for 20 years. I guess the damage is done. Let’s tally up the results, shall we: Our oldest child received a full scholarship to VMI and is now the training officer on one of the Navy’s newest destroyers. Our second child received a huge wad of scholarships to attend a private college and graduated with a vocal performance degree. She’s a teacher. Our youngest, who is enrolled in a private high school this year, carries a 3.93 GPA and is loved by all her teachers. All three kids are well mannered, involved in their local communities, patriotic, and — gosh — dare I say it — thankful to God.
As an African-American woman who is a trained teacher, I have seen the harm that the public schools system does to children of all races. Rather than teach subject matter, you are asked to go against a particular moral standard that many people have in general. Yes, I am one of those mothers who is homeschooling her 7 kids (which is a crime). My husband & myself are breadwinners. We live in a house w/out tarps. My oldest is 19 and is self-employed (with her own business) and will soon attend culinary school. She is well-rounded and a good human being which is what society desperately needs. My other children are respectful, kind and generous…..and very intelligent. My oldest son (11) is currently writing a book. Could public school give this type of inspiration? I say NO! So all you elitist can go pound sand. Stop your lies and propanganda…some of us will not buy the crap you all sell.
Homeschool4life
BEST post I've read on here!!! You might want to 'capitalize' on that T-shirt and put them on the market! They will sell like hot cakes!!!
Good news for the trailer park crowd, though. After the revolution, there will be plenty of empty homes formerly occupied by elitist intellectuals for you all to live in.
Yep, where do you have time, as a mother, to do all you need to do to keep the home running (with the kids at home doing what kids do best with a home), and keep your sanity, if you're browbeating and domineering your children.
That's the joy of homeschooling. The kids have their requirements. The mom helps as needed, once they are of age, and does what she needs to do otherwise. Both blossom.
Obviously Ms. West has not been introduced to the many home schooling families, who pack their days with school work, visits to the local Y for swim class, tai kwan do, ballet, art and hook up with other families for day trips to factories, federal buildings, science outings, only to end their day with choir practice and violin, piano or flute practice.
They teach economic responsibility by having home banks where children learn to pay bills, save for a rainy day, write checks and run a household economy. And in their spare time they play, pretend games and games outdoors like bike riding and hopscotch! They are not bemoaning the fact that they don't have the latest style mini skirt or see through t shirt or even the latest Hannah Montana cd. Unfortunately for Ms West, she has not had the joyful experience of being with children who are happy, secure, well educated and Homeschooled!
Will we ever get our schools back. The Department of education experiment has been a failure. It is nothing more than a state run propaganda machine designed to indoctrinate our children and weaken us as people. There is nothing more noble than to raise and educate your children, yes, with your own values and religious beliefs as opposed to those of the govt. Exactly what values do they have to pass on to our children anyway? The time has come for people to take responsibility for their children again. If we continue to allow their education to come from the govt, the internet, and marathon sessions of play station 3, then our future is lost.
'West argues for greater government oversight…'
Of COURSE she would! It's part of a Libs' DNA to argue for as much 'government oversight' as possible. In everything and everywhere! Her very existence depends on that being so!
Ah, but to libs, a service academy is NOT a prestigious institution – rather, it is a den of murderers indoctrinating some of our otherwise best and brightest into a new generation of murderers.
Question for you: why do we allow union goons posing as teachers to work in the Welfare Schools?
Maybe you were in the wrong part of the country? I grew up in middle America and most of my peers still had both parents as did I. The thing that I find the most shameful about this culture is the almost obsessive drive people have to move so far away from their family breaking extended families up. My parents, cousins, aunt, and sister all live within a 3-4 hour drive, and we all get together regularly. Some of my favorite memories of growing up were during the holidays when the everyone, from grandparents down, gathered at the table to play cards for hours at a time or played croquet outside for hours at a time. This idea that one's parents are to be avoided at all costs once you grow up is completely foreign to me.
Congrats! We also homeschooled. Our youngest is a freshman in college. My kids have also traveled the world with us while being schooled.
One point……all homeschoolers do NOT homeschool for religious reasons. Our kids studied all religions and met all kinds of people in our travels. We chose to homeschool because we wanted our kids to have the best education.
You forget which side has the guns. I'd like to see them try coming for me and mine. I won't go looking for them (unless things really go beyond the pale), but they better not come looking for me.
Stanford University is one of many top-tier institutions that specifically prefer homeschooled students.
Why should school curricula include anything to do with politics and plitical belief systems unless you are dealing with the subject of government or current events?
I was completely unaware that "liberal" or "conservative" had anything to do with being able to read, write, do arithmetic, understand science, and have a grasp of history.
In fact, if I found out that the schools were spending more time teaching my children political correctness, divdersity, and liberal principles than they were teaching the basic fundamentals of good education, including critical thinking skills, I'd be livid. Those three things you mention are not appropriate school subjects until one gets into higher education, and some would question their appropriateness even then.
"….Their lack of job skills passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base….."
Right, public education doesn't properly prepare children. Erm, oh she was talking home schooled kids!?
Her "argument" against homeschooling is one of the strongest arguments -against- public education.
"sigh" Good grief there has been attacks on homeschoolers ever since it started to become popular in Christian (and I might add non Christian) families. I have three older brothers and we were all homeschooled. My oldest brother has a small disability so he was not able to do collage. My second brother became an RN nurse, and graduated top of his class. My third brother graduated from collage with a degree in mass communications advertising, and is now going into law school. I'm still in high school, but I recently had my PSAT and I made National Merits. All of my brothers work, and I work. Granted my mom has not worked ever since she became a mom, but God has always provided us with what we have need. Maybe their just jealous of how smart we are, and what good workers we generally turn out to be?
When was the last time you heard the Main Stream Media say such things about the Muslim faith. Apparently their women are liberated while having to walk seven paces behind their men wearing a burqa. At least Christian women have a choice. If they choose to leave the faith, they may be excommunicated, but they don't get stoned to death. I think that being able to stay home with your children if you so choose, is very honorable and rewarding.
Actually, West's moronic viewpoint is the best sales pitch for homeschooling, as it is obvious she wasn't because no homeschooled individual could be that stupid. What a feminist buffoon.
As a former teacher of 20 years, if you saw what cr@p passes for education in most of our nation's schools, you'd yank your kids out so fast, and home-school them too.
"Until those in media and academia figure out that what often drives these choices is love, not laws, attacks on the 20th century’s greatest education reform movement will continue."
Amen, Sister
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4lZwshUpE
How come a home schooled girl became a spelling bee champion if they are nothing more than trailer park trash?
The quotes by West are hilarious and it is apparent that she has not really crossed paths with any of these families she claims to know so much about! As a wife that joyfully submits to her husband in a family that survives on one income and yes, lives in a tiny trailor of sorts, I just had to laugh. We are a full-time RV family, educating our children while traveling throughout the US in our motor home. I guess I'll have to think twice next time we consider pulling into a Walmart parking lot for the night, lest we be classified as the trailor trash she refers to. Very funny.
WOW! HOW WRONG CAN SHE BE? My husband is a nuclear engineer, we were pioneer homeschoolers. Both of our children hold Master of Law Degrees, the eldest is a Intellectual Property Attorney with a major USA Company. LOOK OUT Liberals. . . there is another generation being EDUCATED at HOME . . . our grandchildren are starting homeschool. To all you home schoolers KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Remember that many of our founding fathers were Homeschooled!!
Lorben,
I'm not sure, but I think you can pick up "reputation points" on any sites that utilize INTENSEDEBATE.
So, trolls like Syntax_Game may be very popular on some, let's say, "unsavory" websites.
P.S. That's a very beautiful avatar you got there, Ma'am. Shalom !
You totally and completely rock, you know.
I invite you to also read this response to Ms. West's essay. It is from The Home School Legal Defense Association which fights tirelessly for homeschooling families and their rights as parents. In addition to the wonderful artice here, it offers more proof of the hard work and sacrifices that home schooling families make and how these sacrifices pay off in the long term. http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/201001050.asp
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world…. I am the proud mother of 6 home-schooled children. Two are four year college graduates from regionally accredited universities and the rest in college or college-prep. My family owns a national education franchise. We have seen first hand the horrors of the public school system in the inner city and suburbs. We are grateful everyday for the freedom to home-school and are actively supporting our married children in their plans to home-school our grandchildren. I hope families like ours cause the liberals to have nightmares!
The Washinton elites and pundits and insiders have nothing but contempt for the rest of us. Marie Antoinette could not have more casual disdain for us, the unwashed. As I eat my cake, load my musket, and sharpen my sword, I am preparing for the next battle – National broadband.
At a recent FCC meeting on the subject of national broadband in Memphis, TN, the FCC representative stated his premise as “national broadband is a right” and later suggested that it was “like a civil right”. When someone made a comment about the seeming socialist bent and the fact that their minds seem to already be made up, that someone was thanked for his comment and the “discussion” about our new “civil right” continued.
The Liberal Federal Government has already decided that you will have national broadband. This is the opening salvo to limit and restrict the free flow of information on the internet. Just like Obama Care, this is just a starting point. Moreover, this is a direct threat to sites such as this one. Instead of assaulting Talk Radio first with the Fairness Doctrine, they are assaulting Breitbart and all sites like this one. THE LIBERAL ARE COMING, THE LIBERALS ARE COMING. Patriots pick up your muskets and unite. THIS MUST BE STOPPED!
Personally raising the next generation is the best revenge.
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