Teachers’ Union Calls Home-Schooling Threat to Unity

AZCONSERVATIVE ^ | 7 June 2008 | John Semmens

[John Semmens]

The issue of whether parents ought to be allowed to home-school their children will be heard before the California Court of Appeals later this month. A lower court declared the practice illegal under California law earlier this year.

The California Teachers Association filed an amicus brief urging the court to uphold the lower court’s decision. According to the brief, “allowing parents to teach their own children is educational anarchy. It would privatize a function that has long been held the prerogative of the state.”

“These home-schoolers insert a barrier between the state and its young citizens,” the brief continued. “This supplants the inculcation of a uniform philosophy of life with a cacophony of individualized world-views. This foments disagreement and dissention that undermine faith in our government and its leaders.”

The brief also assailed the “inherent inequalities flowing from individualized instruction. Test results consistently show home-schooled students out-performing publicly-educated students. Inasmuch as home-schooling is carried out by those unqualified to teach, these results must be attributed to genetic factors. Withholding these more talented children from the public school population disadvantages their less talented peers who lose the benefit of intellectual stimulation from having these brighter students in class.”

The brief demanded the forcible enrollment of all children in the public schools “in the name of equality and the general welfare.”

[conservative cat]

Wow- this sentence alone is enough to scare me to death:
“... It would privatize a function that has long been held the prerogative of the state.”

[Chances Are]

Did you go to the source? It’s satire!

CA....

[gpapa]

I guess that means they oppose private schools as well.

[torchthemummy]

The brief also assailed the “inherent inequalities flowing from individualized instruction. Test results consistently show home-schooled students out-performing publicly-educated students. Inasmuch as home-schooling is carried out by those unqualified to teach, these results must be attributed to genetic factors. Withholding these more talented children from the public school population disadvantages their less talented peers who lose the benefit of intellectual stimulation from having these brighter students in class.”

There as so many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to begin. So the Teacher's Union admits the obvious - homeshoolers constantly outperform public students. But then they use a very anti-PC conclusion - since these highly-successful students are being taught by the "unqualified" then the reason for success must be genetic. First they essentially claim ALL parents teaching their students are unqualified which of course is absurd. They claim therefore that the child's success must be genetic when the obvious fact sticks out like a sore thumb - the child is being taught by the very parent(s) that gave them their genetic makeup.

Truly both dangerous and insulting.

[torchthemummy]

Did you go to the source? It’s satire!

I knew something wasn't right. Guess I fell for it.

But I do want to add a point I have made several times before - if you are posting satire please label it as such in the title. It helps out idiots like me.

[SecAmndmt]

Government schools are pagan academies.

The unwillingness of conservatives (esp.Christians) to do whatever it takes to remove their children from these socialist indoctrination centers is a testament to the lack of leadership from our church pastors and conservative movement leaders.

[KarlInOhio]

I was fooled until I realized that the teachers’ union would never be this honest about their goals. They might claim the same thing, but instead of “genetic superiority” they would claim something more subtle like “socioeconomic differentials”.

[SycoDon]

The philosophy described is probably only 51% satire.

[oldenuff2no]

No matter which side of this fence you are on there is one fact that no one wants to talk about. In this day and age home schooled kids are usually supervised by a credentialed teacher. That teacher will not be in the home every day but will test and check up on the kids progress. What do you think happens to the children who fail at home? The local county will mandate their removal from the home schooling situation and have them enrolled in public schools. The problem with this is that they instantly become the schools failure even though the school didn't create their situation. The home schooling numbers just got better again because the lowest testing kids got eliminated from their average.
Now the teachers in the school have to figure out how to teach a kid that is years behind grade level while teaching their normal curriculum too.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take all of your failures and give them to someone else to worry about and then just walk away.
There are great kids in the home school situation. Just don't believe the numbers that tell how they are all doing so great!!!!!

[robomatik]

“This supplants the inculcation of a uniform philosophy of life with a cacophony of individualized world-views."

i didn't read the whole article, but i think i disagree with the former statement to a degree.

besides the distrust of government and its representatives, i think homeschoolers have many other things in common -such as God, country, community, rigorous learning, decency and respect for our fellow man,

[latina4dubya]

Withholding these more talented children from the public school population disadvantages their less talented peers who lose the benefit of intellectual stimulation from having these brighter students in class.”

hahahahaha! i love it!

[Clemenza]

Nothing would give me more satisfaction in terms of America's future if half the children in our nation are either homeschooled or private schooled within my lifetime.

Make "public school" have the same social reputation as public restrooms and public housing.

[oneolcop]

-such as God, country, community, rigorous learning, decency and respect for our fellow man,

Well, yes, but what does that have to do with public education? /s

[Zack Attack]

Did you go to the source? It’s satire!

True. But the fact that its so easy to believe its true is frightening in itself.

[John Semmens]

It’s only semi-satire.

The logic depicted is all too real among the educationist establishment.

[robomatik]

2nd that!!!

[aquila48]

“Teachers’ Union Calls Home-Schooling Threat to Unity”

I thought they were all for diversity!!

[Straight Vermonter]

[SES1066]

Only thing missing is the appeal to the pocketbook ie the fact that the per capita funds that are denied to the teacher’s union. /sarc (Yes I recognize the source, its scary isn’t it!)

[Straight Vermonter]

“This supplants the inculcation of a uniform philosophy of life with a cacophony of individualized world-views."

One of the scariest things I have ever read.

[clee1]

You must be stoned.

[Lancey Howard]

“These home-schoolers insert a barrier between the state and its young citizens,” the brief continued. “This supplants the inculcation of a uniform philosophy of life with a cacophony of individualized world-views. This foments disagreement and dissention that undermine faith in our government and its leaders.”

Hilarious! You're good....

Satire that you need to check and make sure it's satire is the best kind. It is all too easy to believe that the scumabg teachers union actually issued the above "amicus brief".

FRegards,
LH

[gr8eman]

Uh... you are no idiot. All this seems is to do for me is to document the (lack of) thought-processes that the commies in this country possess. This is not satire, it is allegory.

[ovrtaxt]

When they say unity, they mean CONTROL over individuals.

[NordP]

Teachers’ Union Calls Home-Schooling Threat to Unity

Unity, smunity....they're worried about their JOBS!

[metesky]

“These home-schoolers insert a barrier between the state and its young citizens,” the brief continued. “This supplants the inculcation of a uniform philosophy of life with a cacophony of individualized world-views. This foments disagreement and dissention that undermine faith in our government and its leaders.”

Not only is this statement from the teachers union breathtaking in its arrogance, but as an added benefit, they misspelled "dissension".

[Chances Are]

No matter which side of this fence you are on there is one fact that no one wants to talk about. In this day and age home schooled kids are usually supervised by a credentialed teacher. That teacher will not be in the home every day but will test and check up on the kids progress. What do you think happens to the children who fail at home? The local county will mandate their removal from the home schooling situation and have them enrolled in public schools. The problem with this is that they instantly become the schools failure even though the school didn't create their situation. The home schooling numbers just got better again because the lowest testing kids got eliminated from their average.

Now the teachers in the school have to figure out how to teach a kid that is years behind grade level while teaching their normal curriculum too. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take all of your failures and give them to someone else to worry about and then just walk away.

There are great kids in the home school situation. Just don't believe the numbers that tell how they are all doing so great!!!!!

Speaking of numbers, why don't you put some up that give your post some credence?

If home schooling were such a failure, the teachers' unions, the schools themselves, and the "mainstream media" would be all over this like a cheap polyester suit.

I don't doubt there are some home-schooled failures, but I'd regard them as much more the exception than the rule.

No, the educational establishment engages in these broad frontal attacks (i.e., legal challenges) precisely because home schooling has proved so successful, much to the detriment of public schools and teachers' unions everywhere.

CA....

[oldenuff2no]

I could make up any numbers I want to but I won't. My wife is a teacher and I have now and have had many of the younger members of our family on home schooling. Some times it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't it is almost always the fault of the adult who has taken responsibility for the teaching and either does not or can not fulfill that role.
I've had extended family members who can't construct a sentence, pass a 5th grade spelling test or read and comprehend a newspaper, tell me that they could teach their teenagers high-school chemistry. It was a disaster!! My wife and I have both asked the administrators of two different counties home school system how they keep track of the kids who are forced back into public schools. The short answer is that they do not keep track of them. They are instantly taken off of their rolls and no longer exist as a statistic for them.
The minute they walk in the door at the public school the new teachers have to do an assessment on them to determine their basic knowledge level and if they are below grade level they instantly become a negative statistic for the school. That is simply how it works.
I'm not telling you that one way or the other is better or worse. I am telling you how the failing kids in the home school system who reenter the public school system statistically disappear from that side of the issue and instantly appear on the other side of the line. If you believe that the home schooling situation is so much better then I think it is safe to say that the kids who go back into the public school system are not those who are excelling at home. If they are already that advanced they would not be going back to public school. The kids who end up back in public schools are usually much below grade level. This whole discussion has nothing to do with home schooling working or not working as a whole. Every system will have it's successes and it's failures but most of the time we have to take responsibility for our failures. In this case they write them off and give the failures back to the professional teachers.