Posted on 05/10/2015 11:24:28 PM PDT by Ray76
I am wondering if “life skills only” means the child never learns to read, write, do math etc... but only knows how to fish/hunt? I thought home schooling meant the child/children learned the academics.. perhaps at a slower or more advanced rate than schooled children. IMHO... the article keeps mentioning home schooling and I think it is wrong to use that term IF they aren’t schooling at all.
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Unschooling is an option where people learn life skills, which reading and writing and ciphering are usually included. Read up on unschooling. YOu have a limited perspective of homeschooling. It is not like school schooling. Whether one’s life skills are hunting and gathering or ballet or violin or clowning, there are many people who unschool.
When I moved into this house in 1990, it had no plumbing.
I had an outhouse and a hand pumped well.
I can’t say I was thrilled but for a year, I made do until plumbing was put in.
[useless ex, long story]
Took baths in a tub on the kitchen floor, with water heated on a cook stove.
It was far from the end of the world.
There are people living in the hills who still have no plumbing and raise all of their own food.
My dad was one of 11 kids, most born during the depression, 10 of whom survived and all of whom shifted their own weight on the farm, in whatever capacity they were able, from the time they could walk.
I heard all of the stories and considered it all just the way it was, for a while.
People have grown too soft.
I grew up running loose and alone on the ridges and among the farm animals.
I consider myself blessed, for that.
The lived under a tarp with high fencing.
I have no idea how they survive a winter in Kentucky ?
I don't know if the photos were carefully angled to avoid shoeing an actual home or not. But its very tough living conditions .
That is all well and good as long as the kids are also being properly educated to survive in today’s economy or they are being set up to continue the cycle of abject poverty and lawlessness.
This story brings up a lot of important issues of philosophy and law.
Should the government be authorized to force upon citizens a certain material standard of living? If so, should it be authorized to force this standard on everyone, or should certain “minorities” be exempted?
Should the government be authorized to force the process of schooling up on the citizens? If so, should this use of force be authorized upon everyone equally, or only upon some?
While the lifestyle of this family is not one I want for myself or my family, in terms of physical comforts and (worst-assumption) educational outcome, it is no worse than the lifestyle of many who are government-approved and under government supervision.
In the absence of a real crime ... physical battery, deliberate starvation, medical neglect with verifiable harm ... I think we should be very careful. One might say, “I don’t think people should be allowed to live like that,” but once you invoke state power to force others to meet your standards, where does it stop?
If that is your standard, you would, to be consistent, have to remove a very significant portion of the public school population from their homes (and school) and place them ... where?
Thanks for getting to the heart of the issue.
Outside of abuse, the question comes down to, Who has primary authority over children, parents or the State?
It’s easy to get distracted by details and personal tastes, but we as conservatives should be able to focus on principles of universal applicability.
Mitch’s state
Do you ask the same about the Amish?
I saw the pictures of the so called “house”. It is a shack and in serious violation of multiple building codes. Not even suitable as a hunting cabin. Truly a house of sticks with tarp coverings.
Kids were taken because a reasonable person would fear that the children were being neglected.
It isn’t possible to guarantee outcomes unfortunately but at least these kids deserve an environment that offers increased access to learning to even have a chance. An exposure to books, after school programs, summer learning experiences, volunteering, libraries, community centers etc and positive role models etc are available in many of the housing projects where inner city students live — if only they would take advantage. Two wrongs most definitely do not make a right, particularly when the parents are truly dysfunctional or the family practices a philosophy of isolation from the broader culture rather than integration with it.
Hard to tell...
very good sarcasm?
The Constitutional rights related to personal liberty and the Natural Right of parents and children to keep their family intact (absent criminal abuse or neglect) are even bigger pluses.
I played in mud many times as a child. My mother hosed me off before I came into the house. Playing in mud won't hurt them. Being abducted from their home and separated from their parents, siblings and pets, will. If the Powers That Be can't prove physical or emotional harm, the kids had better be returned to their homestead before the parents sue the County into bankruptcy. If they open a GoFundMe I would contribute to their legal fund.
God has primary authority.
And where is god to be found?
Depends on who you ask ...
Ask a socialist government bureaucrat, and you'll find that 'god' is to be found in government.
Socialism is idolatry.
Better to live off the grid than on the grate.
Would you want to make a bet on the “education level” of these kids vs the sainted “inner city”?
Test and find out. I have no illusions about the inner city or other rural schools but at least where they stand is public knowledge.
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