Posted on 01/30/2010 9:13:08 PM PST by American Dream 246
You must not know many homeschoolers if you think we are isolated with our heads in the sand. My four kids are much more politically involved and informed than I ever was at their ages. Something about being a minority constantly having to protect our freedoms seems to do that.
Nearly every response I've received on this thread from HSs suggest ignoring the kids who don't have that option. (and keeping their children away from them)
IMO, this will make them more vulnerable to their indoctrination into Obama’s civilian army .
Then we'll have to deal with them.
I think it is a lot to expect teenagers (or elementary school aged kids) to serve as missionaries or change agents in public schools. The deck is stacked heavily against them.
That image is as beautifully rendered as it is frightening.
Thanks.
It wouldn't hurt for them to ask a schoolmate to church or to join the Boy Scouts but, they need not be in the hallways with a blow horn.
Peer pressure works both ways.
Needless to say, (and I'll repeat as necessary) ignoring the problem will not make it go away, it will only fester.Those *other* children are also our future.
Repeat as often as you like. My kids have been in public school. I have served on the PTA board and as an ADDitions volunteer. Sparing my kids from 12 years of brain-washing and preparing them to be world changers while befriending the many government schooled kids we encounter in our many outside activities is, in my opinion, a better way to contribute to the good of this nation and a superior way to prepare my kids for life.
I did not always think this way. I happily put my kids into one of the best elementary schools in the area. I still have friendships with some of the staff there. I believed it was important for them to be around a lot of different kinds of people and to be a good influence on the kids there who needed that good influence. Unfortunately, their learning needs were not met well and I got tired of my daughter coming home and lecturing me on the latest environmental issue (You're wasting water, Mom! Don't let it run while you're changing a diaper!) or freaking out because she was afraid she was going to get AIDS (do we really have to warn them in second grade?) While the teachers hated losing them, they supported our decision. That same daughter went on to get her teaching degree and taught one year in a low performing public school. She will tell you there was no positive peer pressure there and she will be homeschooling her kids. She will also tell you that it is not for everyone and you should do what works for your family.
On the other hand, I will say that the only way to break the strangle hold that government has on education in this country is to starve them out. If homeschooling is possible for you and you wouldn't hate it, give it a try! Deprive them of your presence and your money. Force them into market solutions for education so that the government does not have the opportunity to indoctrinate all those "other' kids and parents have choices beyond the public school to which they are assigned. The public school system is socialist by nature - you don't have a choice in where your child attends, who your child must associate with, who teaches your child and what your child is taught. By participating in the system, you are affirming it.
But, of course, if you are happy with your school and your kids are thriving - leave them there! Homeschooling is not for everyone.
But, I'm not talking about yours or mine, I'm talking about *theirs*.
“you don't have a choice in where your child attends, who your child must associate with, who teaches your child and what your child is taught.”
You live in the wrong state. IMO, we do have choices here in Texas and we'll stick a boot in someone’s rear to get them to listen..
Look, I understand all your concerns and the reasons for you taking your children out of public school. I'm just saying,, “Don't give up on the others and let peole like Obama take their futures.” (point of the thread, I believe)
BTW: your daughter was right about conserving water. (we were in a horrible 2 year drought just last summer)
Sorry, I didn't see your reply to me until just now. I've been away from the forum because I've been busy... homeschooling. :-)
But, my children are around public schoolers all the time. In fact, I wish we knew more homeschool families. The fact is, my sons get together more often with public school students. They play sports with them, are in scouts and cadet programs with them, and on and on. They probably know more public schoolers than homeschoolers. I'm guessing most homeschoolers interact with public schoolers just as often.
But, public school itself is a progressive idea. So, putting my children into public school is only teaching them that they should feel entitled to a "free" public education courtesy of the gov't (federal, state or local).
FTR, we didn't make this choice for political reasons. That is, we didn't choose to homeschool to prove a political point. There were other reasons. But, I'm not going to put my children into public school for political reasons, either.
An increasing number of families are choosing this option today, but I'd like to see more parents here choosing it.
LOL - you did not see the nasty diaper I was in the middle of! My daughter walked up and turned the water off and there I was with my dirty hands and my son's bottom only halfway clean. I am so thankful we live in a country where we can make those judgments for ourselves.
Count your blessings that you live in Texas. They have some of the most homeschool friendly laws in the country, which says to me that they trust parents to know what is best for their children. I would expect that would lead to the government schools being more responsive to parents as well.
When we wanted to make sure our son did not have the same bad first grade teacher that his sister had, the school explained their process for sorting kids into classes and told me that if, after that process, he ended up in her class anyway, we could appeal the decision. Since the teacher in question and the principal were both minorities, I could not see that situation ending well...we would just have been racists, you know. (Despite the fact that the wonderful kindergarten teacher we loved was of the same minority.) The kids had been begging to try homeschooling, so we made the leap. Both have graduated college (summa cum laude) and are very community minded, productive people. The son I mentioned above is in grad school at Stanford, of all places. Not my first choice, but a prestigious school.
Homeschooling does not mean someone has given up on the others. In my case, I am on the local Republican Executive Committee, I campaign for candidates that stand for freedom and choice in education and my husband and I have given thousands of hours over the last eighteen years to assist others who take the plunge to educate their own kids.
You've been around long enough to know that peer influence, particularly in large group settings, usually only runs one way. As my daughter said, the good kids in her class just kept their heads down and tried to learn in the chaos created by all the kids who did not care to take advantage of the opportunity they had. I will not feel guilty for giving my kids time to mature before I expected them to be change agents out in the world.
Complacency is what led us to having *public* schools and is the same reason we have a Progressive President and Congress.
Most of this country has lost the desire to strive for betterment thus 2/3s of us are overweight, lazy and apparently satisfied with the way things are.
Unless we wake up and come together to demand real (I hate to use the word) *Change*, we have no *Hope*.
That’s exactly why home schooling will soon be VERBOTTEN here as it is in Germany, where the law prohibiting the practice was introduced by none other than Adolph HITLER in the late 1930s and remains in effect.
They will probably slip it in as a “rider” under a budget bill or something under cover of darkness, as communist reptiles are wont to do - but one day you’ll wake up and the Gestapo will be at your door demanding your children to be submitted to the “People’s” indoctrination center.
All home schooling material will be confiscated and destroyed... along with your Bibles and guns, in all probability.
Want to fight it? Go ahead - but just remember; they have artillery, air superiority, and NUKES among many other sophisticated tactical resources.
Do you?
Can you get your children to rat out the schools before they brainwash them to to rat YOU out to THEM?
Who gets to spend more time with them - Mom and Dad or Komrade “Edukator”?
Think about it. Better yet;
Pray about it.
Just how do you figure you are depriving the public schools of their money by home schooling?
If you own property, the government is going to seize it and put a lien on it, and force you to pay rent (aka “Property taxes”) for the privilege of living there.
Those taxes, in the main, will then be turned over to the indoctrination center and the Teacher’s Union (about as leftist an organization as you can find) whether you like it or not.
So you see, everybody has to pay the indoctrination mill regardless of whether they have any kids there, or any kids at all for that matter.
Since we have to pay for “services” regardless of our use or the quality of them at the point of a government bayonet, what’s the incentive for them to deliver a quality service by competent providers?
Zip.
If you try to stop feeding this beast, it will eat YOU.
I hope it doesn’t come to that. But, we must remain eternally vigilant.
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