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The real reason the state opposes homeschooling
World Net Daily ^ | December 12, 2002 | Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D

Posted on 03/27/2004 6:44:45 AM PST by LadyShallott

It's called "soft dictatorship" – government's attempt to control every aspect of American life for your own good or for the good of the children. The ultimate issue is power.

This week's example: government's assault (at all levels) on the homeschool movement, which now includes threats to send homeschool parents to jail. Government's great fear in this matter is not that the kids are being short-changed or abused – it's that they might be getting a better education than the government-educrat de facto monopoly can provide and that the word might get out.

Yes, government has an obligation to ensure that children receive an adequate education. But in several states, such as California and Illinois, educrats are threatening parents with court action if they don't allow officials to intrude into their homes and evaluate their programs beyond the authority of state law. The game gets rough. In Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune, truant officers arrive in police cars, bearing letters telling parents to come to "pretrial hearings" At least one officer told a parent "we can take your children away."

According to columnist Michelle Malkin, California "State Deputy Superintendent Joanne Mendoza wrote in a July 16 memo to all school employees that without official teaching credentials, these parents no longer can file required paperwork that would authorize them to homeschool their children. Thus, homeschooled children not attending public schools would be considered 'truant' by local school districts – making their parents vulnerable to arrest and criminal charges."

In many other states, such as Louisiana and Montana, education or legislative officials threaten "tighter" regulation and other laws or policies which seem to have the goal of making it more difficult for parents to educate their own children at home.

In a series of three illuminating articles by Angela R. Stoltzfus of Elizabeth, N.J., in the community newspaper The Informer, Stoltzfus writes, "Homeschooling is not a new concept or practice. Education in early America actually could be said to be a form of homeschooling. Settlers and farmers would sit and read the Bible and primary readers with their children, teaching them to read at the kitchen table, after the family was finished with daily chores."

So, what is homeschooling now? Basically, it's educating children outside the public-private-parochial school establishment. There are many varieties, from in-home parent-child private, to co-operative arrangements with other parents and organizations. There are curricula available and supportive websites. Some arrangements feature structured classes, others provide minimal guidance and let the kids run on "autopilot."

How many kids? A U.S. government report, "Homeschooling in the United States: 1999 (NCES 2001-033). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, D.C: National Center for Education Statistics," estimates 850,000 American children in 1999. Some homeschool advocates suggest the number may be as high as 2 million. Even if the government's 850,000 estimate is doubled to 1.7 million, this would still be less than 4 percent of school-age children.

But the threat to government control is not in the numbers. It's in the reasons why parents do it, and in their success.

Reasons for homeschooling range widely, from physical conditions and danger in government schools to concern about unacceptable teaching of ideology or religion. Many feel that their homeschool is more flexible and responsive to their children's needs. According to the U.S. Department of Education, "Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program, 1999" – 49 percent of parents felt they could give their kids a better education at home.

Other reasons, in descending frequency, include "Religious reasons" – 38 percent, "Poor learning environment at school" – 26 percent, "Family reasons," "To develop character/morality," "Object to what school teaches," "School does not challenge child," "Other problems with available schools," "Student behavior problems at school" and "Child has special needs/disability" – 8 percent.

Please note well: The most important reason was that parents felt that they, the amateurs with no significant facilities, could do a better job than the professionals with their gargantuan resources.

So who homeschools their kids? Again, there's a wide variety, from ghetto parents and families in the Alaskan bush to affluent professionals and intellectuals of all political persuasions. Success stories are increasingly common, and involve both the challenged and the gifted. Among the most interesting: Jedediah Purdy, who went from homeschooling in rural West Virginia to Harvard, then Yale Law School, and whose first book, "On Common Things," appeared to rave reviews. His second, "Being America," comes out in January. Purdy's not yet 30.

The better homeschooling gets, and the better known it becomes, the more of a threat it poses to the soft tyrants. So they're attacking in the name of "standards." Some educrats want parents to prove they're succeeding while making it ever more difficult for them to do so. It's an old, tired tactic.

No, this is not our statement against public education which we also believe in (and so do our teacher wives). It's merely that we find education choice brings positive competition and better services benefiting the children. Parents, families and guardians should be allowed the freedom of choice to make an informed decision.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: education; educationnews; homeschool; homeschoollist; statelaws
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1 posted on 03/27/2004 6:44:46 AM PST by LadyShallott
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To: LadyShallott; scripter; *Homeschool_list
Homeschool bump
2 posted on 03/27/2004 6:48:24 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)
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To: chance33_98

3 posted on 03/27/2004 6:50:21 AM PST by LadyShallott ("I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president" -- Hillary)
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To: LadyShallott
Control of the school system is right out of the Marx/Lenin playbook.
4 posted on 03/27/2004 6:52:02 AM PST by Piquaboy
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To: Piquaboy
"The important point is that the lack of the conviction that I have the ability and the right to teach others marks me as a non-intellectual. For the intellectual is above all a teacher and considers it his God-given right to tell the ignorant majority what to do. To ignore this teacher complex is to ignore the intellectual's central characteristic and miss the key to his aspirations and grievances. I am sure that the passion to teach has been a crucial factor in the rise of the revolutionary movements of our time. In most cases when a revolutionary takes over a country, he turns it into a vast schoolroom with a population of cowed, captive pupils cringing at his feet. When he speaks the whole country listens."
5 posted on 03/27/2004 7:02:15 AM PST by RunningJoke
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To: LadyShallott
Excellent piece. Thanks for posting it. Every day I find another reason to home school children.
6 posted on 03/27/2004 7:02:19 AM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1/5 1st Mar Div. Nam 69&70 Semper Fi http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com)
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To: LadyShallott
Yep. Its about control. We need to eliminate the unconstitutional Department of education and push all school power as close to the family level as possible. Local control of schools, in partnership with a healthy homeschooling base, is the answer. It is the perfect antidote to the danger of schools being used as instruments of statist indoctrination.
7 posted on 03/27/2004 7:03:27 AM PST by Ahban
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To: LadyShallott
Yes, government has an obligation to ensure that children receive an adequate education.

Faulty premise.

The "obligation" is on the parents, not the state.

8 posted on 03/27/2004 7:04:05 AM PST by don-o
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To: LadyShallott
Wouldn't a class action lawsuit by home schoolers against the state put a stop to the harassment.
9 posted on 03/27/2004 7:05:50 AM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1/5 1st Mar Div. Nam 69&70 Semper Fi http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com)
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To: EdReform
Let's start with some NEA teacher's union busting along with state-level teacher's unions. They're the real lobbyists for the DUmming down of America.
10 posted on 03/27/2004 7:12:59 AM PST by quantim (Victory must be absolute, it cannot be relative.)
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To: Piquaboy
In some countries, the Islamic Fundamentalist control the state sponsored schools! We know the results of that!

Most home schooled children score much higher academically than those in the public schools.

11 posted on 03/27/2004 7:14:47 AM PST by RAY (Right or wrong, it is my country!)
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To: kellynla
Hslda.org does a pretty good job of thwarting detrimental homeschooling legislation. Many times, bad bills do not even make it out of committee.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, homeschools and private schools are exempt from federal legislation. Many states have tried to pass legislation which would make homeschoolers take the same tests that public students must take under NCLB. When informed by HSLDA.org that they will lose all federal funding if they try it, they back off.

The genie is out of the bottle, and they can't put it back in again. Some states realize it now, and try to entice homeschoolers back into the system by offering on-line courses or classes at the public school.
12 posted on 03/27/2004 7:15:12 AM PST by ladylib
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To: RAY
"Most home schooled children score much higher academically than those in the public schools."

That is a fact!


13 posted on 03/27/2004 7:19:12 AM PST by international american (Support our troops!! Send Kerry back to Boston!!!!)
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To: quantim; All
See reply 12 in the thread HOPE FOR AMERICA: Growing Non-Union Teacher Associations Provide Alternatives to NEA and AFT
14 posted on 03/27/2004 7:22:06 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)
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To: *Education News
Ping
15 posted on 03/27/2004 7:23:56 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)
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To: LadyShallott
What I don't like about articles like this, is that they drop a few "scare" anecdotes with no specifics. Then everyone runs around thinking, "Oh, homeschooling is under attack - whatever shall we do?"

The sky is still firmly attached in place last time I looked. But to keep it that way, homeschoolers need to rely less on organizations to "protect" them, either personally or on the state level. It's especially unnecessary and undesirable to let out-of-state organizations (no matter how well-intentioned) come into one's local community or state to "fix everything" as if they were "experts."

16 posted on 03/27/2004 7:27:18 AM PST by valkyrieanne
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To: EdReform
There is another benefit which seldom if ever gets mentioned in re Home Schooling -- family harmony. What do I mean by this? When one homeschools, there's a synergy which is accomplished through accommodating each member's schedule, and needs. Homeschooling takes place anywhere and at any time. Whereas in pub ed, the entire family MUST operate around the schedule and demands of the pub school.

The focus is quite different. In homeschooling, the focus is upon smoothly accomplishing individual member goals in a synergistic and calm manner. In pub ed, the focus is upon the family life orbiting around the school.

17 posted on 03/27/2004 7:27:31 AM PST by Alia (California -- It's Groovy! Baby!)
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To: RunningJoke
Do you have an attribution for this quote?
18 posted on 03/27/2004 7:27:46 AM PST by arthurus (fighting them OVER THERE is better than fighting them OVER HERE)
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To: Alia
Yes, and in homeschooling the child's peer group is other family members, not a bunch of ill bred, immature, children.

Since the mother and child or children spend so much time together, there is a closer bond between the family members and therefore, the child or children are more likely to heed the advice of the parents. It is the antithesis of the latchkey children.

Parents make a sacrifice to Homeschool their children and the children are intelligent enough to understand and appreciate the sacrifice, just as children who are neglected by their parents understand and resent the neglect.
19 posted on 03/27/2004 7:36:03 AM PST by Bonny Dick
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To: Alia
There is another benefit which seldom if ever gets mentioned in re Home Schooling -- family harmony.


Absolutely! I know several homeschool families and your observation/experience is true in every case.

20 posted on 03/27/2004 7:40:56 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)
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