Posted on 01/14/2012 8:50:33 AM PST by NYer
CHARLESTON, South Carolina -- Rick Santorum has no more loyal base than the crowd of home-schooled children and their parents who gathered here Thursday night. Not only are all of Santorum's children home-schooled by his wife Karen, but the family is committed to holistic medical treatments, health food, and Christian-inspired learning, popular causes with home-schoolers.
The topics covered at the Charleston town hall varied widely, but the conversation always returned to education. And Santorum, whose late grassroots rally in Iowa was built on the foundation of endorsements from various home school advocacy groups, was all too happy to rally the troops in the Palmetto State.
At one point, a woman came to the microphone to express her appreciation--and beg for some red meat.
"You are familiar, of course, with home schooling..." she began, before Santorum interrupted with a smile, "My wife is more familiar with home schooling."
"And we give her a shout-out for that!" the woman responded, sparking applause from the audience. Then she got to her question: "I was wondering if it's possible at all to influence at least the idea, I know the teachers' union is not crazy about it, but to try to get some home schooling... and be able to somehow work that into education without being a special interest?"
"Well obviously leading by example is a good thing," Santorum responded. "And having a homeschooling family in the White House would certainly be a shock to the establishment."
The crowd laughed, and then roared with applause. He went on to explain that parents, not any government body, should be in charge of determining what success means for their children's educational experience.
"It's going to be different for different parents," Santorum said. "And you know what? That's OK! I trust parents to instill values, and instill citizenship and all those things much more than I do the education system in America today. It's sad to say."
BOO!
Reagan never had a GOP House.
His position on Obamacare is essentially the same. He wants to take roughly 10% of Obamacare, and incorporate that into 'Gingrichcare'.
You said:
“I’ve got some advice for people.
“Don’t say anything negative about home schooling or home schoolers. Nothing that can be perceived as negative, no matter how many nice things you say or how hard you try to make up.
“Those people will hit you with everything they’ve got.
“They’re tough.”
Now, gee, why would people be so mean to you? Why would they be such jerks?
Well, here's what you originally posted:
“This is B.S.
“Home schooling is not for everyone. It’s for an elite few, committed and fabulous though they may be.
“Most people are not equipped to do it. They don’t have the money for one parent to stay at home and do it and most parents are not mentally and emotionally equipped to tackle this. I know I’m not.
“A far better thing for Santorum to run on would be improving schools, defunding the NEA, stopping the unions which protect bad teachers, and, most of all, promoting school choice and vouchers.
“This paints him as a sort of fringe, holier than thou guy, in my opinion.”
With that opening salvo, what did you expect in response, flowers?
You insulted homeschoolers, you showed your complete ignorance on the topic in any number of ways, and YOU acted like the jerk.
And you're surprised you got a little rough treatment?
What a whiner you are. Go back to DU whence you came.
Or own up to the fact that your first post was a fatuous, fact-free insult to the millions of families who have sacrificed much to do a decent job of educating their children. And then take your lumps.
sitetest
My gosh. What an elitist snob! What does he have against Washington DC schools, where everybody sends their kids?
That is almost exactly what my "public" schooling was like back in the 1970s in my Boston neighborhood. An old run-down brick building with juvenile delinquents running the place ( and they weren't nice like the Sweathogs) with a beaten-down faculty just trying to keep students from getting assaulted in the hallways.
I wasn't one of the "elite" to get a private or home education but it sure would have been superior to the public one that I got.
Whiles many schools have gotten somewhat better these days, the inner city schools are still havens of delinquency. Until we as a society are willing to expel students that are disruptive and deny them a public education until they are willing to behave themselves, we will always have this problem.
“My point is that, while I admire people who are able and willing to home school, it is elitist in the sense that only a priveleged few can do it.”
I know you didn’t mean to but you made me LOL with that comment. I have been homeschooling for nearly 10 years. Our income range has been $22,000 to $42,000 during that time. It still shocks me when I encounter this belief. In our co-op of 150 children, the most “elite” family I know is wife whose husband is a pharmacist. There are construction workers, welders, road workers, assembly line workers, one business owner and pastors etc.
BTW, I don’t think Santorum’s decision to homeschool is a political ploy to garner the evangelical vote. Besides the fact that the evangelical vote is not entirely homeschool friendly, his wife is already homeschooling them. They didn’t just decide to do this during the campaign.
Absolute proof public schools are beyond repair. Education week just named Maryland as having the best public schools in the nation, with a solid B+. For K-12, they were 3rd with a B-.
Absolute proof public schools are beyond repair. Education week just named Maryland as having the best public schools in the nation, with a solid B+. For K-6, they were 3rd with a B-.
However, you're clueless about who homeschoolers are. They are the farthest thing from elite you can imagine. In fact, they are largely below the poverty line - willingly. They are largely underemployed and many try to have some kind of sideline business - think Amway and you've got some idea. It is almost a characteristic amongst HS’ers to pass on where the specials are, stocking-up tips, thrift stores bargains and, yes, even dumpster diving for some (the rest are too polite to discuss things like that) The point is, we know how to live on margins. They sacrifice the two income middle-class lifestyle deliberately to live in poverty (so government figures say) to do what they want - that is freedom, no?
On the issue of being able to do it, all of us go through this fear and the guilt associated with it. In time, I think most HS’ers would agree that HS’ing is nothing more than maintaining family harmony and consistency with your ideals. Truth is, THAT alone is what most HS’ers are trying to pass along. The improved academic performance (not guaranteed) is a byproduct of a balanced and traditional home. Most of us believe God created the family as the source of instruction and training. It follows that following God's principles in our own lives is absolutely paramount.
You're right, however, about working on a plan for public schools - they are needed. I'm fine with him living his example, but we absolutely do need public education - just not public union and federally controlled education.
I disagree. Moving toward privatization should begin immediately. Vouchers, charters, tax credits, and allowing government teachers to “charterize” their existing government schools can be a means toward complete privatization. ( Green Dot schools in Los Angeles is an example of this.)
All savings by privatizing should be immediately refunded to the taxpayers, and all taxes **permanently** reduced.
Gradually,( over a generation), parents should be expected to pay the true cost of their child's education and the amounts of vouchers, and tax credits reduced until there is no government involvement in education whatsoever and charity cares for the poor.
Sports, theater, music, art, etc. should be turned over to the county parks and recreation, or ( better yet) privatized.
There is one segment of the population that needs special attention: The catastrophically handicapped child.
Most of the educational expenses for the profoundly handicapped child is not from the teaching. It comes from the nursing care, very expensive equipment, and therapy that these children need. These are not education expenses but **medical** costs. Each child should have part of his health insurance plan “catastrophic “ coverage for his education in the event he is born seriously disabled or becomes so later in childhood.
I love this guy and his family. I’d love to have a President who home schools.
What is this forum where you need a keyword?
I’m not sure I understand your question.
I put in the keywords of arth and frhf for anyone who wants to do a keyword search to find all the articles that have been posted which have been keyworded with those keywords.
The usual charges of ‘elitism’ or ‘financial independence’ being the reason people HS is totally false. What is true, however, is that wa-a-a-a-ay too many homes are unable to teach children their right hand from their left. I hesitate to call them ‘families’ today since that word could be construed as anything from two women, two men, an odd number of transsexuals, six gerbils, a doorknob collection or various vegetables in happy harmony with each other. Those kind of people absolutely need a socially organized system, gub’mint or private, to teach them how to use the bathroom, clean themselves, read and all the rest of a sound academic preparation for the real world.
Like you, though, I heartily fear the mischief the lefties in the NEA have done, are doing and plan to do to children's minds via the feeding trough of publik skoolz.
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