Smarter, Better & Home Schooled!

CNSNews.com Commentary from the National Anxiety Center ^ | June 17, 2002 | Alan Caruba

[Stand Watch Listen]

As the school year comes to an end, I was reminded of the story of a boy whom the teachers complained about, saying he could not learn, seemed confused, and asked too many questions. Today, that boy would have been required to take Ritalin or some other drug. In his case, however, his parents decided to home school him. He was Thomas Edison.

Home schooling worked then and it works today. In fact, home schooling works far better than the deliberate stupefying of the children passing through what is surely the most expensive and ineffective educational system the world has ever known.

The American public education system today is not about educating students; it is about indoctrinating them. It has less to do with imparting information and more to do with instilling politically correct attitudes. It is producing docile, ignorant people who know little about their nation's history. This is imperceptibly -- and some say deliberately -- weakening our society.

Right now in America, public school enrollment is projected to reach a record 47.3 million and peak at 47.5 million by 2005. Private schools had 5.3 million students in the 1999-2000 school year. By contrast, between 1.6 and 2 million students were home schooled in the US during 2001-2002, taking in every grade level from kindergarten through twelfth grade. There is, though, a surprise in that number. It is an increase of 500 percent over the number being home schooled a decade ago! The growth rate of the choice to home school is estimated to be between seven and fifteen percent each year.

In numbers, home-schooled children are a minority among those being shuttled through elementary, middle and high schools like so much sausage. However, when they are in competition with the products of those public schools, they leave them way behind. The headlines tell the story. Put them in a spelling or geography bee and the home-schooled child usually takes top honors. It's actually news when they do not!

Home schooled students in the U.S. score 15 to 30 percentile points, on average, above their school peers whether the subject is reading, writing, mathematics or science or social studies. The mediocre science scores of public school students were front-page news in January. In May, the news that most US high school seniors had a poor grasp of their nation's history was also on the front pages. Diane Ravich, historian and education professor at New York University called the scores "abysmal." Bad as the scores were, they had shown no improvement since 1994!

Despite this obvious problem, President Bush recently signed an education bill, dubbed "Leave No Student Behind," that allocated $49 billion to a system so broken, so useless, that is a national shame and a national sham. His answer? Testing, testing, testing. But! If you are testing only the knowledge that is mandated for the test, all the ancillary knowledge needed to actually understand the subject is jettisoned for the sake of the test score.

Currently, the U.S. is spending about 72 percent more on education than in 1980. After more than two decades, there is no indication of any significant improvement. Instead, this huge investment of US tax dollars has produced poor reading and other subject scores, static dropout rates, declining parental satisfaction, and mediocre US student performance in international education surveys.

The home-schooled student, notes Phyllis Schlafly, doesn't have to study "fuzzy math, whole math, new math, new new math, or rainforest math." They don't have to be taught "Whole Language, which fraudulently teaches children to guess at words from the pictures, skip over difficult words, and substitute any words that seem to fit the context."

In the fall of 1999, Ridgewood, N.J., students, aged 11 to 18, were required to answer questions about their own drug use, sexual life, and any illegal activity in which they had been involved. The 156-question survey asked students to name how many times they had tried to kill themselves, used contraception, or made themselves throw up after eating. Parents took the school system to court and, after a two-year battle, won a victory for the First, Fifth, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Need it be said that none of the questions being asked had a single thing to do with whether the students had actually learned anything? Today's schools are about attitudes and behavior, not facts and skills. In September this travesty begins again.

(Alan Caruba is the founder of The National Anxiety Center and author of a four-part series, "The Subversion of Education in America" posted on its Internet site at anxietycenter.com.)

Alan Caruba

[Stand Watch Listen]

indexing

[grobdriver]

There can be no doubt that children home-schooled by concientious parents who want the best for their kids outperform children educated in government scools.
My own 19-year-old daughter (20 in August) will graduate Texas A&M this December, Cum Laude.

[TontoKowalski]

We homeschool. It's been great, and I can't imagine we'd change our choice for educating our son. However, I dislike the tone of some of the pro-homeschool articles that seem to imply that all public schools are run by evil people looking to deliberately dumb-down kids.

That being said, does anyone have any information pertaining to the following little snippet? I'd like to learn more.

In the fall of 1999, Ridgewood, N.J., students, aged 11 to 18, were required to answer questions about their own drug use, sexual life, and any illegal activity in which they had been involved. The 156-question survey asked students to name how many times they had tried to kill themselves, used contraception, or made themselves throw up after eating. Parents took the school system to court and, after a two-year battle, won a victory for the First, Fifth, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

[homeschool mama]

Graduating Texas A&M at 20 years old? You must be proud!

Could you share what education philosophy your family followed or what decisions were made to enroll her in university at a more tender age? Thank you.

[homeschool mama]

The only information I have on that is what I learn from friends whose children attend public high school. What you read (the snippet) is true....and then some.

[concerned about politics]

In the fall of 1999, Ridgewood, N.J., students, aged 11 to 18, were required to answer questions about their own drug use, sexual life, and any illegal activity in which they had been involved. The 156-question survey asked students to name how many times they had tried to kill themselves, used contraception, or made themselves throw up after eating. Parents took the school system to court and, after a two-year battle, won a victory for the First, Fifth, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

That was just one. The rest still give the questionare plus more the parents don't know about.
It's part of their "life file" for the Goals 2000 "changing society through the minds of the children" program.
Unless children can prove they "think correctly", they won't get their "certificate of merit."
Those who can read and "think correctly" get their diploma, for now. That too shall pass. One of the goals of the 2000 program is create "entire life files" to be used as resumes. Business will go to the schools for employees, rather than the employees going to businesses. That's why Homeschool Legal Defence had to fight the public "School to Work" programs. It left out private and homeschoolers out of the work force.
The schools are trying become the "unemployment agencies" for the country.
Get the kids as soon as they're born into a public daycare, keep them away from their parents influence as much as possible (before school, after school, free summer school, free food - the village!) and employ them until they die. It's the deal the NEA made with the Marxist, and it gives the NEA power over lives from cradle to grave.

When people say "indoctrination of little robots", they're not joking. The NEA is creating the worker bees, a slave type work force, for labor and the pleasure of the elite - too programmed and uneducated to disobey them.
(When the acedemia claims "tolerance" and lowering the age of consent, it's not for the sake of the children.)
Remember Hillary Health Care? Goals 2000 is similar.

[Jerrybob]

Public schools are about to go under -- just like the Titanic. Long live home schools.

[Stand Watch Listen]

FYI...

U.S. Judge Dismisses Suit Over N.J. Survey

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

here's a search result with more findings

[Stand Watch Listen]

Please refer to reply #9 above...FYI...

[Carry_Okie]

We've been home schooling officially for two years. The older daughter (nine, would be a fouth grader) just got her Stanford tests back and scored "Post High School" grade equivalent on 14 of 18 line items. We did zero preparation for the test with her. She'll be ready for calculus next year. Her term paper this year was a comparative analysis of five works by Dickens. The only areas where she didn't do as well were those where they might have been testing for PC values. We'll work on her understanding of that crap so that she can navigate the minefield as she matures. I feel like I am raising enemy agents in a foreign country.

Her sister (barely eight, would now be a second grader) scored a 6.9 grade equivalent on a third grade test. I did do a practice test with her because it was her first such multiple choice exam with a scansheet. She multiplies polynomials in her head. Her term paper was on Verne. In our home school, we have spent the bulk of the time with her undoing the damage of two years of dialogue journals and fuzzy spelling, and that was a PRIVATE school (her sister didn't have that problem because her reading was stronger before she entered kindergarten). I have come to the conclusion that to preclude the damage in reading that a public school will do, one must have their child at a MINIMUM third grade reading level entering kindergarten.

These are bright, but otherwise NORMAL kids. I have seen no evidence of "genius." They work hard, they love to help, they are kind and generous, and they do fine with other kids. I have no desire to "toughen them up" with middle school viciousness. Leapfrog that garbage, meet the creeps in college holding the academic high ground, see them for what they are, and pity them.

[Overtaxed]

FYI

[tutstar]

bump

[fydelia]

Calculus at age 10? Yes, your kids are geniuses. Give credit where credit is due.

[toenail]

"I dislike the tone of some of the pro-homeschool articles that seem to imply that all public schools are run by evil people looking to deliberately dumb-down kids."

That's exactly what the system was designed to do.

[Carry_Okie]

Nope. It's the curriculum. We used algebra to teach arithmetic. By the time they knew their times tables they could multiply polynomials and factor quadratics.

[ICE-FLYER]

Having just completed our first year of home school with 2 of our four children I can say that it has been an amazing experience.

My wife does most of it, however, just to let nay Sayers know, I as a military officer who can be deployed a lot did take a 30 day period off from work and did ALL the teaching and home schooling. I found it to be the best month with my kids I have ever had.

No increased costs in clothing,
No transportation expenses except for what we WANT to do,
No indoctrination of our children by the state of everything we object to on moral, religious or personal grounds,
No problems with our kids coming home with bad habits or ideas from other children whose parents don't care and whom the state will do nothing about,
No problems with adverse socialization as we are involved with over 100 other kids through LEAH (Loving Education At Home),
Total flexibility in teaching and schedule,
Better focus for the children,
One on one instruction without interruption,
3 to 4 times the amount of education in less than half the time,

And the list goes on and on and on and on and on.

Home schooling shows the current system how poor it really is. Here in the police state of New York, they spend over 10,000 per student on average and yet they CAN'T produce students like my wife and I can. And we do it for less than $850.00. NEA hates us, many teachers hate us, liberals hate us, NY State Ed Dept hates us, Washington Dept of Ed hates us...........Fine. Let them. At least my children can read 2-3 grades ahead of any of their peers, actually know more about George Washington than most Elementary teachers, have already read the Declaration of Independence and recited much of it, Have read the Amendments to the Constitutions, have learned about the Federalist Papers, Know about many ancient cultures and religions, sing in a choir, and while the state says that my 2nd child should only be learning how to count this year he is already doing math that state sponsored 3rd graders seem to have a tough time with.

All this and they have more time for Baseball, Church groups, field trips, Air Shows, than any of their peers.

I'll never let the state have the most precious part of my life, my children. They do not deserve them, cannot help them and seem only able to warp them. I will, however, provide the state with intelligent, critical thinking, informed citizens..................the politicians most feared adversary.

[concerned about politics]

I have no desire to "toughen them up" with middle school viciousness. Leapfrog that garbage, meet the creeps in college holding the academic high ground, see them for what they are, and pity them.

Southpark had an episode on homeschoolers.
A boy and a girl were allowed to check out the Southpark Elementary school.
The girl became an instant whore, the boy a bully. The moral, though, was that homeschoolers have to learn to get tough to understand how to get along in the sick liberal world or they'll be too suseptable to influence when they do "get out of the hampster ball."
Southpark failed to realize that most homeschoolers will do their own K-12 and are adults when they have to stay in a box everyday with the liberal kids. They're old enough and experienced enough because the world has been their classroom.
If anyone is in a box, it's public school kids. They switch to the next box each year with the same kids who are the same age. The only thing that ever changes for them is the person who teaches feelings standing in the front of the box! How suffocating!

[grobdriver]

Graduating Texas A&M at 20 years old? You must be proud!
You betcha.

Could you share what education philosophy your family followed or what decisions were made to enroll her in university at a more tender age? Thank you.
Education philosophy? That would be basics.
Don't get me wrong - she can discuss Plato, Aquinas, Mill and such (well, maybe not so readily now, but she was exposed); She enjoyed poetry on her own so steering her towards classics - and discussing them - was easy... but the sciences, math, grammar are the building blocks.

I would also say that knowing one's limitations is important. Once she got beyond basic Calculus, for instance, I couldn't help her very well. We convinced a college math major from our church to tutor.
There are programs out there (as you probably know) for the sciences. For instance we used one retired high school teacher who retired and went into business teaching home schoolers chemistry and physics. He offered classroom instruction and labs, or just labs (and we taught the lessons using text he specified, and his lesson plan - but there are only so many experiments one can do in one's kitchen, with pots and pans for equipment). Again, she got beyond my education in chemistry very quickly (she graduates with a double degree: Bio-Chem and Math).

We sent her to a local Junior College when she started driving, and she was amazed at how easy the classes were. The SAT's followed, A&M accepted her the next year and here we are. She hasn't decided which graduate school to attend; she is looking for good Chemistry departments.

I think many more kids could perform at her level if they had less of the fluff and PC garbage we see in public schools, and more meat provided in a challenging way. But more importantly, when class material, and not what she's wearing, is the driving factor, success follows. I freely admit that home schooling allowed us to determine with whom she spent her time - and that was with our church fellowship or other home-schooled kids who were similarly guided.
You wouldn't make a meal by throwing everything in your pantry into a pot and letting it simmer for 4 years, would you? Neither should you put motivated kids together with scoundrels, and then adjust your teaching to the scoundrels.

Thanks for asking.

[Stand Watch Listen]

However, I dislike the tone of some of the pro-homeschool articles that seem to imply that all public schools are run by evil people looking to deliberately dumb-down kids.

FYI...Here are links to various education threads (also containing numerous helpful links)

FReegards

Public Sector Subverting Productive Industry
Source: Toogood Reports; Published:| May 16, 2002;
Author: Henry Pelifian

History of America's Education Part 2: Noah Webster and Early America
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 27, 2002;
Author: April Shenandoah

How Communist is Public Education?
Source: sierratimes.com; Published:March 22, 2002;
Author: Chuck Morse

History of America's Education Part 1: Johnny is in trouble
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 20, 2002 ;
Author: April Shenandoah

Audit rips Georgia schools' curriculum
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published: March 11, 2002;
Author:JAMES SALZER

Why schools fail: Samuel Blumenfeld warns Bush's education legislation is ineffective
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: March 2, 2002;
Author: Samuel Blumenfeld

Public School Isn't Like I Remember It
Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002;
Author: Phyllis Schlafly

What Is Lacking In Our Educational System
Source: Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002;
Author:| Ben Cerruti

The charade of education reform
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: February 2, 2002;
Author: Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld

American public schools: Working just as designed
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: January 21, 2002;
Author: Vox Day

High Schools Fail Thanks To Grade Inflation And Social Promotion
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: December 5, 2001
Author: Vin Suprynowicz

WHY AMERICANS CAN’T READ
Source: Accuracy in Media; Published: December 4, 2001
Author: Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid

The Failing Teacher and the Teachers' Code of Silence
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: December 3, 2001
Author: Glenn Sacks

Time for outrage! Linda Bowles reports latest results in America's public schools
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: November 27, 2001
Author: Linda Bowles

Illiterate in Boston: Samuel Blumenfeld explains U.S.'s ongoing reading problem
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: July 20, 2001
Author:Samuel Blumenfeld

NEA - Let our children go!
Source: WorldNet Daily; Published: June 23. 2001
Author: Linda Harvey

COOKING THE BOOKS AT EDUCATION
Source: Accuracy In Media; Published: June 5, 2001;
Author: Cliff Kincaid

Why Do Schools Play Games With Students' Minds ?
Source: The Detroit News; Published: April 1, 2001
Author: Thomas Sowell

The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?
Source: http://home.talkcity.com/LibraryDr/patt/homeschl.htm
Author: John Taylor Gatto

Dumbing down teachers
Source: USNews.com; Published: February 21, 2001
Author: John Leo

Free Republic links to education related articles (thread#8)
Source: Free Republic; Published: 3-20-2001
Author: Various

Are children deliberately 'dumbed down' in school? {YES!!!}
Source: World Net Daily; Published: May 13, 2001
Author: Geoff Metcalf {Interview}

Could they really have done it on purpose?
Source: THE LIBERTARIAN; Published: 07/28/2000
Author: Vin Suprynowicz

New Book Explores America's Education Catastrophe
Source: Christian Citizen USA; Published: April 2000
Author: William H. Wild

Deliberately dumbing us down (Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America"
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: December 2,1999
Author: Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Deconstructing the Western Mind: Gramscian-Marxist Subversion of Faith and Education
Source: www.petersnet; Published: Winter 1997
Author: Frank Morriss

Littleton Crisis to Government Control

The UN Plan for Your Mental Health