Posted on 04/24/2005 3:26:43 PM PDT by wagglebee
Editor's note: This is an excerpt from a speech given by Kevin Swanson, the executive director of the Colorado Home School Association, at a banquet that was part of Homeschool Day at the state Capitol April 8.
One-hundred and twenty years ago, when Laura Ingalls Wilder walked into her one-room schoolhouse, there were no police officers in the hallways, and not a single arrest made the entire school year. A police officer in Colorado Springs recently told me that he makes an arrest a day at a high school in that city.
One-hundred years ago, there were barely 3-4 percent of children born without fathers. Today, that rate has grown to 35 percent. One-hundred years ago, 24-year-old men had no idea what transsexuals were. Today, 6-year-olds know what transsexuals are. We saw one at the restaraunt the other day.
Two-hundred years ago, our forefathers went to war over 67 cents of taxation.. The federal governmnet taxed the average citizen $1 in 1787. Today, each citizen pays $6,000 a year in federal taxes, an increase of 9000 percent adjusted for inflation. The government takes almost 50 percent of our income in taxes, whereas in 1913, that number was just under 10 percent.
Our nation has changed profoundly. And the worst part of it is that most people have no idea what they live in. We have perfectly patterned our lives after the Benjamin Franklin quote, "Either you'll be governed by God, or by God you'll be governed."
The agenda of the left is plain. They want 70 percent of children born without fathers 35 percent is not good enough. They want 75 percent of our income taken in taxes, not just 50 percent. They are not satisfied with 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce. Let's make that 80 percent!
But, thank God, there are 30,000 homeschool moms and dads in Colorado who have turned to a burgeoning government and said, "NO!" Thank God, there are some who see the battle as the destruction of the family by means of a government that would control and displace the family.
The Pilgrims of a previous century saw the danger of a government that wanted to control the church. They boarded a ship and sailed to America.
There are roughly as many Pilgrims in this room today as there were Pilgrims on the Mayflower. The Pilgrims today have boarded a ship and taken their families away from government insitututions that are hell-bent on destroying the family.
Can we turn the tide with a mere 2 million pilgrims that have pulled out of the harbor? I think so. It has been done before. It can be done again.
Two million strong in this country are willing to say: "Maybe Karl Marx was wrong on his 10th plank ... Free Public Education for all. Maybe Rousseau, the father of the modern statist, humanist world, the father of the modern godless state, the man who envisioned a world without family, a world without parents, maybe he was wrong."
Of course, 2 million students are a mere drop in the bucket compared to 60 million public-schooled students.
"They tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week ... or next year ... will it be when we are totally disarmed ... and when a guard is stationed in every house ... to check on your vaccinations ... and your standardized tests?
"Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Two millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
"Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery.
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace peace, but there is no peace. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentleman wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
it's all right... my whole family was horrified when i pulled my kids out of Public School and started HS. they listed the same things as you as their concerns.
i had to weigh the good and bad.... even good and EVIL, as i saw it at the time.
we live on a ranch, so there was never a shortage of work. my youngest could run his Dad's backhoe when he was 12 like a pro. like the Hank Williams Jr song.. a country boy will survive. they know how to do home canning, raise chickens, dig a well, milk a cow, weld, break and train a horse, mechanic, make home made wine, rope a calf, and .. yes - shoot and skin a buck. they also know how their Government works and what the Constitution says.. and means. and that's just the practical stuff.. i didn't mention the academics.
they are both in higher education now... the oldest with a 4.0... and the other to graduate in 2 weeks from trade school. (and they're both a little too out going for me)
forgive the long post... moms love to brag..
ps... my family has all retracted their former nay-saying after seeing the finished (partly finished) products.
I have always wanted to do what you are doing.
and don't forget the Jack London books. they were my very favorite when i was a kid. i yearned for Alaska because of them..
Well, get used to not making money if you do. I do it only as a side to feed my personal book habit. The margins are too slim to make much beyond expenses - homeschoolers live on small budgets and only buy when they need to. Well and good, I say, but not a way to make a living.
I think a couple million kids like that is an unfair advantage. . . .
you mean 'cause they know how to make home made wine? ; )
I salute you and all other women (and fathers, too) that do the kind of job you are doing!
I read a piece in the WSJ last summer about the phenomenon of HS kids going through Patrick Henry College (for HS kids) and Hillsdale. The Bush administration has, I guess, about seven of these kids as interns in the White House. The leftists were in a foaming lather over it. One woman (or womyn) said she was "terrified" of these interns because of the future threat from religious politics.
I laughed when I read that one. Milk drinking kids that say please and thank you and can read and write "terrify" the left. What a good thing. You and the hundreds of thousands of other families doing your counter-counter-culture education are to be praised and lauded and esteemed. You done real good!
I think I read every one she ever wrote. I started reading them when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and felt the stories were growing up with me even when I was in college and later.......
well thank you. you know what really steams me? it's the lie that we CAN'T do it. i believed that lie for years... knowing in my heart that i was letting my children being indoctrinated.. but doubting my abilities. there was a straw that broke the camel's back..... and also, one of my kid's teachers who i resepected very much advised me to pull them out and HS when i asked her opinion.
it isn't hard. it's a JOY. it really is. i admire the poster who has an outside job and schools... that would be much harder.. but parents can do it. heck... Patrick Henry's parents did it. .. and he turned out not too bad.. LOL
>>>>....HS kids going through Patrick Henry College (for HS kids) and Hillsdale. The Bush administration has, I guess, about seven of these kids as interns in the White House.<<<<
these are some rare pearls. God bless them and keep them safe... in every way.
Yep. We need to load up the farm teams on this end and down the road some will make it to the big leagues - maybe dominate them. One boy in my neck of the woods at about 19 or 20 has his sights set on being a Senator.
I have never met a homeschooled child that was immature or not socialized or unable to follow specific directions......I know more kids from public school that fit that description.
My daughter is in public school, but until she started kindergarten I was self-employed and took her where ever I went, whetherit was to the library for reasearch, the state capitol on a piece of legislation I was working on (I was a lobbyist), political meetings, rallies, fundraisers or what have you.
She's not quite 7, but is comfortable in a group of kids her age, mixed age, or even all adults.
Some leftwing whackos that have serious problems with my political positions have claimed I am a child abuser for exposing her to current events, political views, and life in general. I don't care
I am not a "real" homeschooler, but just because a child goes to public school doesn't mean they can't and shouldn't have the advantages of homeschooling. And based on my experience I don't see homeschooled children at any "disadvantage" compared to their peers in more formal school environments.
I have the utmost respect for those parents who choose to home school their kids; I'm sure it's a daunting task which demands much time and educational acumen. But I have a problem with it, on a personal level.
I'm a father raising two kids by myself. As such, it is impossible for me to home school. I'm a professional (civil engineer), so I'm capable of providing my kids with an education, but we also need to eat and pay the bills. In other words, I need to work, which means my kids need to attend the public schools.
Home schooling is a band-aid which only families in certain situations can benefit from. As I said, I'm capable of providing an education to my kids, but there are many families, both single parent and two-parent, who cannot provide the requisite education to their kids because they don't have the requisite skills.
No, home schooling is not the ultimate answer. It may be a temporary answer for you, and you will have rescued your kids from a corrupt US educational system, but it doesn't provide a long term solution which will benefit the masses for the greater good of society.
I believe in public education. I really do, because it worked for over 100 years. So why isn't it working now? It's because the NEA has incorporated an attitude in it's members that the public education system exists to provide teachers with a livelyhood, whereas before it existed to provide children with an education.
Fifty years ago, teachers went into the teaching profession with no illusion about the fact that they would be underpaid, but they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had equipped the nation's children with the skills necessary to excel in life. I want that back! I demand that back!
I also want teachers to be compensated justly, and I want poor teachers to be held accountable.
You homeschoolers, you're still paying the state and local taxes which are being doled out to the public school systems. Doesn't that piss you off? If you are serious about confronting the public schools you should refuse to pay these taxes.
As for me, I'm forced to deal with the public schools. The answer isn't to run away; it is to demand a decent education for our kids from the schools that we are funding.
checked out your bio page... LOL.
i grew up in Mn.. up by Bagley... about 25 miles from that Red Lake school shooting.
We decided to stop homeschooling our eldest when she was 15. By skipping all the fluff and crud over the years, we'd managed to cover the whole HS curriculum a bit early. So we had her start college early
With the numbers of homeschooled children increasing, the "powers that be" are going to have to do something about it.
Illegal immigration, embraced by the ruling party (at the top there is only one party in American politics), has the effect of diluting the homeschoolers impact once they become adults.
But this won't stop them from becoming leading citizens able to rationalize things for themselves.
What I foresee happening is some kind of a "national service draft" lasting 2 years. During these 2 years of slavery, the state will attempt to do undo everything these children learned in the previous 18. Their values. Their independence. Their honor. And so.
Those that refuse to go along will be tried and sentenced as felons.
>>If you are serious about confronting the public schools you should refuse to pay these taxes.<<
one problem there.. you will get your property confiscated and might go to prison.. i guess that's two problems.... and probably more..
true... we still pay property tax. But - the school doesn't get their head count money from the State (and fed matching most times). this is why the Public Schools and lefties and NEA hate private, home, Christian, etc schooling. it DOES take money away from them. they get so much per pupil.
you can just supplement what the school is lacking in. and i believe that is mostly in Civics. hmmm... i wonder why?
all you have to do is get some good (older the better IMO) books on US Government.. and do a little weekend schooling..
i'm sorry for your predicament.. but asking others to keep their children on a sinking ship ..... for what? ... is not going to happen.
to me the amswer is back to township schools. parents were in control and kids had a much healthier family type enviroment . meaning kids from 5 to 18.
now they are like little herd animals and really don't learn any more authentic social skills except herd animal ones - ie pick on the weakest, don't stand out etc.
JMO.
>>Some leftwing whackos that have serious problems with my political positions have claimed I am a child abuser for exposing her to current events, political views, and life in general.<<
you forgot - and 'cause you're a dirty smoker.
LOL
i started rolling my own a couple months ago Gabz..
WOW is that cheap(er)! i tea-partied them! LOL
Yes, well, I knew that would be the reply, and it's certainly a legitimate reply, but how deeply do you believe in home schooling? Thoreau is watching you.
It just pisses me off to no end that I'm paying taxes to support a system which is an abject and obvious failure. And yet due to my personal situation I have no choice.
My point is that home schooling seems to me to be running away from a very serious problem which needs to be corrected for the greater good of the American people. The NEA have hi-jacked our kids, and I resent that.
The public schools belong to our kids, we pay for them, AND I WANT THEM BACK.
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