The Case Against Homeschooling

Modern public schools are only jobs programs.

and leftist indoctrination and political support bases.

Crumbs, where to being? Am I supposed to take this person seriously?

10. And… say what you will… but it doesn’t feel nice to be considered an outsider, a natural outcropping of being homeschooled.

After reading the rest of this, you actually expect me to think your concern is for how my kids feel? But it's all about that to a Liberal, isn't it? More important that they should stay in a bloated, overfunded, underachieving brainwashing camp designed to make them accept sexual deviants as being "a family just like you and me" then they should be challenged outside of the control of social regulators who know better than the stupid parents what is REALLY important to teach the kids. Who gives a damn if my child doen't fit your square hole when your definition of what my child should become is Liberal nonsense. But, hey, I could be wrong...I'm just a stupid, bigoted, religious parent, clinging to my guns and God. There's no possible way my college education could be better than your college education.

9. Call me old-fashioned, but a students’ classroom shouldn’t also be where they eat Fruit Loops and meat loaf (not at the same time I hope). It also shouldn’t be where the family gathers to watch American Idol or to play Wii. Students–from little ones to teens–deserve a learning-focused place to study. In modern society, we call them schools.

In American society, for over a hundred years from our founding, children learned their letters from the Bible and from scripture quoted in McGuffey's reader, often at their parents knee no where near a schoolhouse. Not a single founder, not even your Saint Thomas Jefferson of the Holy Wall, objected to God's word in the schools, not once. This system turned out Washington, Lincoln, and a host of great achivers. It was only modern Liberals who decided that God had to go from the schools, and hey, that's worked out really well, what with the drugs, and violence, and disrespect for adults, and the drop in the SAT's, eh? So we're sorry when we decline to even consider your opinion.

8. Homeschooling is selfish. According to this article in USA Today, students who get homeschooled are increasingly from wealthy and well-educated families. To take these (I’m assuming) high achieving students out of our schools is a disservice to our less fortunate public school kids. Poorer students with less literate parents are more reliant on peer support and motivation, and they greatly benefit from the focus and commitment of their richer and higher achieving classmates.

And again, this really boils down to money. What is selfish is your demanding that my tax dollars, and also my kids, get forced into a system that clearly doesn't work right. Gosh, those poorer students should Benoit by the fact you'll have smaller classes with a better Guard-to-Inmate ratio. But of course, what will happen is you'll get less money, and you'll be out of a job. (Just like the rest of the real world where if you fail at your job, they fire you.)

I guess what you are saying here is those that poorly in public education come from poorer households where lower achieving students have parents that don't value education. Are you aware at how racist you are sounding? That those poor, failing inner city kids (you know who we mean) can't possibly achieve anything on their own? Is that your argument?

7. God hates homeschooling.

Amazing you don't burst into flames here.

The study, done by the National Center for Education Statistics, notes that the most common reason parents gave as the most important was a desire to provide religious or moral instruction. To the homeschooling Believers out there, didn’t God say “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”? Didn’t he command, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”?

You won't LET ME SAY THIS IN SCHOOL YOU IGNORANT MORON! YOU SNEER OPENLY AT CHRISTIANITY! YOU FORBID HAVING A "BIBLE CLUB"!

From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord to the common people.

And here's the b-slap...

(Personally I’m agnostic, but I’m just saying…)

So, what you are saying in the sentence preceding this one is that you are SOOOO clever and well-educated, you can use a phrase like "grace, power and beauty of the Lord" and I'll never realize you are making fun of me and my religious views? As someone who doesn't even believe in God, you either feel so superior that you can lecture me on how to properly act as a Christian, at the same time smirk, at what I believe, and do this all within an academic system that will fire a teacher for even wearing a tiny silver cross? Unbelieveable.

6. Homeschooling parent/teachers are arrogant to the point of lunacy. For real! My qualifications to teach English include a double major in English and education, two master’s degrees (education and journalism), a student teaching semester and multiple internship terms, real world experience as a writer, and years in the classroom dealing with different learning styles. So, first of all, homeschooling parent, you think you can teach English as well as me?

Isn't that "as well as I", English teacher? Well, maybe you can. I’ll give you that. But there’s no way that you can teach English as well as me, and biology as well as a trained professional, and history… and Spanish… and art… and counsel for college as well as a school’s guidance counselor… and… and…

Lincoln had very little formal education, and he became President. And perhaps your formal education in Debate and Public Speaking should have covered that using "and..." in the place of an actual logical arguement looks like the work of a publicly-schooled six-year-old.

5. As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off. (That’s good enough for #5.)

Do you kiss either of your mothers with that mouth? Your English classes should have mentioned a thing called "tone". That is, suddenly desending into common speech lessens the rest of the power of your arguement. Still, fairly, this pretty much sums up your overall complaint about homeschooling.

4. Homeschooling could breed intolerance, and maybe even racism.

And in one stroke you assume that parents who home school are both intolerant and racist. Bravo. Listen, teach...tolerance isn't what you have been taught. I tolerate homosexuals every day. I don't persecute them, I don't spit on them, I don't hurt them or belittle them. That is tolerance...I let them go on with their lives. What you want is for me to celebrate and approve of them which my religion says not to, and which you hate me for. If anyone is being bigoted here, it is you, because without knowing me, you are willing to brand me as racist.

Unless the student is being homeschooled at the MTV Real World house, there’s probably only one race/sexuality/background in the room. How can a young person learn to appreciate other cultures if he or she doesn’t live among them?

Why their parents teach them, outside of your control! (See #5). Your question, more properly, is "if professional schoolteachers aren't there to degrade traditional American history and values, how can the young person learn to sneer at America and hate their own culture?"

Personally, I learned everything I need to know about Muslims on 9-11. Their religion wants me dead or enslaved, and sees no problem with blowing up their children to get at the Infidels. My culture is infinity superior to theirs, and to their religion. However, you will never see the public schools spending a week to teach kids about Christ, nor providing prayer rooms and foot baths (FOOT BATHS!) for the Christians. If you can't see that bigotry, well then, you're probably a public schoolteacher. I send my kids to school to learn about math, science, and history...they don't need to be socially brainwashed by a Liberal-college educated Lefty as to why "America sucks! So there!"

3. And don’t give me this “they still participate in activities with public school kids” garbage. Socialization in our grand multi-cultural experiment we call America is a process that takes more than an hour a day, a few times a week. Homeschooling, undoubtedly, leaves the child unprepared socially.

Take a look at who generally wins the National Spelling Bee, or Geographic Bee. When homeschooled kids participate in activities with public school kids, they often outperform them, making their public teachers look bad and might make the public kids start asking messy questions about why they don't do as well against homeschoolers. The problem is, when you can't compete in reasonable arguements about scholastic performance, you have to fall back on this tired arguement that, well, maybe they outperform us, but they're geeks! (See #1) Public schools, undoubtedly, leave the children uncomefortable as to why those geeks seem to outperform them.

2. Homeschooling parents are arrogant, Part 2.

Pot, kettle. You assume there is no possible way parents can educate their kids on their own when those homeschooled kids are outperforming public school kids all over the place, and then lecture me on arrogance?

According to Henry Cate, who runs the Why Homeschool blog, many highly educated, high-income parents are “probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks” in choosing a college or line of work. “The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling.” More comfortable taking risks with their child’s education? Gamble on, I don’t know, the Superbowl, not your child’s future.

But I am supposed to gamble that your own Leftist, arrogant value set won't seep into what you teach, and pollute my children?

1. And finally… have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky***.

...and there's what we were waiting for...the people who preach about tolerance making fun of the social skills and appearence of the kids they claim to value so much that they want complete control of what they are taught. And what the heck does "Not to hate" mean? It sure reminds me of the old guys from my childhood, those old, foolish bigots, who began the racist joke with "I'm no racist, but did you hear the one about...." What kind of multiple personality must a Liberal have to be able to make fun of someone's kids, and on the other hand preach about "appriciating diversity in our world"? You hypocrite!

The comments at the end of the article are good.

They would outlaw religious and private schools, if they could.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Liberal/Marxists would kill us if they could. They just can't get away with it...(yet).

Also...Please remember that it is **impossible** to have a religiously neutral education. This is axiomatic!

Even if school districts were as small as a suburban subdivision, it is morally abhorrent, a First Amendment abomination, and an affront to freedom of conscience for one neighbor to impose his religiously non-neutral educational worldview on other people's children....and force other neighbors to pay for it.

My children get along just fine with their peers. Of course all of their peers are adults. Who they don't get along with are the immature jerks that pass for public high school students or graduates.

People who push their children to do missionary work before they are ready are making a mistake.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It is also **not** WWJD.

Jesus never used kids a missionaries. If we are following Jesus’ example then we shouldn’t either.

"Also...Please remember that it is **impossible** to have a religiously neutral education. This is axiomatic!"
164 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 9:23:09 PM by wintertime

Right. Secular humanism and moral relativism, along with the hostility toward Christianity, is a religious ideology. It teaches secular attitudes toward Christianity and religion.

Again, the failure of the various mainstream Christian denominations to reach a consensus on Christian culture in education and on a role for religion and morality in schools has something to do with this.

There needs to be an agreement on basic Christian principles and how to apply them to education from the leaders of these denominations. Unfortunately, many of the leaders are liberals so it is unlikely. But this it at the root of the problem here. This division opened things up for secular humanists to take over.

If a person with your eduction including some impressive sound academic achievements and degrees, student teaching sumesters and mutliple interships, real world experience as a writer, and years in the classroom dealing with different learning styles can't do any better than this at coming up with reasoned logical arguments, then I do think parents have a pretty good chance of doing better by their children, than you would.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If this is the **best** that the teaching trade has to offer, imagine how bad mediocre or poor is?

Teachers have the lowest SAT and GRE scores on campus. Yes, some government school defender is bound to say, "My wife is a very smart person and has high GRE scores." That means that there are some very unfortunate kids out there in government school-land who have a very DUMB teacher with REALLY LOW SAT scores.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to every point. I thoroughly enjoyed your comments. Did you send this response to the “author.” (author is in quotes because I’m using the term very loosely.)

How can a young person learn to appreciate other cultures if he or she doesn’t live among them? ( from the article)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! DING!!!DING!!!DING!!!

Ah! Ha! The truth comes out! The **real** goal of the Liberal/Marxist is to have children **live** ( 24 hours a day) in government concentration camps!!!

Before long, NEA union workers will take newborns from their mothers’ arms in the delivery room so they can be raised in compulsory, 24/7, government newborn schools. Hey! Why not? It doesn't feel “nice to be an outsider” living with White ( gasp!) parents.

Do you remember the day that you got your SS Nbr?

I recall the day that I got mine. I wanted a Summer job and it was a requirement.

My kids nor I can say the same about when they were assigned their SS nbrs. My kids had SS nbrs when they were toddlers.

Just cuz You can't see it, don't mean that it ain't happening.

Right. Secular humanism and moral relativism, along with the hostility toward Christianity, is a religious ideology. It teaches secular attitudes toward Christianity and religion.

Also..There are several other **very** negative, anti-Christian, and pro-atheistic lessons taught when children attend atheistic government schools. I will list just a few:

1) The child learns that he **must** separate and compartmentalize his faith. Christians know that this is false but the children must do this if he is to avoid punishment and ridicule from the government workers.

2) The child will invariably run into "Christian" teachers who claim to be Christian but then teach their subject(s) within the context of an atheistic worldview. All the students ( Christian and non-Christian) ***KNOW** that it is against Christian doctrine to compartmentalize the Christian faith in one's life...and...It is especially against Christian doctrine to teach children to be atheistic in their worldview. Children will rightly conclude that Christian teachers are hypocrites who will sell their souls for a paycheck.

3) Given the above two points, will it be easier or harder for **real** missionaries to reach these kids when they reach maturity? Answer: Far harder.

Again, the failure of the various mainstream Christian denominations to reach a consensus on Christian culture in education and on a role for religion and morality in schools has something to do with this.

Concerned conservative Christians must stop looking to their churches for leadership. GIVE IT UP! Why?

Answer: There are too many Christian government school teachers in the pews. They are there as well as their families, the vendors, and even people like my dentist and his employees who depend on government school dental insurance. Few ministers will bite the hand that puts money in the collection plate!

The solution is for concerned Christian conservatives to act independently of their churches. We must set up private voucher foundations so that every child can have access to a private, conservative, and Christian education.

There needs to be an agreement on basic Christian principles and how to apply them to education from the leaders of these denominations. Unfortunately, many of the leaders are liberals so it is unlikely. But this it at the root of the problem here. This division opened things up for secular humanists to take over.

There won't be an agreement because there are too many Christian teacher hypocrites sucking at the government school trough. Again...If Christian teachers are not part of the solution, they ARE CAUSING THE PROBLEM

(Yes, I am shouting. I am exasperated! )

Do you remember the day that you got your SS Nbr? I recall the day that I got mine. I wanted a Summer job and it was a requirement.

My kids nor I can say the same about when they were assigned their SS nbrs. My kids had SS nbrs when they were toddlers.

The IRS requires Social Security numbers for all your children - from birth - in order to claim them on your tax return. With the child tax credit it is pretty much de rigeur.

Just cuz You can't see it, don't mean that it ain't happening.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Brave New World is no longer science fiction. The homos already called married parents, “The Breeders”.

The problem seems to have been in getting suckered into accepting the idea that a taxpayer-funded school is part of "the government" (i.e., the secular state) which can restrict first amendment rights at the door. Communities could raise their own funds, doing away with the taxes, to create community schools owned by the private citizens of the community as an incorporated trust. The whole idea of the state controlling education is wrong. For numerous reasons. Nativism (from earlier in U.S. history) has something to do with it.

It also conditions a stigma attached to Christian religious beliefs, as if there is something strange and forbidden about them.

Among the latest oddities are these strip searches conducted by these NEA types, allegedly as part of drug enforcement. It was a critical point in this downward slope when condoms replaced Bibles. So much mischief passes under these absurd "Health" and PE classes. Dumb them down, get them nude, and start insinuating ideas about "safe" immorality. It would be a brilliant formula if it were Communists trying to destroy the society.

I have a hard time responding to it because the writer is such a doofus. The points are lame and badly written... she could have profited from a bit of homeschooling herself.

As is always the case in a civilized discussion, I assumed that “present company”, that is FReepers, conservatives, etc. was excepted. Anything else and discussion becomes difficult or impossible.

I have two friends who were national editors, one for ABC, the other survived to retirement at NBC. Both survived by never, repeat NEVER, letting their colleagues know they were not liberals.

Since American newspapers were shaped by Horace Greeley, and since Greeley was a socialist, it is not surprising FR members tend to be dismissive of presstitutes in general.

Granted, there are some in journalism who are not Liberals, but they are few and far between.

Might I ask how you survived professionally, being a conservative in a world dominated by the socialism impaired?

I just read this posted somewhere else! lol I’m laughing at this guy being paid to write.... hell, my 18 year old homeschooled geeky kid can and does write better than this bigot.

“She” is a black man... Jesse

The comments at the end of the article are good.

Good?! The guy is getting shredded.

By people a lot more literate than he is.