Homeschooling, anti-vax, homeopathy: My left-wing childhood is back, on the right

Boston Globe ^ | October 3, 2025 | Kara Panzer

[DoodleBob]

Traditional values. The crunchiest elements of my left-wing upbringing are back — except this time, on the right. The Make America Healthy Again movement, helmed by the science-avoidant Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., purports to steer the country away from the ills of modern living toward a more natural way of being.

I know this lifestyle well. Growing up in Boston’s then gentrifying Jamaica Plain in the 1990s, my family belonged to a community center where it was rumored that the Moosewood Cookbook brown glop served therein was occasionally spiked with the devil’s lettuce. Today’s MAHA offspring may be more likely to join their parents for a family storming of the US Capitol than attend a “Wake up the Earth” parade or an Iraq War protest, as we did on our outings, but the parallels are undeniable.

My parents, like many in their community then, had lost some faith in institutions. They had concerns about a prescription-happy medical establishment and about the ways a materialistic culture might harm children. as a product of a maha childhood before maha even existed, I share my experience of what worked and what did not.

….

… I know many individuals who are products of a homeschool education, and the percentage of them I would describe as well-adjusted is negligible. Are children so fragile and corruptible that exposure to a divergent idea or opinion will set them on the wrong path out of the nest? I find this premise perplexing… let your children experience exposure to different outlooks and the drudgery of group projects with people with whom they share nothing in common. It’s good practice for life in a democracy, which will hopefully remain a relevant skill set by the time they attain adulthood.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antivaxhysteria; arth; freaksversusnormals; homeschooling

[DoodleBob]

Ms Panzer is about 33.

The big diff, Ms Panzer, is you and your family were probably left alone. Yes, your parents were probably considered off, maybe weird, and may have been shunned. But that’s it.

Nowadays, YOUR tribe wants to doxx homeschooling parents, treat vaccine-skeptics; people like war criminals, and unleash the FDA on homeopaths.

[frank ballenger]

One of my favorite stories of Thomas Edison was that a school teacher sent him home as a little boy with a note that said he was incapable of getting an education because he had “an addled mind.”

His mother was furious and taught him at home.

Known as perhaps the greatest contributor to modern technology and modern life, Edison was granted 1,093 U.S. patents and 2,332 patents worldwide during his lifetime.
Developed the practical phonograph, telegraph, storage battery and forms of useful electric light and power transmission.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“...the percentage of [home schooled kids] I would describe as well-adjusted is negligible”

When you look through the horribly distorting lens of leftism, normal people do not seem well-adjusted.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I know many individuals who are products of a homeschool education, and the percentage of them I would describe as well-adjusted is negligible.

What a lying piece of excrement this female is.

[Celerity]

“… let your children experience exposure to different outlooks and the drudgery of group projects with people with whom they share nothing in common.”

No.

[Gene Eric]

>> the science-avoidant Secretary

difficult to give the author additional attention after that puerile slur

[rlmorel]

That, from someone who almost certainly has one of these signs on her front lawn:

[exDemMom]

The crunchiest elements of my left-wing upbringing are back — except this time, on the right. The Make America Healthy Again movement, helmed by the science-avoidant Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., purports to steer the country away from the ills of modern living toward a more natural way of being.

I know this lifestyle well. Growing up in Boston’s then gentrifying Jamaica Plain in the 1990s, my family belonged to a community center where it was rumored that the Moosewood Cookbook brown glop served therein was occasionally spiked with the devil’s lettuce.

Well, my introduction into "alternative medicine," anti-vax hooey, "whole foods," etc. came from my very leftist upbringing back in the 1960s and 1970s. The left still very much owns that anti-science, anti-medicine movement. But a disturbing number of conservatives have bought into it lately.

Everything else she wrote was pretty much bunk.

[Dr. Sivana]

What a lying piece of excrement this female is.

She's young, and likely doesn't know all that many homeschoolers. Perhaps she is the maladjusted one but doesn't know it because she is maladjusted.

[Dr. Sivana]

That, from someone who almost certainly has one of these signs on her front lawn:

Worse. She lives in New York City, and likely doesn't even have a front lawn.

[rlmorel]

Heh, most likely true.

What a dumbass.

[twyn1]

Total biased liar — public school (as it is now) is one of the most artificial and negative environments for healthy learning and growth. Segregation by age (not ability or aptitude); leeway given to bullies and cliques; value based on popularity, athletic abilities, or “attractiveness” (which includes DEI); teaching to the lowest denominator or focused only on “THE TEST”....

I compare it to being placed in a low-quality daycare at best, a prison at worst. There are wonderful teachers, and good schools, but they are few and far between these days.

Nothing like a work environment once you get out into the real world.

Just imagine what would happen if a co-worker slammed you into the wall, scattered your papers all over the floor and then demanded your lunch money. Or if Bill in accounting didn’t quite grasp the fundamentals of percentages, so we all had to wait until he caught up and allow for any mistakes he was making.

Not all homeschooled kids turn out perfectly (I know this personally) — but they sure as heck have a much better chance

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Or maybe she was looking in the mirror. :)

[wjcsux]

Whenever I see one of these signs in someone’s yard, I have the strong urge to pull over and piss on it.

[paudio]

Nobody claimed the community as anti science. They probably even hailed as a model of healthy community that others need to adopt. That is, until part of their concept is adopted by a Republican administration.

[hanamizu]

“Developed the practical phonograph, telegraph, storage battery and forms of useful electric light...”

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That’s odd, I remember being told by a Penn professor (Brandon) that the electric light was invented by a black man, not a white guy named Edison. Could he have been mistaken?

[ifinnegan]

This guy is right.

A lot of hippie antiCapitalist looney lefty crap embraced by a lot of Maga. Or they became Maga.

I don’t care, it brings in votes and keeps Democrats out of office.

[lastchance]

“.. helmed by the science-avoidant Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

She is full of monkey piss. Robert F. Kennedy Jr is actually paying attention to independent science that is not in thrall to $$$ from drug companies.

[lastchance]

Time enough for that when they enter corporate America.