Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
A Harvard University law professor believes that homeschooling is dangerous and should be banned.
Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, wrote a paper recommending a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling children in the United States. Yeah, that United States. The land of the free, home of the brave United States.
According to Bartholet, homeschooling can prevent children from receiving a meaningful education, leave them open to child abuse, and can socially isolate them. She argues that anybody can homeschool, even parents who are illiterate. She suggests that as many as 90% of homeschool parents educate their kids at home because of conservative Christian beliefs, inculcating them with the beliefs that women are subservient, science isn’t real, and white people are the supreme race.
These parents are committed to homeschooling largely because they reject mainstream, democratic culture and values and want to ensure that their children adopt their own particular religious and social views. Many belong to fundamentalist religious groups, groups that Michael Rebell describes in his important new book, Flunking Democracy, as believing “that exposing their children to ideas such as secularism, atheism, feminism, and value relativism is inconsistent with the values they espouse and undermines their ability to inculcate in their children their beliefs in the sacred, absolute truth of the Bible.” Many use alternative textbooks that teach creationism instead of evolution. Many seek to create for their children a system of “total socialization” aimed at negating the influence of competing socialization agents. As Dwyer and Peters say in their recent comprehensive book on homeschooling, many religious homeschoolers object in principle to some core goals of public education:
[T]hey reject the value of independent thinking about values and aims in life, they oppose instruction in scientific methodologies . . . and they want to constrain their daughters’ lives to a single occupation—housewife. To the extent parents in this group do value secular learning, they treat it—even basic literacy—as of little importance compared to unflinching acceptance of religious doctrine and reactionary political views. (source)
I’m sure that will come as a vast surprise to all my homeschooling friends (particularly the ones who homeschool for secular reasons) who may have missed that part of the curriculum.
In her 80-page diatribe, Bartholet completely overlooks the lack of practical knowledge imparted by the school system. Our kids leave school knowing all about anal sex and BDSM but not how to do their taxes, make a reservation, navigate using a map, handle credit, or stick to a budget.
The real issue is a lack of indoctrination.
Ironically, the real problem Bartholet has with homeschooling is this:
Many homeschool because they want to isolate their children from ideas and values central to our democracy. (source)
Let me rephrase that. Homeschooled children can’t be indoctrinated five days a week, eight hours a day, by an education system that emphasizes political agendas. (And incidentally, our form of government is a constitutional republic. Shouldn’t someone from Harvard who is worried I might not have the knowledge to educate my child know something as elementary as that?)
Bartholet defames homeschoolers for wanting to encourage their children toward a particular belief system while touting the belief system that the school system wants to instill. So it’s okay for the public school system to do it, just not for the parents to do it.
Here are a few of the things that the public school system wants children to believe:
- Everyday things like the food you eat can be racist.
- Cupcakes can be “insensitive.”
- You need to feel safe at all times.
- Guns are scary.
- Snitching on your parents is encouraged.
- Only the school understands nutrition.
While Bartholet scorns parents who indoctrinate their kids, she praises the school system for doing so. The American education system is wholly responsible for raising a generation of perpetually offended people who think they’re open-minded but who actually are only accepting of those with the same beliefs.
They’re creating a generation of worker bees, of dependent people who’d never dream of revolting against the status quo shown as ideal by Hollywood and the mainstream media. They’re creating adults who don’t know how to handle conflict, who don’t know how to deal with defeat, and who are regularly fearful of imaginary threats. People who are afraid of a tripod or a pop-tart chewed into the shape of a gun certainly aren’t going to be leading the next revolution.
Schools create a culture of fear.
In fact, nearly everything about today’s school system is designed to instill a sense of fear that will turn frightened children into frightened adults.
Do you remember a few years back when a school in Baltimore was locked down for hours because a person was spotted carrying a tripod on the property? It’s a perfect example of the culture of fear being created in the public school system.
The younger generation is being taught that the very sight of a gun or anything that could be related to a gun is a reason for fear. That fear is cemented in the minds of children and parents when they are traumatized by the handling of the incidents.
Kids are getting in trouble for drawing pictures of guns. For having tools which are sharp. For wearing t-shirts with the word “gun” printed on them. For cutting their poor, defenseless food in the lunchroom. For biting a pastry into a shape that could either be a gun or the state of Florida. Maybe we should outlaw maps of Florida because the shape of that state is “intimidating.”
They are being taught to have an irrational fear of inanimate objects. And because everyone else shares that fear, that mass delusion, it becomes “normal”. It becomes so commonplace that it isn’t fear anymore, but an accepted fact: “Guns are scary.”
The fear is quite literally being implanted. When police refuse to tell people what is going on, when kids are rapidly evacuated, when cops in military-style SWAT gear swoop in – all of these dramatic scenes are not soon forgotten. When the dreaded “gun sighting” occurs in the future, the natural human response is to flash back to the last time that it happened. Instantly, the emotional response is overwhelming fear. (source)
Why would the education system want children to be fearful? People who are scared are far easier to control. Kids are literally begging the government to take away all of the guns and keep them “safe”.
It’s even worse when you get to college.
At this point, a university education results in two things: lifelong debt and 4 more years (at least) of indoctrination. Some professors outright incite violence against people who have different political beliefs. A few years back I wrote an article about the following stellar educators.
- An instructor at Clemson University was recently outed by College Reform for volunteering his graphic design skills to help a local Antifa chapter that made headlines in February for openly promoting violence on campus. He replied to this request for help that was posted on the Upstate Antifa Facebook page.
- Assistant Professor Bart Knijnenburg, another notable member of Indivisible Clemson, caused national outrage when he wrote that “All Republicans are racist scum” in a Facebook post.
- This is the same professor who tweeted last December of his desire for the deaths of white people. Interestingly, Ciccariello-Maher appears to be white and is a self-proclaimed “actual communist.”
- Another example of this is Rashida Love, director of First Peoples Multicultural Advising Services at Evergreen College who demanded “A Day Without White People” at the Washington institution. When another member of the staff, Professor Bret Weinstein, rightly objected, he had to be escorted from the campus for his own safety as protests became heated. Then, a bunch of self-proclaimed Neo-Nazis decided to counterprotest the protest and things really went downhill. (The whole story is here.) What this tells us is that when professors speak up against the Radical Left agenda, they lose their jobs and face real threats to their physical safety.
- Professor Michael Isaacson is a member of Antifa who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He was quoted in an article on The Hill justifying violence against “Nazis.”The justification [of the use of violence] is that Nazi ideology at its very core is founded on violence and on wielding power by any means,” said Mike Isaacson, one of the founders of Smash Racism D.C., an Antifa organization in Washington.
- A Dartmouth professor published The Antifascist Handbook, complete with a call to arms. Mark Bray calls his book an “unabashedly partisan call to arms.”
But by all means, we should definitely worry about the homeschoolers, right?
Homeschool is just better for some kids.
There are children who do not thrive in the public school system. I had one of those kids myself.
Before I continue, I should note that I’m not one of those all-or-nothing parents who believe children should only be home-educated or should only be publicly educated. In fact, I have one kid who is the product of the public school system and one who is the product of homeschooling. Both of my daughters have grown up to be intelligent, thoughtful, sociable, and kind individuals who can think for themselves.
When I removed my youngest daughter from the public school system, the main reason was because critical thinking was discouraged. “If your daughter didn’t have to question everything, her grades would be higher,” the principal informed me at the very last school meeting I’d ever attend. “She always has to ask questions. She refuses to simply absorb the information.”
How could a school system like that properly educate my curious and intelligent child, who had been asking me “why” from the moment she could talk? Quite simply they wouldn’t. They’d try to shove her square little brain into their round hole until she became just like everyone else – an automaton who believed that guns are scary and the government and all its agencies are always right. (Unless it’s President Trump, because he’s always bad.)
Not every child thrives in a homeschool setting but Dr. Bartholet’s premise that it should be banned is utterly outrageous.
Thank goodness for the HSLDA.
According to Bartholet, the only thing standing in the way of banning homeschooling for good is the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association.
In the United States, Bartholet says, state legislators have been hesitant to restrict the practice because of the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association, a conservative Christian homeschool advocacy group, which she describes as small, well-organized, and “overwhelmingly powerful politically.” During the last 30 years, activists have worked to dismantle many states’ homeschooling restrictions and have opposed new regulatory efforts. “There’s really no organized political opposition, so they basically get their way,” Bartholet says. A central tenet of this lobby is that parents have absolute rights that prevent the state from intervening to try to safeguard the child’s right to education and protection.
Bartholet maintains that parents should have “very significant rights to raise their children with the beliefs and religious convictions that the parents hold.” But requiring children to attend schools outside the home for six or seven hours a day, she argues, does not unduly limit parents’ influence on a child’s views and ideas. “The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think that’s dangerous,” Bartholet says. “I think it’s always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful ones total authority.”
…“I think an overwhelming majority of legislators and American people, if they looked at the situation,” Bartholet says, “would conclude that something ought to be done.” (source)
Right now, more parents than ever are getting the opportunity to interact with their child’s education, which could be one bright point in the COVID-19 catastrophe in our country. Perhaps giving our kids one-on-one attention and watching their bright and curious minds at work will encourage more parents to say, “You know what? The school system is not for us. I want to raise this independent child to be an independent adult.”
And perhaps more parents will tell ivory tower elitists like Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet to go fly a kite.
Hat tip to my friend Ellen
About Daisy
Daisy Luther writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
What a bunch of crap! Our Democracy was never damaged when most pioneers (who helped build our country) home schooled their children.
What an utterly idotic comment – you’re comparing now with 300 years ago?? You are the living testiment to reality of home schooling – which nothing more that the reproduction and trnsmission of ignorance
SAT/ACT homeschool scores are great and completely comparable to public school students and better in some areas. (trAnsmission btw). Ignorance is believing that those who make personal decisions that are contrary to yours are somehow inferior and unacceptable.
Well how about compared to 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago? Public schools are failing at their jobs. SAT scores are dropping as well as the standard three R’s. MOST inner city schools are in dire straits.
AND if you look at costs per pupil per school district across any state you’ll see another problem. In EVERY state you can see wild fluctuations. Some SD costs per pupil is 3 TIMES more than lowest costs…….That’s a failure to administrate. There’s no denying it.
And if you ask me the way a SD can withhold information about sexual identity is criminal. The state nor the SD do not OWN/CONTROL these children. That’s a parents job.
“She suggests that as many as 90% of homeschool parents educate their kids at home because of conservative Christian beliefs, inculcating them with the beliefs that women are subservient, science isn’t real, and white people are the supreme race.”
That may be her fear because that’s what she would do, according to her ultra left ideas.
Frankly, I don’t know anybody that believes that women should be subservient, science isn’t real, and white people are the supreme race. What a bunch of hooey.
Leave to the Harvard educated elite to paint with a wide brush all that is excellent and showing results. Just because she doesn’t like it by no means that it doesn’t work….Exactly whats wrong with our Country right now? Bet she doesn’t POTUS either….
Bartholet is typical of the satanic spawn that infest American academia. She espouses an unholy smorgasbord of immoral and worthless ideologies intended to supplant the real morals and education desired by real Ameticans.
It doesn’t surprise me that Bartholet and many other vile creatures like her are trying to eliminate home schooling by decent people, because what she offers cannot withstand a comparison. Their only option is to crush out any thought which might show their agenda for what it is.
You had me up until the point of “satanic spawn”, but that was a mere five words into your post. I’m inclined to suffer the fantasies, straw men and boog-a-boos of others until it’s dragged kicking and screaming into what was ostensibly discourse among adults. I’m then compelled to call it out if/when the superstition that is its driving force rears its ugly head. If you’ve something of substance to contribute, please do. But the monster hiding under your bed at night can hardly be considered as same. BOO!!!
Some law professor. She should know presumptive laws are unconstitutional
sylvia, it should be pretty easy to guess by now that vile, hate filled slime like this “professor” don’t give a frogs fat rear end about the Constitution. These are the same pretzel logic psychopaths who think the Constitution somehow “protects” abortion on demand, but can’t seem to figure out what actual words like “shall not be infringed” mean.
@ sammy : ????
Just a bit of clarification for your article… Evergreen College is located in Olympia, WA, and is not a university.
Thanks – I’ll update that.
It’s really-Really-REALLY sad what fantasies are induced in the human mind by a constant diet of drugs and Communism. I feel sad for this poor deluded soul.
As a Conservative Christian retired Hospital Chaplin, I have always read that home schooled kids do much better on tests than Public school kids.
What is racist about the Golden Rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself ” ?
“Do unto others as…” is the Golden Rule, fyi You’re quoting Jesus from the Book of Matthew.
It’s always about control with these liberal “progressives”. They find the idea of freedom repugnant – which is why they embrace socialism and communism. Along with fascism and monarchy, these are totalitarian systems of governance that absolutely kill the human spirit and force one into serfdom. They are the absolute worst forms of government you can hoist on people but they love it. They are evil.
This Harvard professor who is supposed to be so smart just proves that Einstein was right when he said, “The difference between genius and stupidity is Genius has it’s limits.” He also said, “Two things are infinite, the universe and stupidity and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Kids turning their parents in, sounds a lot like Nazi Germany.
You will find this article to the point:
Ted Cruz bashes Harvard over insane article calling for a ban on homeschooling
https://therightscoop.com/ted-cruz-bashes-harvard-over-insane-article-calling-for-a-ban-on-homeschooling/
Plus 131 comments, & counting…
Including this one:
Finrod Felagund • 5 hours ago
“I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.” — William F. Buckley, 1963
–Lewis
So oowwall dah rest of ‘um innat phone book went to Haaahhh-VID, did dey? Oh dat’s NICE.
I’m more than disappointed with this entire article.
Daisy, you’ve managed to show only the worst portions of this issue.
Harvard has made some decent points as have you but you’re both right and wrong.
Not everyone is capable of providing a decent home education. I’ve seen people who do magnificent jobs homeschooling but they make sure their children participate in school sports and or other events so they are socialized. I’ve also seen home schooled children who have no social skills, putting it mildly, and believe women are subservient to men. They also had nothing but the barest exposure to science, advanced maths and physical exercise.
I think home schooling should mandate some contact with “normal” schools for part of their day, 1/2 a day twice a week or something similar so children learn other views, that their are other races and religions and none are bad and they learn social skills they’ll have to have to get by in the world.
There are always fanatics and it seems that is what this article is about. There is one tiny blurb towards the end that was rational but the hype and fear had already been screamed from the roof tops.
No side is completely right or wrong. Take the information here with a cup of salt and if an amendment or bill is generated, call and or write your representatives and clearly tell them your position. Taking action is where we can change what we don’t like. If you won’t take action, then you can’t complain.
“normal” schools? Keep YOUR bigotry off of MY children.
You had me until you said “mandate some contact.”
I’m not a fan of anything people try to mandate. The homeschool parents I know do involve their kids in extracurriculars. My homeschooled daughter and I spent a lot of time traveling. She can converse with anyone about a wide variety of topics, is not a racist or a bigot, and can handle common-sense issues with aplomb. She’s more well-read and a better conversationalist than most adults I know.
The solution is never to “mandate” things.
I agree. Mandate was a very poorly chosen word. I like it as little as you. I do have to say that some parents who homeschool don’t even consider socializing their children so maybe some guidelines as to how to provide a well rounded education.
I do wish more schools had classes in balancing check book, seeing on a button, how to make a few simple meals, how to budget money. Basic life needs. These may not be perfect examples but you get my meaning.
Thanks for catching that Daisy.
Sammy, By “normal” I meant schools where many children attend. And I am not a bigot.
This is the institution that was financed to produced medical studies to promote a high carb low fat diet as healthy. Which in reality, as it turns out, is the exact opposite for good health which has resulted in a cancer pandemic.
Liars and Thieves. Harvard can burn to the ground for all I care.
JM
Wrong, show me proof of the dribble you profess. I had one child and homeschooled that child K-12.
The thinking that the child will not be socialized and fit for society is fear driven by the ignorant. I’ve faced off with many having
you’re same attitude. The Harvard professor that wrote this should needs some education on the subject. She is putting labels on parents wishing to home school and it needs to stop. Yes, she has an expensive degree, she passed a test. She should not be condescending about her particular views on the subject of home schooling. Her diatribe is exactly that, her views.
You simply can not put a blanket ideology that every child is the same, so therefore only the State MUST educate our children.
Private schools are cost prohibitive for many, leaving the public schools as the main educational option. There must always be other options available for educating our youth. Making the choice to homeschool was a good fit for our family and our right as parents. My child is currently in collage and because of Covid-19 will not be able to walk the stage for graduation.
Yes, there are families in the homeschool community who shelter their kids too much so there are not the social skills there they should have, there are not a huge number of those families and that is somewhat extreme. On the other side of the coin, there are special needs kids who will always struggle with social skills to the degree of what their special needs are. Some kids with special needs may struggle with social skills when the regular public meets them and are unaware of their special needs because they don’t stand out in meeting them.
Mandating is what the public school does already…I know you said that mandating wasn’t the right word….but we homeschool because we have the freedom to teach according to what our children need and their interests. I taught other views to my son so that he could understand both sides and talk respectfully and intelligently to people and he does. He is very social and can talk to children and adults of all ages. We have also exposed him to various different settings such as sports, homeschool groups, enrichment programs etc. as well. The resources for homeschooling are endless at home and outside of it.
This information from Harvard on homeschooling has come across my email from several organizations. So Daisy isn’t the only one concerned about it. A huge number in the homeschooling community are. The idealogy is a bit extreme from this Harvard group. I am concerned that homeschooling will be under larger attack just as a result of COVID-19 as it was prior just in my state alone. Homeschoolers in my state come out in full force when there is a bill that threatens their liberties, unfortunately, the last two sessions of our legislature ignored everyone who had large concerns and kept shoving bills through. This has been threatening our freedoms in many areas besides homeschooling.
Curious that the professor and Harvard are all about ‘diversity’ but apparently ‘diversity’ is a definition/model that they themselves have created and imagined and their ridiculous arguments are treading on cunning rights violations. Can’t tell you how many public school children today are unsocialized, illiterate and involved in drugs, sex and told by school teachers they are ADD/ADHD etc and medicated with harmful drugs when they are just active children. Harvard professors know that homeschool SAT/ACT proficiency is as good as/better (in some areas) as public schools (including sciences and mathematics) . You feel that homeschool children should spend some days in public schools….perhaps public school children should be homeschooled for the same amount of time to promote a diverse learning environment. Why is it that in a free Republic, contrary views are so abhorrent and must be stopped at all costs?
Joseph Stalin quote “Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his/her hands and at whom it is aimed.”
There are pros and cons to both types.
I’m a very firm believer that just because the state teaches your children it doesn’t remove your responsibility to teach them as well in any way, shape or form. The fact the the state is allowed to teach anything outside of science, math, english etc is a failure of parents to be engaged at board meetings, teachers meeting etc.
On the flip side of the coin it is the homeschool parents to teach uncomfortable subjects including sexuality topics because they will be encountered. They must figure out a way to replace the social aspects as well.
I raised mine in public but we had many conversations and often disagreed with the public schools. We raised thinkers and doers.
I don’t envy any parent these days in this complex world.
One must choose carefully where they live in either case. If your liberal then round here ain’t gonna work if your conservative then south kommiefornia ain’t gonna work. Too many want it both ways and are unrealistic. We school shopped and then decided on a house and I dealt with the work drive for 15yrs till they graduated. That’s the priority. Most look for well “looks” and funtime then try and make the child and beliefs fit which doesn’t work well.
Kinda like HOAs and being into preparedness. You went for appearances instead of where you can have chickens, raise a HAM antenna and a fenced in gated front yard whereas I might look at an ugly neighbor but no one cares bout my storm shelter placement, giant water tanks, antenna, chickens, deer cleaning, welding etc.
Priorities
Superb reply!
I agree with every one of your points.
Elizabeth Bartholet is a hate filled bigot control freak. She is yet another slave licking the boots of America’s wanna be police state rulers, and trying to put all the rest of us in the chains she loves so much.
Why is she flipping out NOW especially? Simple: because with millions of children being educated at home, there are now millions of parents starting to wonder “We’re doing most of the work now, so why do we need the schools in the first place? And all the folks who ‘work’ in district offices, and are not even actually in a classroom: why are we paying the likes of them a fat salary?”
Why indeed? Between state, local and federal spending, America spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on “education”. And for all that money, we get piss poor mediocre results, a whole lotta grandstanding and virtue signaling, and almost NOTHING done about the bullying that has been rampant in the schools since I was a boy. My oldest child has a recurring assignment in his social studies class about how staying at home has affected him. EVERY SINGLE TIME, part of his response is to write “I haven’t been bullied once this whole week”.
One last thing: I’m not a Christian, but my wife is. We have never once argued over religion, which is how America is meant to be. Perhaps a big part of Mzzzzzzzzz. Bartholet’s hatred is that she is either an atheist, or a member of a religion that specifically hates Christianity. So in other words, she gets to vent her bigotry, and dress it up in a lot of high sounding words. She can get bent!
Yet another professional student with no experience in life outside of a university would have that attitude wouldn’t she.
Unfortunately a person with no real life skills, no real knowledge, no life, probably NO CHILDREN & definitely NO God will be hailed as an “expert” & given a voice by TPTB.
An antichrist soulless mouthpiece for an antichrist soulless system….for the greater good of course.
THEIR greater good not ours.
“conservative Christian beliefs, inculcating them with the beliefs that women are subservient, science isn’t real, and white people are the supreme race”. Uh, there are always outliers and will continue to be with or without school requirements. In general, I don’t know ANYONE who believes that way, it is absurd.
Further, the “bad influences” tend to come more from outside the home, peers, schools, television AND schools are all to anxious to label every normal, albeit rambunctious, child as having ADD or ADHD or some special needs that require them to be sedated, er I mean medicated. Just NO!
Statistics have proven that home schooled children excel academically overall compared to public educated children. They are also proven overall to be well adjusted socially. The research is out there for anyone who cares to know the truth.
Exactly. DH and I rode the first wave back in 1986 all the way to 2008. We only ever felt threatened during the Clinton administration. As a middle-school science teacher in LA, DH came home one day when the boys were very young and declared that our children would never set foot in a public classroom. (Bad day, Babe?) So they never did until college. Coming up through the pioneering ranks we saw beautiful things that the homeschooled can do. It became a rich way of family life that got us through many days when we wanted to throw in the towel. The oldest is a heart-surgeon’s assistant. The second is an airline pilot. The third manages a nursing care facility. The fourth is career navy. All strong family men with well-educated wives. Lotsa a grands because they too wanted a strong family life. And, there’s the point. Ms. Harvard doesn’t want a strong family life. She wants dedication to The Village without question. As for science, facts are facts and theories are not. The wise can discern the difference. Our Christian curriculum was so very well written so that the facts were enjoyable and remembered. The boys scored well into the 90 percentile on all their SATS. But always poorly in spelling. I tried so many programs. There really is a spelling disability! I relaxed when a girlfriend who worked for Boeing as a mechanical engineer said she wrote all her department reports because her boss couldn’t spell!
I’ll stop this rambling after one more story because it is so current. I met a new and very young homeschool mom who said they pulled their second grader out of school because he came home one day to tell her that his teacher told him he could be a girl if he wants. The boy later asked his parents why they didn’t homeschool from the beginning. Clearly some kids are not comfortable with the new style of Village curriculum and neither are the parents.
Ms Harvard’s agenda is so obviously a progressive political one that seeks to crush every child into a lockstep mold with fear begging to be crushed so. It’s merely National Socialist Redux.
Quite frankly, I could not have asked for a better career. Kids flourishing and no regrets!
Daisy,
Your comments are justified. Regardless whether homeschooled children are less/more socially adjusted, smarter/dumber, or more successful/unsuccessful later in life, it is the parents right to determine the outcome. PERIOD. Both my sons were homeschooled and public school graduates. That was up to ME to decide, not the state or federal government. God Bless Texas for some of the best homeschooling laws and support for parent/teachers in the nation! Timing is everything and this article comes across as a knee-jerk reaction to the millions of parents that are home schooling right now. Do we really need our kids to be indoctrinated by socialist, communist, facist “professors” ? Or should we just eliminate the Department of Education (& it’s billions of taxpayer funded budget) and let each state/county/town determine how to best educate their kids? This woman underscores the importance of over education versus common sense, which you just can’t teach.
No, I believe homeschooling is excellent for kids. You stop very painfool school bullying which can cause a lifetime of pain. I witnessed school bullying and I’ll never forget it. I wish I had stopped it but like other people, I simply gawked which I deeply regret. Another time one guy was bigger and tougher than me (I was only 13 at that time.) Barely had hair on me you know what, yet.
Bet this doesn’t happen with homeschooling.
BTW I saw this bully years later and I never (I knew him only casually) said hi or acknowledged him. He seemed hurt that I ignored him but too bad. I think he knew.
Another time some wise guys tried to cause trouble at me in class and some other big guy (and I really did not know him well) and to my surprise turn around told them to shut up and leave me alone which they did and never bothered me again.
You think this stops after school? Nope. You need to learn how to handle it. This is one if the social issues and exposures needed.
There isn’t an environment where there’s not Alphas and Betas and bullies. We all face it. Every single one of us because there always someone bigger, faster, smarter and stronger and they aren’t always good folks. That’s real life.
True that. The reason I did not acknowledge the bully (a casual acquaintance) was that he beat my friend standing next to me. I don’t know why. He just did not like him.
He came up to him and smacked him in the nose with one punch and my friend went down and got up with a bloody nose. I was shocked because it happened so fast and with no warning and my bully casual friend just walked away.
You don’t go down like that. A bloody nose is no reason to stay down. You might get that a.. whopped but you fight and make them earn it. You might get surprised and win but either way you fight.
If he’s your buddy then you let him go down like that then you are going to be limited in life cause you won’t make it as a LEO or military. We might get whopped but we will laugh at it later over a beer. You 2 might just teach him that y’all aint the ones.
You don’t let innocent folks take a beating. Be a sheepdog. MT_U
It’s the same in life. They sue you then go to court and take it all the way. Just because they have money and an attorney doesn’t mean you don’t fight if your in the right.
Boss craps on you speak up but in a manner and in private that doesn’t cause an immediate scene that allows them to justify firing you. But you don’t allow them to treat you disrespectfully if your not in the wrong. Now if you are take your licks and move on to better yourself.
The list goes on.
This guy did. I remember he was on all fours and when he got up his nose was bloodied and I remember my casual bully friend walking away.
My friend was not a very strong guy and kind of skinny. Maybe he did it to prevent getting further injured or telling the bully to leave him alone. I don’t know and never asked.
I was only 12 or 13 years old at that time and just remember being shocked because I never thought my casual bully friend was actually like that.
It’s quite different when you are there, ya know?
It’s simple really. Homeschooling teaches children how to think for themselves which is a threat to government schooled liberal progressive brainwashing. When people are taught they don’t have to take care of themselves because the government will do so they have taken one step through the doorway of
Socialist hell.
The author of this diatribe against homeschooling is a perfect example of liberal progressive bias in action. It’s perfectly okay to say or think anything–so long as you agree with her. If you don’t you are a racist, misogynistic, barbarian neanderthal.
We have 3 sons, now 35, 37, & 39. All three homeschooled. The oldest has an MBA from a well known university, the middle is an engineer, graduated from an ABET school, the baby of the family is a medical doctor, specifically a radiologist. All three have no school debt.
I love homeschooling because I can tailer it to each of my children. My first two children are twins. My daughter graduated at her sixteenth birthday ( two years early) but she is driven and loves to learn. Her twin brother, took a year and three quarters longer to finish highschool. He’s just more methodical, and that’s okay. My youngest of my five has eye issues which are hampering his school. So he’s 8 and just now really starting to read, but is amazing at math. I love that I can give a little slack while challenging him in other areas.
I have a good friend who home schooled his children.
I found them to be well socialized, mature for their respective ages, well spoken and well read.
They had their own student council. Their own sports teams. Even their own band.
They all scored better than their public school counter parts, and the two in college did very well. The third, she graduates “high school” next year.
As for public schools, there are some very good ones, and some not so good ones.
I had some very good teachers. And some that were not so good.
A lot of it also had to do with my teachers superiors/admin the guidance they passed down or what support they gave them or lack there of.
What I do know is public school teachers have a daunting job. The expectations place on them I think are sometimes unreal. Their job is to teach. Not parent. And their hands are tied many times when it comes to how to handle a disruptive student in the classroom.
Daisy, love your work, quote rewritten by a would be commenter: These parents are committed to homeschooling because they reject fringe, Democrat culture and values and want to ensure that their children have the choice to adopt their own particular religious and social views after being presented with that choice. Many belong to God….they reject the value of dependent thinking about values and aims in life, they oppose subservience to quasi-scientific methodologies. I was raised Catholic but years ago. Everything these people say is a twisting of the truth. I have no experience with homeschooling. That’s my 2 cents and hope you and all those that post “alternative”, or otherwise sane and common sense until recently content will continue to do so. Thanks.
It is much simpler than any of this. From first hand experience :
In a European country that has obligatory state schooling, if you do not enroll a child, then they send people to investigate your circumstance . If that is all in order apart from schooling, they first warn you informally. Then they next ask you to discuss with social services in their setting. If you do not go, they send a formal request to do so, in this case pencilled in were the words ” Or we will use force “. At the meeting they tell you literally, and without introduction, and without you having said or done anything to incite them, three to one ( lawyer, psychologist, and social worker), that had you not turned up to that meeting they would have broken into your home and taken one of your children, and transferred thart child to a care home two hundred miles away. They then say, between criticising you in whatever way they feel to, that unless you sign a legal agreement to place the child in school within two weeks, they will still do that. They also tell you you cannot leave the country till the end of that school term.
This is what happens when the law says you are obliged to enroll your child in state education. The parent in question is, or was, impartial to either form of schooling, but now only sees children in formal schooling as having been forced there by authority, only sees the parent’s choice of formal schooling as one that has been forced on them by similar threats.
That is very simply why home schooling should be allowed, because obligatory formal schooling gives licence to the likes of the above.
Elizabeth Bartholet and “academy” advocate state kidnapping of children. The first thing that came in my mind:
Edith Piaf Le Ca Ira It’ll Be Fine French & English Subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9VoRmjxvPs
When I removed my youngest daughter from the public school system, the main reason was because critical thinking was discouraged. “If your daughter didn’t have to question everything, her grades would be higher,” the principal informed me at the very last school meeting I’d ever attend. “She always has to ask questions. She refuses to simply absorb the information.”
Wow! There’s a perfect encapsulation of the worthlessness of public schools. Perhaps in some perverse way you could thank the principal for making the decision to yank your daughter out so easy!
In fact, “worthlessness” doesn’t fit the bill; public schools are actively damaging to growing children. It’s a crime that parents (along with everyone else) are taxed to death to pay for the bloated school budgets whether or not they send their kids there.
I attended private school my whole life, from preschool through graduate school. Then I was a public school teacher for many years in a wonderful, top notch school district. I am incredibly grateful to my parents and for my teaching experiences.
While I support parents’ rights to choose to homeschool, I don’t believe all parents can do a stellar job homeschooling. At the same time, I had students who floundered even in an amazing school because their parents weren’t involved, were too distracted, had all the wrong priorities, and so on. Parental involvement and dedication are key.
Personally, if I was to homeschool my daughter, she would miss out on socialization, and not do well in math and science (they’re my weak subjects!). I’m being 100% honest and realistic that I couldn’t give my daughter everything she would need in those subjects. My husband and I plan to be involved in her formal education and prefer if she attended private school as we fortunately did. There are pros and cons, benefits and drawbacks to all educational systems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHI5NIlD6aU
This article reminds me of this Pete Seeger song “What did you learn in school today?”
“Well done is better than well said” – Benjamin Franklin. You managed to pull both off here Daisy; homeschooling your daughter and educating your readers.
I home schooled my twin daughters in 7th and 8th grades. Avoided a whole lot of problems that other parents and kids had to deal with, and taught basic common sense skills in addition to all the districts curriculum without the indoctrination. They learned critical thinking skills, and to this day are smart, independent young ladies.
I read the paper, everyone should It’s very schizy. One the one hand, they are against homeschooling because it does not allow the state to indoctrinate the students according to whatever zeitgesit is loosened upon the academic community at that time, but then state that the “reason” to forbid homeschooling is they want to expose the students to a “wide variety” of experiences. Presumably, none of them would be the experiences the kids would get at home.
Daisy, I absolutely love you. Thank you so much for this. I was homeschooled from pre-k through 12th grade, and went on to graduate from a private university with honors. The spring before I would have started kindergarten, a 6 year old stabbed another 6 year old on the playground at recess, at the school I would have attended. My mother said, “Over my dead body,” and that was that. This was in 1990 – homeschooling was NOT cool, and was definitely unpopular. We got criticized by everyone we knew – family, friends, everyone! Especially over “socialization.” But my mom stuck to her guns and told them all that public school was not the only way to teach a kid social skills. All 4 of us have gone on to lead groups, teach classes, perform publicly, and have very successful lives and careers. I now homeschool my 2 daughters, and I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world. My kids are smart, well informed, curious, and well spoken. And you will never convince me that all the kicking a screaming about how every child needs to be in public school is any more that a desperate attempt at total control over the minds of the next generation. I know too many parents who have told me that their child was graded down or punished in some way for challenging the ideology being taught by the teacher. Are there bad, lazy homeschool parents? You bet! But I would argue the majority of us do it because we are passionate about raising bright, responsible kids in an increasingly screwed up world. Keep up the good work Daisy. You’re awesome!