There's No Place Like Home - (The secular case for home schooling)

WSJ.com ^ | May 21, 2004 | Diana West

[UnklGene]

There's No Place Like Home - (The secular case for home-schooling.)

BY DIANA WEST Friday, May 21, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

Am I missing something? A couple of prominent Baptists have crafted a resolution for next month's Southern Baptist Convention that will urge the 16.3 million members of the denomination to pull their kids from the nation's public schools. Why? The schools are "neutral with regard to Christ" and therefore "anti-Christian." And that's not all. Because "government schools" are, as the resolution puts it, "by their own confession humanistic and secular in their instruction," they are therefore "officially Godless."

What strikes me, according to these same criteria, is that "government schools" have been anti-Christian and officially godless since, lo, the middle of the 19th century. That was when reform-minded educators such as Horace Mann began trying to accommodate increasing numbers of Catholics and Jews in the public schools, fusing a nonsectarian Protestant piety with the more humanistic, even secular, moral lessons of republican idealism. Until now, however, there have been no calls from conservative Christians for a mass exodus from the public schools.

This is what makes me wonder if I am missing something. That is, maybe there is more to Southern Baptist discontent than that the godlessness of the public schools. The fact is, such schools are hardly places devoid of worship. Indeed, "religious" is probably the best adjective to describe their fervent allegiance to the beliefs and precepts of what is known as "political correctness" on display in classrooms across the nation. Maybe it is this new religious devotion to a leftist cultural ideology--which today's schools preach and which yesteryear's schools did not--that Baptists now find "anti-Christian."

In the aftermath of the so-called culture wars, such sectarian strife is hardly newsworthy anymore--unless, of course, it's affecting your own little kids. And maybe that's where I come in. I'm not a Baptist, but I added my twin fifth-grade daughters this past year to the estimated 1.7 million to 2.1 million students who, according to the Oregon-based National Home Education Research Institute, are educated at home. (In 1999, the year of the most recent government survey, the U.S. Department of Education counted 800,000 home-schooled children.) "Secular" or not, the newish orthodoxy in the public schools is what ultimately sent me packing. This decision was not made in despair. As anti-Christian and officially godless as Baptists would find the excellently rated, wealthy and very white public elementary school in Montgomery County, Md., that my daughters attended last year, it eventually inspired in me a deep and abiding faith: I came to believe there was no way on, er, God's green earth that I could possibly teach my girls less than they learned in that school.

This translates into the most frequently cited reason for home-schooling. According to the 1999 Department of Education survey, 48.9% of the parents who home-school do so because they believe that they can give their child a "better education at home." Religious reasons, contrary to the conventional wisdom, are cited 38.4% of the time, making them the second most common reason. (A "poor learning environment at school" ranks third, with a slew of other reasons rounding out the list, among them student disability, the unaffordability of private school, a parent's career, a child's choice and the parental desire to choose subject matter.)

For me, the decision to educate the kids at home didn't crystallize right away. Truth be told, I was almost willing to give a pass to the Maryland public-school teacher who taught a storybook version of Christopher Columbus through the eyes of a native girl who peered through a palm frond at the "awkward" Spaniards setting foot on the New World only to laugh at their "funny" clothes. Given the triumph of the PC order, there is an argument to be made that the Klutzing of Columbus, and worse, has become an unavoidable part of modern-day education--a requirement that may be balanced by intense de-programming sessions at home.

But Columbus was just the beginning. Thanksgiving, as described in a holiday assignment to read "multicultural stories of family and immigration," became "a time when families get together to celebrate their traditions and their heritage." It was the "their-ness" of the formulation--as opposed to the "our-ness" of the holiday--that could make any happy thanks-giver choke on the stuffing...

[genghis]

I teach high school.
I tell people there are two things all students learn.
1- How to be dependent on someone else. Just shut up and do what the teacher says. Awesome lesson if you are going to work on the assembly line at the gm plant for 40 years, not so good for anyone else.
2- How to hate learning. Just think about how many 5 year olds love reading, now after 10 years of school, how many 15 year olds love reading?
The 2 most destructive lessons anyone can learn is exactly what is taught in nearly every school in this country.

[azcap]

If you knowingly send your child to a place where they will be harmed is that not child abuse?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

How are the mighty fallen!

Political Correctness exists to mask and indeed destroy the distinctive American culture. That culture celebrated Christianity but did not seriously impose it on anyone. That culture is now broken by those who presumed to superior virtue over it, and who aggressively limit the venues in which Christianity may be affirmed.

And who are now shocked to learn that anti-Christian behavior occurs in a prison under the supervision of American GIs. What's the big deal? It's all about sex . . .

[Lizavetta]

Indeed, "religious" is probably the best adjective to describe their fervent allegiance to the beliefs and precepts of what is known as "political correctness" on display in classrooms across the nation

Good point. Why are people hysterical about dangers of fanaticism to God but oblivious to the dangers of fanaticism to the State?

[manic4organic]

Bump for later read

[watchin]

"school isn't necessarily the best place for learning"

A fine example of understatement.

[Born Conservative]

[Aquinasfan]

Why? The schools are "neutral with regard to Christ" and therefore "anti-Christian." And that's not all. Because "government schools" are, as the resolution puts it, "by their own confession humanistic and secular in their instruction," they are therefore "officially Godless."

We're supposed to find this humorous, I guess. The purpose of life is to know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy forever with him in the next. The purpose of true education then is to help students achieve this, their final end. Education without God is child abuse. The Baptists are right.

[Aquinasfan]

I teach high school. I tell people there are two things all students learn. 1- How to be dependent on someone else. Just shut up and do what the teacher says. Awesome lesson if you are going to work on the assembly line at the gm plant for 40 years, not so good for anyone else. 2- How to hate learning. Just think about how many 5 year olds love reading, now after 10 years of school, how many 15 year olds love reading? The 2 most destructive lessons anyone can learn is exactly what is taught in nearly every school in this country.

Ever read The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto? He's a former teacher who came to the same conclusions.

[EdReform]

Ping

[tuesday afternoon]

Bump.

[2Jedismom]

[aloysius89]

bttt

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[ladylib]

Now I know why in many "good" districts most 4th graders do well on reading tests but by the time senior year rolls around, reading scores are down in the dumps.

Seems like kids just deterioriate after thirteen years of
"education."

[ladylib]

"Given the triumph of the PC order, there is an argument to be made that the Klutzing of Columbus, and worse, has become an unavoidable part of modern-day education--a requirement that may be balanced by intense de-programming sessions at home."

It's ashame kids have to listen to PC garbage 7 1/2 hours a day and then have to go home and be deprogrammed by Mom and Dad for another hour. I've seen it done when my niece attended public school. I believe the term is "cognitive dissonance" -- when a child learns one thing at school and is taught another by his parents at home. The school is putting a wedge between the child and his parents.

[P8riot]

I came to believe there was no way on, er, God's green earth that I could possibly teach my girls less than they learned in that [public] school.

AMEN.

[little jeremiah]

I agree with your comments 110% if possible. Since the schools aren't teaching that, in fact, the opposite - I call them "slaugherhouses". Schools are slaughtering the inherent seedling desire for God that exists within the hearts of everyone. That seedling is getting trampled, uprooted and poisoned, and by the time kids go through the grinder for 12 years, they are committed little demoniac miseries, much of the time.

Even a very good home atmosphere cannot totally counteract the horrible effect of government indoctrination centers. After all, the kid is there awake more hours than at home.

You should read that article about the ex-Marine father living in the Portland, OR park with his daughter for 4 years, he taught her himself solely with the Bible and encyclopedias - her comprehension and learning is college level and she's 12 years old. It's a new article today. It's a great story, and shows how homeschooling with nothing is better than a fancy school with millions of dollars of equipment.

[Esther Ruth]

"Until now, however, there have been no calls from conservative Christians for a mass exodus from the public schools."

I think conservative Christians tried very hard to be patient, long suffering, tried to change things while still a part of it, they tried to remain salt in the world, TILL it became so absolutely absurd and such an obvious and blatant assault on everything that we know is right. The left has not let up, they are just getting worse, much worse, so much so we walk around w our jaws on the ground in astonishment at the next stunt they continue to pull on our children. We were patient, very patient - to patient I think, and we can no longer be part of this crime they are committing on our children.