Posted on 05/11/2004 8:39:01 AM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross
Homeschool Horror Divinely ordained education, taught by martyrs
BY QUINN COTTON
You know how there are terrorist cells embedded throughout the world? Well, in my neighborhood we have numerous "homeschool" cells humming in the cul-de-sacs. They're almost as scary as the terrorist ones in some ways -- and they definitely have some traits in common with them.
When we first moved to Charlotte, the houses next to us, behind us, and diagonally across the street all contained children who mysteriously never seemed to leave home, and mothers with glazed expressions on their faces. The whole set-up of moms stuck with their school-age kids 24/7 gave me the willies, and that was before I even had one of my own.
Middle class areas seem to be magnets for little suburban schoolhouses. Even though there must be homeschooling pockets all over Charlotte, somehow I don't picture your basic Ballantyne babe risking breaking a nail on a chalkboard in the bonus room, or skipping a tennis set for an educational excursion to the sewage plant. Likewise, I doubt many Belmont moms miss a beat packing those kids off to public school. It's the middle class that gets suckered into the myth that mothers and older children can survive being together all day without somebody being strangled. The true "haves" and "have-nots" know better.
What's scary is that a lot of the homeschooling faithful are as fueled by a fanatical, religion-based belief in their mission as Islamist terrorists, and seem to be just about as brainwashed. Sometimes I even wonder if they're a manufactured race along the lines of the Stepford wives in Ira Levin's book, but assembled in fundamentalist Christian churches instead of family basements. Like the Stepford robots, they're programmed to fulfill their husbands' fantasies, only in this case it's their role as the Ultimate Selfless Mothers.
Other times I feel like the heroine in another famous horror story by Levin, Rosemary's Baby, at that chilling moment when she puts together the anagram "All of Them Witches" and realizes it refers to her seemingly harmless neighbors. Some of the homeschooling moms (HMs) are kind of witch-y, with the uncut hair and the long skirts because pants on females are unholy, but the description that really applies to this coven is "All of Them Zealots."
They're not only terrorist-like in their conviction that their calling is divinely ordained, homeschoolers also often have a broad martyr streak. Rather than suicide bombings, though, they commit "suicide book-learning," sacrificing their own lives to teach their kids. I've known one or two to get pregnant as an excuse to get out of homeschooling hell, but the true martyrs keep right on instructing, with the newest little pupil glued to their breast.
Beyond a certain age, children and mothers are just not meant to be isolated together. It's unnatural. Keeping the kids at home might have worked back in the Stone Age, but cave women would've at least had each other for company, and I bet they made damn sure the youngsters stayed off in a group together while they grunted gossip and drank their Cro-Magnon coffee.
Kids need their teachers to be adults, separate from their mothers. That way they can idolize or despise them apart from a parent figure, and don't have to depend on one person for everything they require. Did a parent of yours try to teach you to drive? How'd that go? 'Nuff said.
All young animals must be immersed in a mass of their peers so they can figure out what it means to function as a member of the larger group. Believe me, I'm aware that homeschooling families get their children together, since occasionally there'll be a flood of them from next door scrambling over the fence to play uninvited in our yard, but being with maybe a dozen other kids once in a while doesn't do the trick. It takes serious numbers for developing humans to catch on to the nuances of accepted behavior and to have a chance to make enough friends. I just can't see homeschooling providing adequate socialization.
One of my neighboring HMs taught her two kids through eighth grade, then threw them to the wolves in public high school. The boy ended up dropping out and doing jail time, and the girl got pregnant.
Yes, I know that homeschooled kids have won high-profile academic contests, but for every homeschooler who aces a spelling bee, there's some poor child being "instructed" by a parent who's barely literate herself. Teachers in the public school system are required to have certification and college degrees, yet any yahoo can force their kids to stay home as long as they pass an annual test.
What's really scary about homeschooling is what it can do to the sanity of a mother deluded into thinking it's her Christian duty. No woman was ever meant to be trapped in a house all day with children old enough to spell "homicide."
So if new neighbors move in next door and you notice that the kids never leave for school and mom wears her hair in two braids, be afraid. Be very afraid
some of them are even....liberal! THere is actually a somewhat active thread (nowhere near as active as this one - they have around 50 posts) where they are debating the same thing.
I don't know...I've seen some of the ranting against homeschooling at other sites and it's virulenty anti-Christian. Of course it's really just another excuse to be anti-Christian, which seems to be the favorite past-time of some of the louder and screechier lefties these days. Homeschooling itself really has nothing to do with it, since they spend the rest of the time complaining that the "fundies" have taken over the public schools.
yeah, i actually thought i put DU in the sentence, but apparently I didn't.
Duh...better not homeschool. I'm barely literate...
I don't know of a single instance of a homeschool family where the father was "for" homeschooling and the mother was "against." In most cases, the mother is the one who does the research and prepares the case for the father as to why she should homeschool. It's generally the mother who convinces the father.
I've offered advice to several women (hey even some Freeper women) on the male perspective and key points that men will be interested in when discussing the homeschool option. Here are some highlights:
1. Gather the latest statistics on the achievements of homeschoolers. Facts will help your argument. Emotionalism will not. Comparison of achievement test scores is a good place to start.
2. Emphasize that you want to "educate our child at home," not that you want to "keep my babies with me." The first implies that you're taking an active stance on advancing the child's interests. The second means that you want your children to never grow up.
3. If all else fails, just start doing it. Nobody ever said you couldn't do some homeschool activities while your children are still enrolled in public school, or even before. Heck, my wife taught my son to read at age three (he wanted to read his own stories... this was not a forced thing). After that, I knew she was capable of teaching him.
4. Address how your child will have the opportunity to grow friendships outside of the schoolhouse. I didn't want my son to grow up a hermit. I wanted him to have a chance to play sports if he wanted. My wife showed me that she was concerned about these things, too, and she had a plan.
5. If you work, what is the economic impact to the family if you stay home? Have a prospective budget worked up.
6. Ask your husband to go to a local homeschool support meeting or event. Just knowing that there are regular guys with regular kids who homeschool is an eye-opener.
If this were true, this author would not have survived writing this article.
Oh it's ignored. After I transferred to the local public school from Catholic school, I got my butt kicked every day. I don't have brothers and sisters, so I was at a self defense disadvantage. My parents complained until they were blue in the face, but nothing was done.
When we moved back down here to care for my mom, my daughter ended up at the same elementary school. Because of my school experiences, I have always told my kids to hit back, school policy be damned. The way I see it, if you hit back hard the first time, chances are the bullies will leave you alone. Ironically, last year my youngest one complained that a boy was bouncing soccer balls off of her head during recess. The teacher on yard duty didn't even turn around. Her brother taught her how to throw a good punch, as opposed to hitting like a girl.
Next day she came home from school and told me that the first punch didn't knock him down, but the second one did. He never got in her way again. Teacher didn't even notice that a little girl beat up a boy.
It's easier for some teachers to ignore problems than do their job. Instead of reprimanding and punishing the instigator, they'd rather suspend the attacker and the victim.
I went through public school, and ended up quite the opposite than you. However on my 18th birthday, I registered to vote as a Republican. I was probably stoned, too. I'd rather save my youngest kid from this grief, and try and give her a better education, not to mention an appreciation for learning.
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