One of the scariest articles I’ve seen in a while ....

[non sociopath skin]

.... from the New Yorker, about Patrick Henry University founded by the Fundies’ Home Schooling movement and now producing Fundie Repug clones by the bushel.

What’s more Aryan than the Hitler Youth? More uncompromising than Stalin’s Young Pioneers? More doctrinally pure than Mao’s Red Guards? It’s the Patrick Henry Shrub Youth movement with their preppie uniform and their Little Black Book in their hands.

And how much more effective to “educate” these kids with Fundie propaganda in a bubble so that they aren’t “contaminated” by the plebs over whom it is Gawd’s Will that they rule.

I need a drink.
The Skin

Three times a year, the White House chooses a hundred students for a three-month internship. Patrick Henry, with only three hundred students, has taken between one and five of the spots in each of the past five years—roughly the same as Georgetown. Other Patrick Henry students volunteer in the White House.

Tim Goeglein, the Administration’s liaison to the evangelical community, said that the numbers reflect the abilities of the Patrick Henry students, who “have learned a way to integrate faith and action.” For the White House, it is also a way to reach out to its base while building a network of young political operatives.

Of the school’s sixty-one graduates through the class of 2004, two have jobs in the White House; six are on the staffs of conservative members of Congress; eight are in federal agencies; and one helps Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, and his wife, Karen, homeschool their six children. Two are at the F.B.I., and another worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority, in Iraq.

Last year, the college began offering a major in strategic intelligence; the students learn the history of covert operations and take internships that allow them to graduate with a security clearance.

All seniors do a directed research project that is designed, Farris told me, to mimic the work that an entry-level staffer would be assigned. “A whole lot of elected members of Congress started off as Hill staffers,” Farris said. “If you want to train a new generation of leaders, you have to get in on the ground floor.”


Story at:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050627fa_fact

[Stand and Fight]

1. Kick to read tomorrow. Off to bed I go.

[queeg]

2. I hear the faint clomp clomp

of jack-booted fundie legions marching down Pennsylvania Ave in D.C. some sparkling spring morning----only I keep seeing it in black and white like a newsreel

[iconoclastic cat]

9. Yep, I think that's where the pendulum is swinging.

All this will come to violence one day.

[katty]

40. Fundie Cult schooling-Robots 'R US

[funflower]

3. Patrick Henry would roll over in his grave.

[applegrove]

4. Many parents are not happy with what their kids are taught in school

You have to leave the door open. Better yet - come up with a lefty home schooling plan. And send it for free around the world!!!

[non sociopath skin]

5. I don't see an answer in fighting indocrination with indocrination.

I don't want kids innoculated with "lefty" home schooling kits any more than with repug/fundie kits I want them to begin to understand the world in all its bewildering complexity. You can't do that at home with a store-bought value system.

The Skin

[applegrove]

6. You have to leave the option open. Some parents might make better

teachers than the teachers the kids have at school. So you cannot ban home schooling. And when I say a lefty curriculum I mean one that is the norm in public schools in Canada. Where kids are taught tolerance and empathy through history and the like. I am assuming the article was on right wing schooling - where kids are taught nationalism instead of tolerance. Then there is religious schooling. As long as certain rules are followed - the parents get a pass to keep teaching them in the year to come. What works for one family may not work for another according to need.

Seems that the right is all about nationalism. The left is about tolerance and teaching empathy and how to live your life as part of a whole.

[non sociopath skin]

12. Applegrove, we've come to a pretty pass .......

.... if teaching kids tolerance and empathy in school has become the exclusive preserve of the left!

Religious schooling is bad enough but at least a range of teachers provide a range of viewpoints, however narrow the curriculum - even Patrick Henry Uni seems to have the odd token liberal. The Fundies' home-schooled kids are open to blatant indoctrination and segregation from their peers in a way that makes this kind of "education" even worse than that in totalitarian states.

Horrible!

The Skin

[funflower]

29. It's extremely difficult NOT to isolate kids in some way, whether you

send them to public school, private school or no school.

Many of the kids I know attend public school in a very affluent suburb. Unfortunately, the children there don't have a very broad range of experiences, as the school district doesn't exactly select for people on welfare, and their large peer group of affluent kids just reinforces a lot of their pre-existing ideas. Conversely, the inner-city school where I taught many years ago provided almost no exposure to anyone who wasn't poor (other than teachers, whose college degrees put them irretrievably outside of the local community). Even sending kids to a wonderful Friends school (which I'd love to do if I could afford it), provides them with a limited range of viewpoints.

Providing diversity is trickier than we think.

[non sociopath skin]

36. With respect, there's a hell of a difference between "limited viewpoints".

... and no other viewpoints at all.

The Skin

[funflower]

37. Agreed. However, providing a lot of peer reinforcement for a very

limited range of opinions creates the false impression that the person (or child) exposed to that limited range has actually been "out in the world" and therefore is actually informed.

Kinda like the MSM. You think you've actually heard a range of opinions, but in reality they all just reinforce one another. (Think "The McLaughlin Group.")

Not arguing that people should keep a child home to listen to only one adult viewpoint. Personally, I don't know anyone who does that, although I suppose it happens off in the hinterlands of Utah or somewhere.... And where it happens, I agree it is absolutely terrible.

Most homeschoolers in my relatively liberal area participate in "inclusive" (allcomers) activities, which include an extremely diverse group of people. Honestly, I think most of these kids are exposed to a wider range of opinions than the preppy kids at the local public high schools.

I do know a few serious fundies (mostly in private fundy schools or in public schools in fundy parts of the country) who I would consider to be exposed to a very narrow range of viewpoints (usually reinforced by everyone around them). I take comfort in knowing that, if nothing, else they are good readers and will one day come across DU....

[Patiod]

13. Well, it's not home schooling

But Friends schools are as close to a lefty schooling plan as you can get

In addition to basic academics, they learn great stuff - respect for that of God in every person (including themselves), nonviolent conflict resolution, respect for our earth, how there are lots of different kinds of families -- all the good values we would want our kids getting, regardless of our religion (a lot of Jewish parents feel comfortable having their kids in Friends schools).

They also put these teachings in action, requiring meaningful public service, and participating in lots of projects for the American Friends Service Committee, raising awareness of what's going on outside their own little communities.

The only problem is their astonomical tuitions...

[ArchTeryx]

22. Why is it that anything 'lefty'

...be it real estate, schooling, programs, etc, always seems to be of astronomical cost?

[applegrove]

24. Schooling should come down in cost with the internet..and the salaries

of the middle class (working class have already seen jobs go away).

[whatever4]

28. Not only that

But even the set up of school should change. The hours and school days are so far off from what just about anyone's work hours might be.

Also, Christian influences have become nothing short of blatant. School functions are held at churches. Prayer meetings, special announcements of pray meetings on school paper, and non-participating students waiting on the bus. School pin up boards with biblical quotations mostly, along with a spattering of others. We won't even go INTO the issues I've had to deal with over ADD, or simply being too darn bright, brighter than the teacher.

Ever tell a kid to measure an angle with a protractor, and then mark it wrong because he put 89 degrees, rather than the obvious 90 degrees? Yeah, that little box thing they put in the corner, if you're remembering your geometry and wondering if the 90 degree angle was a given...I looked, no box. Marked it wrong. I likely won't have heard of it, except he was so upset, his protractor DID indeed measure the angle at 89 degrees, the arguement with the teacher was taken to the pricipal. Yeah. That kind of stuff, happens ALL the time. In my GOOD school district.

And that's just my little list from my corner of the world, average middle America, in a good school district, triple A.

No guys, don't look at the home schoolers like wackos anymore. I didn't realize it was an issue, but just an fyi, from the other side looking in. I don't know if there ever were problems with homeschooling or the peole that did it, but even if there were, it's a whole new game these past few years.

And I've got to add, the mean kids you used to know, the bullies? They've gotten worse. There's a lot of kids taking a lot of anti-depressant meds, and it's not popular now to think of that as a large problem, those meds, but imho it is. The kids are meaner and there's more of them screwed up.

[suziedemocrat]

17. I've been substitute teaching, it made me think about home schooling

I used to think homeschooling was only done by very right-wing religious people, but after subbing - I think it is the way to go - if possible. You can sign up for distance learning schools online, and so many classes in schools, especially classes for the slower kids, are computerized anyway.

In the reading classes for which I subbed, kids would get a book from the library, read it every day, then take a computerized test on the book. The teacher was there for discipline. Also, they had "Accelerated Math", where kids would print out individualized instructions and assignments, fill in the multiple choice answers on a computer card, then have the computer grade the assignment and decide what the next assignment should be. The teacher might answer some questions, but mostly they worked individually and the teacher was there for discipline. When kids were sent to time-out or in school suspension, all their work was done independently without any instruction from a teacher and they were supervised for discipline alone. This really made me wonder why we need schools. The socialization the kids got in those schools was not ideal. In the high school kids took drugs and had sex AT SCHOOL. I was totally freaked out.

Maybe the schools are just too big today. Maybe a parent home schooling her children and maybe a few of her friends children would be better. Or a teacher could set up a small classroom in her house with local children? PBS is already making lesson plans available to teachers as well as home schoolers. http://www.pbs.org/teachersource My sister in law is a teacher and she thinks this is a terrible idea because of the lack of socialization. But I've read studies where the kids do not suffer by being home schooled. The home schooled kids have less socialization with kids their own age, but more socialization with kids of different ages and adults. They said it was not clear that socialization with a lot of kids the same age was better.

I wish my state (Indiana - not the most progressive) would develop online lesson plans for home schoolers and make them free to all residents. Then students with behavioral problems can be sent home to work online. This would be much cheaper for Indiana than all the money they spend on discipline. I think they could even afford to buy students a laptop and it would still be cheaper. Already, many organizations offer classes to children outside the school system. For example, Alliance Francais offers French instruction much better than you would find in most public schools. http://www.afusa.org/lear/lear.html And if more people home schooled, the communities could have sports teams for all kids, even home schooled kids.

I think the public school system is broken. Teachers are exhausted from dealing with behavioral problems. Police officers walk the halls. Principals are terrified of lawsuits. Kids often complained to me that their teachers were too lazy to grade their homework and all they did was watch movies. Kids are often anonymous if they are not high achievers or undisciplined nightmares. But most kids are B students who just might change the world someday. With homeschooling, if a child had a particular interest, he can really dig deep into a subject. In a classroom with 30 students and a set schedule - that isn't possible. I think home schooling should be looked into seriously and encouraged by the states.

Just my opinion.

[whatever4]

23. Yesterday I had that thought too

In fact, I spend a large portion of the rest of the day researching it.

I think you're right. And the experiences of the kids in my school, well, there's been this and that nothing to sue over, but always just that close to it, you know? No social skills worth anything more than their continued safety, at home. With no one to beat them, drug test them, psyche test them, or ask them to worship some colored cloth hanging from a stick on the wall. I think it might be time to let go of that poor excuse for a daily routine. I think the problems outweigh the benefits.

Not the least likely problem is that public school might soon be lost just because, with all the economic problems, it won't be sustainable. If the housing bubble busts, the taxes won't be there to support it. If oil prices jump, double or triple, it changes everything, from food prices to lost jobs, and you know public schools aren't going to fare very well in that mix. They're barely making it now. Many aren't making it anyway, for all that. Perhaps it's just as well to get the materials and learn how now, while not facing a dark mountain of other problems, serious problems like NO health care or even doctors, food shortages and learning how to do some serious gardening,and on and on. Start with the home school program now, just because it makes sense?

Some people would do it for the mandatory screenings for psychological reasons or drugs alone; what do the impending ecomonic issues do to the equation? Seems like it makes home schooling the, I would suppose, the most educated decision.

Comments are very welcomed on this!!

[applegrove]

25. Good public schools important. But really - 100 years ago it could be

8 students in a room with a local person who followed them year after year. I do think you learn personalities from teachers. But I went to a great public school and a great public high-school and I don't think that that is always the norm in the USA.

And with all this talk about the corporation streaming kids into finance at 15 years old ... or the military... homeschooling and computer schooling just may be the only way out for some people.


It shouldn't be that way. But everything that they use to indoctrinate.. we can use to teach empathy and proper character. The only problem is for kids who don't have the educated parents. Those places need great public schools. Now more than ever.

[sintax]

33. Go Here

www.albanyfreeschool.com

[funflower]

38. I absolutely agree. I strongly support people's right to choose the

path that works for them, but we do need to find a way to make that available publicly, as well as privately. I'm an ex-teacher, and I think the public schools (and the politcians who run them) could learn a lot from many homeschoolers and many alternative schools. Others, of course, are terrifying!

[ClintonTyree]

7. This sounds pretty damned horrifying....

an entire platoon of indoctrinated Christian warriors ready to step into the seats of power at a moments notice. These brain washed sycophants are drooling at the prospect of holding the reins of power in our country. This is what GWB has wrought. God's zombies feeding on the brains of Americans and keeping the hope alive for total control of government in this country.
Is there any way to defeat these un-dead? A stake through the heart, garlic, silver bullets?
These people have so defiled the religion they insist they're upholding that it's almost unrecognizable to REAL Christians.
The American Taliban is alive and well, and they're coming for YOU!

[wakeme2008]

8. EXCUSE ME,,,,HOW MANY SIGNED UP TO JOIN THE ARMY

61 graduated in 2004... Does not sound like any are in the military...


:grr:

[Theres-a]

21. Bingo!

[AndyTiedye]

39. The Crusades in the Middle Ages Ended Because All the Xtian Nutbars Went..

...and didn't come back.

Once Europe was rid of the, the Renaissance happened!

This time they don't want to make that mistake, so they are going to
force everybody else to go first. They will start up the draft, of
course (as soon as they can manipulate public opinion enough to make
the Dems take the blame for it) and keep this new Crusade going until
we're all dead.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. The college's manifesto is called "The Joshua Generation"

Stop and think, or get hold of a bible, to consider what that means. The story of Moses is all about people in slavery winning their freedom, albeit with massacres of the innocent Egyptian firstborn, courtesy of their vengeful god. However, Joshua was a homicidal war criminal, who led a band of psychopaths who frequently massacred every single inhabitant of a town, so that they could take it over. The legend of Joshua is up there with Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun. That this man considers it worthy of respect tells you a lot - this is no Christian college, it's a fascist training school.

This reminds me of 'Animal Farm' - how the pigs take a litter of puppies away, to raise them in secret, and make them their enforcers.

[ixion]

11. Animal Farm is precisely what it's like

and what the outcome will be.

This story has been repeating itself for thousands of years throughout human existence. As a species, we define it, we see it coming, and through our own collective ignorance we relive it time and time and time again. :-( :freak: :dunce:

[LibertyorDeath]

35. "it's a fascist training school." Exactly

America is on the road to Fascism

and unless the average American wakes up to this reality now

they will find themselves living it soon.

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. *shudder*

[elehhhhna]

15. Homegrown manchurian Candidates.

[funflower]

30. I thought that's what Chimpy was.

[cap]

16. this is happening all over the place and not just Patrick Henry

MercyHurst is doing the same thing in Western PA. These schools are no-nothing schools...full of well-to-do young conservatives.

The security clearance is a big deal...these kids will have a leg up over other kids who dont graduate with clearances.

Religion and covert ops arent a good mixture.

[sweetheart]

18. Perhaps that is the way

Maybe dems should start signing their kids up for schools like this.
Surely your kid is raised to such excellent standards, that they can
take a few years behind enemy lines to penetrate the veil?

We can call them "stealth republicans".

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. That's a young age to volunteer for such a horrible mission

4 years of self denial, surrounded by a bunch of Stepford students? It's not as if they can slope off to the pub in the evening to make contact with the real world again. The height of rebellion seems to be listening to a sermon on a radio, rather than in person.

[cap]

19. those young women will be no threats in 5 years...

they will be at home with the kids and no support from their husbands. So I'm not too worried about the women. The men are a concern. I think they will learn to hide their religious connections in front of non-believers.

[AmandaRuth]

26. I don't think homeschooling is the issue here

its the religious and personal intolerance these kids are taught to promote, along with unregulated capitalism.

[funflower]

31. Many fundy schools have the same "vision."

[indepat]

27. The brainwashed will do virtually everything expected of them

[Stand and Fight]

32. I got noxious reading that story...

Something about it does not sit well with me in the least bit. I think we have much to be apprehensive about, because these guys and gals are going to be dangerous and WORSE. Mark my words.

[deacon2]

34. Christian Madrasa

You can't take on the Muslim world and come away completely ignorant. Figures they'd adopt one of the core methods of terrorist indoctrination. And yes, I know there are madrasas dedicated solely to Islamic teaching. You just don't find many in Baghdad or Lahore these days.

[Up2Late]

41. I haven't read it yet , but Hanna Rosin was on The Daily Show Monday,

She said a lot of them seem fairly normal, and most of them are fans of TDS too.

[libodem]

42. That IS scary!