I am SO SICK of people claiming HSers are all RW Christians.

[unschooler]

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49900

.....That the homeschool movement is, for the most part, a Christian phenomenon should surprise no one. For Christians have been most sensitive to what the public schools have been doing since the 1960s to de-Christianize education. Children in the public schools are at risk in four significant ways: academically, spiritually, morally and physically.

(snip)

Student religious beliefs are undermined by values clarification, secular humanism, teaching evolution as fact, and making sure that God is kept out of the classroom. The student's morality is undermined by sex ed – which nowadays should be called porn ed – not to mention the rash of teacher seductions of students, plus moral relativity, homosexual teachers with their own agendas, and drug ed in which kids are taught that the decision to take drugs is part of their personal decision-making process. As for the physical risk, it can be summed up by the continued violence in schools, the shootings and stabbings that we continue to read about in our newspapers.

And that is why more and more parents are taking their children out of the public schools and educating them at home. The children who are most at risk are those from minority families who rely on the public schools to do the educating. But even more and more of these disadvantaged parents are showing up at homeschool conventions. The word is simply getting out.

Another interesting fact about homeschooling has to do with demographics. Christian homeschoolers love children and are having large families. I know of several that have 10 kids. So, while liberals are aborting their children, Christians are nurturing theirs. It turns out that the Bible is the most effective fertility pill to be had. And that augurs well for America's future.

[mzteris]

1. I think they miswrote

it should have been

. . . fundies are beating, brainwashing, and neglecting their too many (coerced into having/adopting) children, while liberal hs'ers are nurturing and educating the children they actually WANTED to have (and/or adopt).

:sigh:

those "full quivers" people give me the shivers...... :blech:

[unschooler]

3. You know. I really don't care about their brainwashed "quivers" so long

as the fundy parents are reasonably nice to them. May they live long and prosper.

I just get SICK, SICK, SICK, of still, after all these years, having to explain that NO, I don't homeschool because (a) I believe the Bible commands it, or (b) I can't afford Christian school.

Why do so many of these fundy homeschool activist types feel the need to claim homeschooling as their own? Why can't they just say there are lots of different reasons people homeschool, and that they personally do it because blah, blah, Godly, blah, blah, worldview, whatever?

Why do they seem to need to marginalize us?

[mzteris]

5. One of the problems

- as I see it - is that they're not the ONLY ones who "need to marginalize us". Just read through DU.

Especially anything written by a "school teacher". (OK - not ALL of them, but most of them.) They seem to feel threatened and/or personally "insulted" that we have chosen to homeschool. They demean us. Insult us. Insist we're incapable of being competent teachers. And baldly state that our children will grow up to be socially stunted and ignorant!

All when they know absolutely NOTHING about us, our children, or homeschooling in general.

As for the fundy vs. liberal hs'ers - well - fundies have a way of making EVERYTHING "about themselves". We should ALL be good little "Christians" - in every thought, word, and deed in every walk of life. Be it school, sports, or even the freaking grocery store!

You have to consider, though, that they've had a great deal of practice in separating themselves from reality. They are able to completely "buhlieve" things that make absolutely NO SENSE! They ignore logic and evidence and facts to embrace the sublimely ridiculous. (The Earth is ONLY 6000 years old. "God" - or the Devil - put fossils on the earth to test our faith. There is no such thing as evolution. The Bible is the literal "Word of God" and every single syllable is divinely inspired. Those contradictions? Oh - uh - those were man made mistakes. But everything else is really really true. )

[unschooler]

6. It's not just the fundies who are capable of being brainwashed

or ignorant.

Especially anything written by a "school teacher". (OK - not ALL of them, but most of them.) They seem to feel threatened and/or personally "insulted" that we have chosen to homeschool. They demean us. Insult us. Insist we're incapable of being competent teachers. And baldly state that our children will grow up to be socially stunted and ignorant!

People who believe this are either brainwashed or uninformed or both. For some reason, I expect professional teachers to be a bit threatened by us, so it doesn't seem to bother me all that much when I come across it on DU. What strikes me as inconsistent is that they object to homeschooling but not to private education in general.

Did I mention that I used to be a public school teacher? :evilgrin:

[mzteris]

7. Please note: I DID use a qualifier!

**Especially anything written by a "school teacher". (OK - not ALL of them, but most of them.**

Good thing, huh?

:rofl:

There's no "accountability" for Private schools - but they're okay with that. There's religious indoctrination in religious schools, but they're okay with that. There's "selective social association" in private schools, but they're okay with that...

It's just "homeschoolers" that gets 'em in an uproar, I reckon.

[unschooler]

8. There's "selective socialization" in public schools as well.

It's no problem to find "a school district without a Mexican" if you can afford it!

I find the "S-word" discussion especially funny, because I've been so very challenged by the extremely broad range of homeschoolers I now hang out with. Before I homeschooled, everybody I knew had clean carpets and never left the house without their makeup on. Now, well, let's say my mind has been broadened a bit. My kids have met more "odd ducks," from Muslims to Wiccans to just plain geeks through homeschooling than they ever would have in the PS system. The thing is, they are FRIENDS with all of these diverse kids, because they don't know enough to realize how "uncool" they are. If we were in public or private school, I think they would probably have selected for a much more homogeneous group of friends (just how many cute blond 10-year-old girls with a half-dozen American Girl dolls do we need in our lives?). Not that I object to American Girl dolls, mind you, or that we don't have HSing friends with truckloads of them as well. It's just nice to balance the standard suburban routine with by a little mind-stretching diversity. Isn't that what socialization is supposed to be about?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Excellent point!

I love the way these kids are so accepting of each other!

One of my son's buddies is an 8 year old Aspberger's kid. When they play pretend games together, instead of bossing one another around, they each bring their own unique spark to the play and work with those elements. It strikes me that this should be the way society works, instead of insisting that everyone must do their best to conform to this "norm" that somebody established based on "data".

This particular buddy gave my son a Sigmund Freud action figure last year for his birthday. My son thought it was hilarious, and plays with Sigmund alongside his Ninja Turtles, Ice Age guys and Biker Mice. Seems apropos.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. **Bullshit Site Alert**

Just more morans claiming homeschool as their own...they same way they claim Christianity is theirs.

Don't let them get to you. :hug:

[unschooler]

4. Good point. They also claim morality is their personal property, so

I guess I shouldn't get my shorts in a knot about this! :toast:

[frustrated_lefty]

9. Oh, too funny.

Let me see, while liberals are trying to insure their kids are knowledgable and informed, "christian" homeschoolers are killing their kids in Texas, raping their kids across the country, and poisoning the rest of us with the toxicity of their very presence.

The very thought of using the word "nurturing" in the same sentence with the names of Anne "the man" Coulter or Rush Limbaugh is quite simply ludicrous.

Let these people have their augurs and mystical foretelling, my kids are going to learn to think.

[mopinko]

10. just a bit of history, not to defend these idiots.

but when the right to homeschool went to the supreme court, it was a religious family, doing it for religious reasons. the right was upheld as a right to practice and pass on their faith to their kids.
legal protection for homeschool has spread from this.
i always hated being associated with these people.

[Nay]

12. Yes, it's how homeschooling got started as a big trend. I homeschooled

my son for first grade about 20 years ago, and the only way I could do that in Tennessee was to register as a homeschooler under the "umbrella" of a fundie church! As an atheist, I had to sign papers that said I was, basically, a religious nut who wanted Jeebus to direct my kid's education. Imagine the teeth grinding that went on while I signed.

Now, 20 years later, there are a whole host of reasons to homeschool, and a whole bunch of different people doing it, so it's much freer and legally you don't have to be sponsored by a church. That's a great improvement. I'm looking into homeschooling the grandchild if the parents so desire -- public schools have gotten much worse since my son attended, and they weren't that great back then.

[Maat]

13. One of the credentialed teachers at my kid's charter school ..

we homeschool (technically, engage in independent study) through a charter school, said it so eloquently one day, when we were doing some science work at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. She said, "This program works for parents for so many different reasons." I happily agreed.

I speak up, and try to educate people that it's not only rightwing fundamentalists that homeschool (so, I understand the OP's frustration). I run into quite a bit of ignorance.

I just wanted to check in, and extend my good wishes to all here! My daughter (now 12-1/4) is just blossoming and doing so well with this program. We've not only caught up on all of her skills, but she's zooming on ahead!

[DollyM]

14. And not all Christians who home school are fundamentalists either!

We are Christian but I do not wear my hair in a bun and can't tell you the last time I put on a skirt. There are as many reasons why people home school as there are homeschoolers. For us it was a combination of things, a poor school system with terrible leadership and a lack of good programs as well as the general concept that I could do a better job than any public school system. I love my son and make the sacrifices to do this for him. I don't teach him to make a paycheck, that puts me on a different plane with this right off the bat.
A number of home schoolers in our area are fundamentalist Christians but we also have a couple of families that are Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. They have their own belief systems that don't jive with what the public school is attempting to teach them and they want their children to have a strong basis in their own belief system.
I resent it that some people on the left try to put all who home school in this neat little right wing fundamentalist Christian package. We are all different and we all have different belief systems. The bottom line is that we are all trying to do what we feel is best for our kids by homeschooling them, whatever our belief systems.

[Maat]

15. I hear you!

In our home, all three of us (Hubby, Beloved Daughter and I) are Unitarian-Universalists (Hubby is a atheist who enjoys exploring Taoist philosophy, I'm a transcendentalist-New-Thought explorer, and Daughter is a Pagan). I attend church with quite a few liberal Christians; I love being their friend.

We ended up homeschooling, because my daughter just didn't do well in the conventional classroom, and has blossomed into a scholar learning at home. We go through a charter school, that is very supportive, and we use programs such as www.brainpop.com (when you are a member, for about $9.95 per month, the student watches a little 5-minute video about a subject, and then takes a quiz). We also incorporate conventional worksheets, etc.

I sometimes tire of having to educate people about the variety of students, parents, families, curriculum, and "reasons for" involved in homeschooling, but continue to do so anyway.

I, too, have encountered poor school situations, terrible leadership, and lax effort. I, too, believe that I can teach my daughter as well as anyone else.

That's why I will fight tooth-and-nail to preserve a parent's right to homeschool their child. Many kids have been able to get off of previously-prescribed medication after their parents decided to homeschool them. I'm able to employ very creative teaching methods that a conventional classroom just could not afford to do as frequently or to the level of quality that I expect.

Hang in there!