Why to homeschool or why not to

Lady Lydia wrote an article for Fascinating Womanhood called Home School.

The article reads:

My concern about public school began when my first child entered the fourth grade. His change in personality was alarming. He was under pressure to complete assignments, often frustrated and angry, not interested in God as he once was. I used to ask him, "Have you learned about the composer Beethoven, or the poet Longfellow? Do you read Shakespeare and do you diagram sentences? What about character training?" I was disappointed that my brilliant son was uneducated.

Does this mean, if your kid has ADD, you can happily pretend that he doesn't? It's fun what you can do when there are none of those pesky "experts" around to tell you things you'd rather not hear! So we learn slow kids need to be protected from the knowledge that they are not up to school standards by keeping them at home.

My daughter Lillibeth was only six and protested each day of school, begging to be home schooled. "You could teach me, mother," she said. She complained that school was noisy, there were not doors on the lavatories, no toilet paper and the kids weren't allowed to socialize. She cried daily and told her teacher she missed her baby brother. My heart was particularly pricked when I drove both my son and daughter to school one day and their baby brother said, "Where are sissy and Billy going?" It suddenly seemed so alien to drop them off at an institution and raise their younger brother by himself, with no one to socialize with in the day.

So the poor kid missed out on education because of bad toilets. Wow! Do they mean if you don't homeschool, you can't be with your family?

The schools had an agenda for our children that was subtly being fulfilled: Alienate them from their families and eventually reject parental authority. According to Sam Blumenfeld, author of "Is Public Education Necessary?" at the turn of the century every American could read and write and Americans were the most literate people in the world. "All of this," he says, "was achieved without public education. Taught mostly at home, no huge institution was needed to educate the child. It doesn't take a brilliant scholar to teach 26 letters and 44 sounds, yet our educators claim our children must be taught by professionals." The author, Sam Blumenfeld, advocates abandoning public education, getting into home schools and letting corporations provide higher education.

The school has an agenda? Do schools, churches or parents teach the kid more about doctrine and less about science? Obviously parents and churches love indoctrinating kids. So who has the agenda? 

In schools, there are labs, gyms, football fields, etc. But at home? Obviously Lady Lydia's schooling was so bad, she's got the mistaken impression that she can out rival Havard and Eton at educating kids.

What parents don't know is that public education's goal is to "dumb down" the public and create a welfare society or a socialistic nation. They no longer teach our children about our great republic; they teach instead how "evil" George Washington and Christopher Columbus were.

So anyone who is teaching the kid, anything other than what the Bible says is "harming the kid," by false indoctrination?

Putting all the political things aside, one must see that this is not the "only" reason to home school. For, what if the schools became "good" again. Should we send our children? Certainly not. It is not normal for children to learn in "herds," eat in "herds" and play in "herds." The family is tailor-made for the child. It contains multi-age groups to communicate with. Once in school, a child identifies with his own age group, creating a special "culture" and even language. At home the child learns about "real life;" the real world - going with mom to the bank, the post office, grocery store, visiting friends, cleaning house, etc. He cannot relate to the "real world" locked up in a classroom all day. Girls and boys develop crushes on each other in schools, causing an upheaval in their emotions.

This is crazy. Kids being with kids of their own age (peers) is bad for them. But living with only their parents and siblings gives them a well-rounded perspective? And real-life is slaving away for your parents doing all the housework? I think schools are easier on kids! And no falling in love kids. Only courtships and parent-approved betrothals allowed. Lady Lydia's exemplary daughter Lollybeth herself refused to talk to her guy until her parents allowed it...of course getting married at 19 and having 4 kids before ur 24 is very healthy.

There was a family here that was having the usual trouble with their children - uncooperative, sullen, rebellious, haughty spirit, worldly (wanting to follow current trends in dress, music, activities and even blow-ups.) She, the mom, took them out of school and tried to home school them. Friends, neighbors and relatives tried to intimidate this methods by suggestions that schools provided better science and math courses. They always reported excitedly the latest school projects in these subjects.

Next, we have to show the world wide web why we are better than the Jones by gossiping about them.

The more people we hire to raise our kids, the less respect they will have for our authority. Think of it: Daily they have a bus driver, principle, teachers, coach and on and on. Do you remember how Ann Sullivan got Helen Keller's respect? She isolated her in a cabin so that she had to obey and learn or she could not eat or drink. That child ended up loving "Teacher" because "Teacher" disciplined her.

Ah! Now we know! Its about wanting total, complete authority without any intereference from those "secular authorities." Possibilities of child molestation, emotional incest, poor education, etc, can't happen when there is total control.

So, bring your kids home from school and get them away from influences outside the home. We become bonded to those we spend the most time with. If you love life, you won't be confined at home that much in home schooling. You'll be looking at the world, attending classical concerts, jazz festivals, art shows, music lessons, antiquing, decorating and gardening.

Shucks!

Be careful with curriculum. It is only a tool. Magazines and books advocate going to all sorts of trouble and expense. Keep it simple. Reading and writing and character training are important. "School" in Greek is "schule" meaning "spare time." Greeks would go to listen to philosophers and scientists and mathematicians in their spare time. So don't feel guilty if you don't do "school" all day - your kids are still learning. Just because kids sit in a class room all day doesn't mean their learning or remembering.

Ah! Don't waste all that time with book learin'! It will rot the eyes! Do housework and become nice little house slaves instead.

 One other thing you should know about public schools. The educators use a lot of experimental psychology on our children. They believe religious children are mentally "off" and try to re-program them in classes called "talented and gifted," "Quest" and other names. My son-in-law accidentally set a field on fire, in The Dalles, Oregon when he was young and they ask him lewd and embarrassing questions about him and his parents. About the same time in Texas my daughter burned the trash out on the ranch and a little piece of paper flew out and caught the field on fire. We managed to put it out but she was merely frightened. She was home schooled. That shows you the difference between two philosophies - public school and families.

Proof: Our daughter is better than our son-in-law. Which proves the case that homeschooling is better than public schooling.