Homeschool Objectors ~ Why So Afraid?

{Originally written 5/2008}

(1 Peter 4:4-5) – “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to Him Who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

I knew from the moment I heard about homeschooling that that was the choice for my future family! I knew how government schools had damaged my life, my self-perception, the negative influence of peer- and teacher-pressure that nearly ruined my life; the shock of finding out, as I lived out in the world, the difference between real truth and the revisionist science and history we were force-fed in school. Coming to terms with the fact that NO WHERE ELSE in my life would everything be provided for me in one building…that NO WHERE ELSE in my life would I spend the day locked in a building with only those of my own age…that NO WHERE ELSE in my life would there be someone to spoon-feed information – true or false – into my mind as a member of a captive audience where freedom of thought and creativity was disallowed.

Was THAT really the REAL world?!

We were forced to stunt our mental and emotional growth by spending 12+ years in a false environment. It was bad enough when I went to school…it was worse when I saw my beloved niece grow up knowing all the in’s and out’s of “the system” so that her parents hands were nearly tied and they lived in fear when they needed to discipline her. And every time I go to a mall, movie theaters, a carnival, or to a park, I see for myself that the failed social, mock-educational “project” of the John Dewey’s and Horace Mann’s of the world and other elitists who envisioned a state (government) educational system that would raise “good little soldiers for the state.”

Here’s something to chew on from Chris Klicka’s excellent book, The Right Choice: Home Schooling. Did anyone ever tell you this?:

“…[E]ducation is the transmission of basic skills and values to the next generation. It is inescapably religious, and it cannot be neutral…How we educate our youth, therefore, is crucial for the future of our nation…The training of our minds ultimately affects all our action in this life…Taking place at this moment is a major battle for our children’s minds. This is a philosophical battle which has significant spiritual ramifications. The battle for our children’s minds is being waged by those who have a Christian mind-set (requiring the teaching of Scripture as the basis of all knowledge), and the humanists (who believe man is the measure of all things)….education is never neutral. Someone’s values will be applied to each and every subject…The humanists’ goal, as envisioned by many of the founders and present operators of the public school system, is to use education to manipulate and control masses of students…Today, we see the direct ‘cause and effect’ of the public school system on our youth and our nation…State education, as we know it today, did not begin to exist in the United States until the 1840s in Massachusetts. It was not until the early 1900s that state education became widespread. As a result, by the early 1900s the authority and responsibility of education shifted from the parents to the state. This shift was the beginning of the decaying process of American education…Horace Mann, called ‘the father of public education,’ led the crusade to establish a public school system throughout the country…He wanted to establish ‘a new religion, with the state as its true church, and education as its Messiah’.’” [Emphasis mine.]

Would you like to know what these founders of modern public/government education think about God and your family as pertains to their educational goals?

John Dewey: “Faith in the prayer-hearing God is an unproved and outmoded faith. There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, the immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.” [John Dewey, “Soul-Searching,” Teacher Magazine, Sept. 1933, p. 33.]

Paul Blanshard (author of The Humanist magazine): “I think that the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is 16 tends to lead toward the elimination of religious superstition.” [Paul Blanshard, “Three Cheers for Our Secular State,” The Humanist, March/April 1976, p. 17 ~~Emphasis mine.]

John Dunphy (another writer for The Humanist): “The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new – the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.” [John Dunphy, The Humanist, Jan./Feb. 1983]

How about Dr. John Goodland in his report to the National Education Agency: “Our goal is behavioral change. The majority of our youth still hold to the values of their parents and if we do not resocialize them to accept change, our society may decay.” [Dr. John Goodland, from the report “Schooling for the Future.”]

Now here are two of my “favorites.” First, from Harvard Professor Dr. Pierce in a speech delivered to over 2,000 teachers at a seminar in Denver, CO: “Every child in America entering school at the age of 5 is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future.” [Chester M. Pierce, 1973 International Education Seminar; Denver, CO ~~Emphasis mine.]

Secondly, a past state superintendent of California (from 1863-1868), John Swett, helped form the government schools. Here’s a tell-tale quote from him: “Children arrived at the age of maturity belong, not to the parents, but to the state, to society, to the country.” [John Swett, History of the Public School System of California, p. 113]

Why do government school agencies – the NEA, in particular – and others involved with our failing public/government school systems fear the GOD-GIVEN power of parents to properly educate their children? Because they know that we are raising future family leaders…future moms and dads who will actually teach their children the truths they were taught in OUR homeschools. We are raising future political leaders…future college educators…future pastors and missionaries…and those who are just plain happy with their life! Those who will influence society for the good.

In his research study, Homeschooling Grows Up, Dr. Brain Ray (National Home Education Research Institute) found that “over 74% of home-educated adults ages 18-24 have taken college-level courses, compared to 46% of the general U.S. population.” Civic involvement: “…76% of homeschool graduates…between ages 18-24 voted within the last 5 years, compared to only 29% of the relevant U.S. population…” Older homeschool grads were even more active “with voting levels not falling below 95% compared to a high of 53%…” With 73% of the more than 7,300 homeschool grads who were surveyed said that they were “very happy” or “pretty happy” with their lives! According to Dr. Ray’s study, homeschool grads are more content and happier with their lives with 95% of them being glad they were homeschooled and with 74% of those having children 5 or over homeschooling THEIR families!

I’d say that our homeschooled children ARE a threat to the bogus, damaging effects of the government schools that we have worked so hard to escape. And rightly so. Yes, someone somewhere will bring up some mal-adjusted homeschool family that they’ve heard of, but NEVER on the scale or severity of what is suffered by so many children and teens in the government schools. But when they can’t dispute the well socialized people or the excellent education that homeschoolers receive, then they have to attack us personally. And we thought we left the bullies behind when we left government schools. At least for now they can’t come into our homes…unless they are invited.

Keep them home where they belong! They are the hope of our future.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><