Wanna Be a Steader!

Homeschoolers Threaten Our Cultural Comfort ~ Article

  I don't think this guy homeschools, but he certainly has taken the time to try to understand us more than most people do.  His article is entertaining and his arguement compelling.  KW<><

You see them at the grocery, or in a discount store.

It's a big family by today’s standards - "just like stair steps," as the old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the store as she fills her no-frills shopping list.

There's no begging for gimcracks, no fretting, and no threats from mom. The older watch the younger, freeing mom to go peacefully about her task.

You are looking at some of the estimated 2 million children being home schooled in the U.S., and the number is growing. Their reputation for academic achievement has caused colleges to begin aggressively recruiting them. Savings to the taxpayers in instructional costs are conservatively estimated at $4 billion, and some place the figure as high as $9 billion. When you consider that these families pay taxes to support public schools, but demand nothing from them, it seems quite a deal for the public.

Home schooling parents are usually better educated than the norm, and are more likely to attend worship services. Their motives are many and varied. Some fear contagion from the anti-clericalism, coarse speech, suggestive behavior and hedonistic values that characterize secular schools. Others are concerned for their children’s safety. Some want their children to be challenged beyond the minimal competencies of the public schools. Concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the movement.

Indications are that home schooling is working well for the kids, and the parents are pleased with their choice, but the practice is coming under increasing suspicion, and even official attack, as in California.

Why do we hate (or at least distrust) these people so much?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return.

Just as the jealous Chaldeans schemed to bring the wrath of the king upon the Hebrew eunuchs, we are happy to sic the state’s bureaucrats on these “trouble makers.” Their implicit rejection of America’s most venerated idol, Materialism, (a.k.a. “Individualism”) spurs us to heat the furnace and feed the lions.

Young families must make the decision: Will junior go to day care and day school, or will mom stay home and raise him? The rationalizations begin. "A family just can't make it on one income." (Our parents did.) "It just costs so much to raise a child nowadays." (Yeah, if you buy brand-name clothing, pre-prepared food, join every club and activity, and spend half the cost of a house on the daughter’s wedding, it does.) And so, the decision is made. We give up the bulk of our waking hours with our children, as well as the formation of their minds, philosophies, and attitudes, to strangers. We compensate by getting a boat to take them to the river, a van to carry them to Little League, a 2,800-square-foot house, an ATV, a zero-turn Cub Cadet, and a fund to finance a brand-name college education. And most significantly, we claim “our right” to pursue a career for our own
"self-fulfillment."

Deep down, however, we know that our generation has eaten its seed corn. We lack the discipline and the vision to deny ourselves in the hope of something enduring and worthy for our posterity. We are tired from working extra jobs, and the looming depression threatens our 401k’s. Credit cards are nearly maxed, and it costs a $100 to fuel the Suburban. Now the kid is raising hell again, demanding the latest Play Station as his price for doing his school work … and there goes that modest young woman in the home-made dress with her four bright-eyed, well-behaved home-schooled children in tow. Wouldn’t you just love to wipe that serene look right off her smug face?

Is it any wonder we hate her so?

Sonny Scott a community columnist, lives on Sparta Road in Chickasaw County and his e-mail address is sonnyscott@yahoo.com. 

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 6/8/2008, section 0 , page 0

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01:03, 2008-Jun-20 .. Posted by beccasue1029

All I can say is....Um, wow! Someone needs a good slapping!

~*Becca*~

Huh?

01:36, 2008-Jun-20 .. Posted by wannabeone

Hi Becca,

I guess I don't understand your comment...slap the author or the people who don't like homeschoolers?

I thought his article was really good, especially for someone who doesn't homeschool. I have heard comments, like what he has suggested non-homeschoolers feel and say, through the whole 15 years that we've homeschooled.

I thought is was a funny, very positive article. I don't see anything "off color" about it - his numbers were correct and well researched, his observations about so many little ones growing up in day cares b/c their parents have chosen materialism over family. The only thing that might have been offensive was his closing line...but I know people do envy us our happiness and success, so I thought it was funny.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

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02:35, 2008-Jun-20 .. Posted by kim2661

Great article! Thanks for posting.
Peace and blessings, Kim

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04:29, 2008-Jun-20 .. Posted by Citygal

This is a really great article. I thought it was well-written and clever. Thanks for sharing it.
Rachel from NZ

The article explains a lot!

08:12, 2008-Jun-21 .. Posted by gokings13

A) This is a Spiritual Battle.

B) Human behavior (the flesh) and it's 'pack' mentality.

C) Did I mention a 'Spiritual Battle'?

Our 'culture / society" IS uncomfortable with Godly home educators.
If a mom at walmart is asked "why aren't your kids in school" and she retorts "because we are home educators and protectors of the planet. We spend our days learning and teaching others how to save ourselves from global warming"................Everyone, would applaud her.

BUT

The Believing mom who 'gently' says 'we home school' and smiles, instantly reveals His Spirit......and that is in DIRECT conflict with the world, and it's ways. Hence, the evil one uses the other human to spill out stupid comments like "what about socialization, what about college"....and other foolishness.((Pssssst satan uses 'christians' too!))

It's a Spiritual Battle.

((I find it funny that the author lumps us all into ***It's a big family by today’s standards - "just like stair steps," as the old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the store as she fills her no-frills shopping list.**** I have 3 kids, stair stepped by God's design, not mine, because I was not a Believer when I had them, They are clean........but they don't look a thing like this article describes!!!! So I do find it a bit tedious that he would lump us all into this category)))
Laura

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10:11, 2008-Jun-21 .. Posted by AndreaG

I think this author is very insightful. He really has described the reactions that our family gets regarding our decision to homeschool. People seem to take it almost as if we were insulting them personally because we are taking a different approach to raising our children.

Laura is so right. This is a spiritual battle.

I also found his description of a stereotypical homeschool family funny. That sure does not describe us, but it does describe many of the families in our HS group. :)

Thank you for positing this article.

Blessings,
Andrea G

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10:30, 2008-Jun-21 .. Posted by GypsyFarmGirl

Yea I think this article very well puts into place what a majority of non informed folks think about home schooling, but in a very much tongue and cheek like manner. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and the comments and cant agree more, of the reactions when I respond to folks who inquire about why the kids are with me during the day when we are out doing our grocery shopping.

JEANNIE